My rent is increasing by *checks housing provider’s notice to tenants mailed by DHCD* $51 dollars, and this is far from the first rent-stabilized unit I’ve lived in in D.C., so can you all stop looking at me weird when I say I support rent control?
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I mean, this tweet illustrates a lot of wrong w/rent control (I live in a building reno’d after an organizing effort broke before a TOPA deal could be reached, and I make enough to mostly afford market increases, which means I’m in a unit that might benefit someone else).
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Wow, couldn’t tweet that fast enough before someone showed up in my mentions saying that rent control suppresses supply, which is not the world we live in when supply is depressed by the laws that govern your land use (our current reality), not rent.
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Anyway, I’ve said this in a lot of public forums already, but rent control gives tenants the confidence that you get with a mortgage, and I know this because I still own a house. It’s also a really visible material benefit. You may not like it, but don’t deny tangible things.
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lmao
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Replying to @eean and @alexbaca
Production caps (which are foolish policy at best) limit supply, which causes prices to rise in order to match supply with demand. Rent control reduces the prices, causing demand to greatly exceed supply. This is all covered in introductory economics.
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I was a new resident in D.C. eleven months ago. twitter.com/negative_irr/s
This Tweet is unavailable.
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Wow OK since we have to do this, I have taken ~introductory economics~ for my stupid MPA, and I work for a pro-development organization, where my job is principally to figure out how to increase the supply of housing without fucking people over more than they are now.
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If you are going to rail about markets and zoning in my mentions right now: I already know everything you are saying and I just...disagree. Not too many people get paid to do what I do, which is, effectively, connecting policy-worldbuilding to lived experiences.
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Which: Good luck building a broad pro-supply coalition without legitimately acknowledging tenants’ rights. You all know how serious I am about deleting single-fam zoning, but I’m not fool enough to think that results in a direct material benefit like not seeing your rent doubled.
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Are there better ways to do this? YEAH FUCKING OBVIOUSLY. Do we live in that world? Not yet. Let’s boost supply like crazy (including ~*~luxury condos~*~, I like those too), but not act like that’s the sole way that places to live that are immediately affordable to someone.
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That’s not a knock. I chose my field and I love it. But I don’t do it with the assumption that it overrides something someone can actually see working for them.
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Anyway, I lived in a rent-controlled building when I first moved into D.C. i was, like, 19? So this is not the first time I’ve benefitted from this, which is also a problem—the market, not rent control, should be taking care of me. But, uh, unfucking the market is taking a bit.
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ALSO my MITD return last year was like...$6,000, iirc. (Single-fam house in Cleveland; I moved back to D.C. for a job, would have stayed if I could.) Since I guess no one on here wants to tweet about actual money there’s no sense of relativity. But MITD kinda on par w/RC for me.
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The $64,000 question (I’m dating myself with that reference) is how to accomplish #1 while handling those who benefit from current programs in an equitable and respectful way — with the understanding that some people who might not want to move might have to.