I appreciate your article highlighting Mr. White’s experience living in Battery Heights. I am emailing because I feel the impacts of rent control are misunderstood or ignored and the benefits are overstated. We do not have to guess what the impacts of rent control are, we know—and they are disastrous. This is a quote from an article written by an economist about rent control:

Economists are virtually unanimous in concluding that rent controls are destructive. In a 1990 poll of 464 economists published in the May 1992 issue of the American Economic Review, 93 percent of U.S. respondents agreed, either completely or with provisos, that “a ceiling on rents reduces the quantity and quality of housing available.” 

The folks who push for rent control are trying to solve an economic challenge with a policy sledgehammer. Rent control temporarily delays a massive problem, not with housing but with living wage standards and expectations. It attempts to solve a symptom instead of the bigger issue. Minimum wage. Supporters of rent control would be better suited advocating for higher minimum wage, government/employment-funded childcare, health care, and maternity/paternity leave. These are the problems that need to be solved—not controlling supply and demand. Rent control is an easy target for politicians who need a quick turnaround on “impact” to get re-elected. It’s not the rent, it’s the paycheck that is out of control. Our federal minimum wage is $7.25. NC doesn’t have one and instead defaults to the federal minimum wage of $7.25. It has been $7.25 since July 2009. It was $5.15 in 1997. This means the minimum wage has increased by $2.10 in 24 YEARS. That is the problem. Solve this and rent control will not be on anyone’s radar.

Full disclosure, I am a rental property owner in downtown Raleigh. One hundred percent of my tenants are below the poverty line and most have experienced homelessness, prison, and addiction. All of my homes are sandwiched between $400,000–$800,000 new/renovated homes. In the last 10 years of renting properties downtown, I have never received a salary or any regular compensation. I have evicted many people over the years (most of which ended in a handshake or a hug) and have provided a combined 85+ years of free rent and utilities to those same people and many others during this time. The front-page story of the INDY on August 8, 2018, “As Raleigh’s Housing Crisis Worsens, Its Housing Authority Is Having Trouble Convincing Landlords to Participate in Its Section 8 Program,” was about the experiences my tenant and I had working with the Raleigh Housing Authority and Section 8. It was a disaster then and still is. I am a landlord and a tenant advocate. As a tenant advocate, I do not support rent control.

—Andrew Clark, Raleigh resident

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