Do rent controls work?

Re:Do rent controls work? by joeevans1000 on Tuesday September 01, 2015 @12:30AM (#10150739)

If an 80 year old pensioner has lived in their San Francisco apartment for 50 years, but can no longer afford their rent because it has skyrocketed, what do you think should happen?

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Re:Do rent controls work? by mc32 on Tuesday September 01, 2015 @12:36AM (#10150753)

Personally? I think the state should underwrite those folks in housing set aside for retirees. Since they are retired, there is no need for them to be close to jobs --they do need to be close to medical and shopping facilities, etc, or provide those services via alternative means (door delivery, personal visits, etc.)

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Re:Do rent controls work? by joeevans1000 on Tuesday September 01, 2015 @12:48AM (#10150779)

Well, for me, cities are more than just a proximal place to jobs. They have a culture, part of which is retirees. Additionally, I think shipping off retirees (or just the poor ones, it seems) would be harsh for them.

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Re:Do rent controls work? by mc32 on Tuesday September 01, 2015 @01:04AM (#10150811)

I understand your take. And I understand people can have some attachment, but I think those emotions are temporary and can be addressed by making these alternative places attractive places --places built with retirees in mind. Lots of retirees from cold states move hundreds of miles to warmer climates --there may be some thought to attachment, but mostly they look forward to places made to accommodate them. Places where there are others just like them. An alternative which happens in places with declining populations, is retirees dying in their homes, alone, to be discovered days or months after.

The poor are another separate issue. They need to be close to jobs or at least have a way to get to jobs easily. When I was poor, I didn't care to live in a cachet neighborhood, I just needed to be able to get to my job with reasonable public transit and I wanted to feel the area was safe. Of course, given the alternative, I'd want to rent a bungalow next to the beach for cheap, but it's not a necessity and it's not a necessity to live next to one's job.

That said, I would love to see more mixed use zoning.

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Re:Do rent controls work? by kelnos on Tuesday September 01, 2015 @05:49PM (#10156015)

Places where there are others just like them.

Gross. I get that some people get to places in their lives where they don't want to deal with diversity, but I don't want cities to turn into places like that. Retirees (those who do want to stay, and don't want to live in a retirement community) are a part of that diversity. Shipping anyone off involuntarily (or even semi-involuntarily, in the case of ridiculous housing cost swings) is completely unacceptable to me.

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Re:Do rent controls work? by mc32 on Tuesday September 01, 2015 @11:49PM (#10157323)

When you are old your values change and you're just looking for convenience and people in the same boat. That does not mean they want to not have ethnic diversity they just don't want to deal with non 'generians so much. They still want some younger people, but want the understanding of older people around them --no, they also don't want to be depressed by those near the end, but I'm not talking that stage home.

And I don't think homogeneity is gross. Do you think Nigerians feel gross, or do you think the Japanese feel gross? It's neither better nor worse then heterogeneity.

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Re:Do rent controls work? by thephyber on Tuesday September 01, 2015 @03:45AM (#10151193)

That is the same situation which was sold to the voters of California in 1979 for Prop 13 and now we have underfunded schools, fire departments, and police departments. Property values are now artificially inflated because long-time owners are underpaying property taxes (they are growth-capped) and recent purchasers are paying much more for identical properties. Additionally, Prop 13 is an effective real estate transaction friction which keeps inefficiency in the housing market.

I would hope the city would offer to partner with a shrinking small town to help relocate people who can no longer afford to live in the city to a town that is suffering from a high rental vacancy rate. A pensioner will only continue to be squeezed by living in a high-demand city as even rent-controlled units are allowed to raise their rents.

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Re:Do rent controls work? by iofj on Tuesday September 01, 2015 @04:18AM (#10151273)

> That is the same situation which was sold to the voters of California in 1979 for Prop 13 and now we have underfunded schools, fire departments, and police departments

And these 2 are related ... how ?

California is broke, which is what causes those underfunding issues. Why ? Nobody is blaming rent control. It's there, but it's so small it registers on very few radars.

Rightist view: http://www.businessinsider.com.au/reasons-to-leave-californi... (TLDR: unemployment (due to various high taxes, rightist site indeed), debt (pension/unemployment liabilities), poverty)

Leftist view: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/bob-samuels/why-california-is-... (TLDR: tax exemptions for large corporations, including the claim they wouldn't leave for high tax because of good schools)

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Re:Do rent controls work? by thephyber on Tuesday September 01, 2015 @05:20AM (#10151421)

My previous post's parent discussed an 80 year old pensioner being unable to afford to continue living in San Francisco (or some other hypothetical rent controlled city) despite the fact that they can't afford to live there without rent control. That was the exact scenario that was sold to California voters in 1978 for Prop 13 and people voted for it because it seemed like it would benefit them (at least in the short term) and actually does the opposite long-term.

Re: the financial situation, California only recently paid off debts left over from the wake of Enron criminal fraud days.[1]

Obviously the underfunded retirement funds are huge looming unknowns, but they are partially (if not mostly) caused by local governments (such as the city of Stockton) underfunding during the bull market years and being unable to pay during the bear market years.

[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/California_electricity_crisis

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