A recent Voice, “ Rent Stabilization Is a Necessary Tool ,” is an exercise in polemics. It picks three studies by progressives, most of whom are non-economists, which the authors claim supports rent control, yet they ignore the 81 percent of economists who concur that rent control is a bad idea.
I will concede that criminalizing rent increases would be an effective tool to prevent rising rents. Landlords would be committing a criminal act by raising rents beyond what is permissible. Governments would have the power to fine them, sue them, arrest them, seize control of their property, or even confiscate their property.
The problem is that there are major negative consequences to rent controls: Rent control would harm the very people the authors thought they were helping.
