One of the hottest topics facing City Council currently is “rent control,” which surfaces periodically as a solution to the relatively high cost of living in a city where demand for affordable housing has traditionally out-paced supply. Due primarily to our high-functioning Housing Authority, Santa Barbara actually does enjoy a relatively high percentage of dwellings made affordable by covenants and subsidies. The demand, however, persists.
Solving the issue with the one-pronged approach of demonizing property owners and landlords as the cause of this phenomenon is neither fair nor practical, as a recent writing in another paper pointed out. And the result of these programs has been played out in cities all over the world to the eventual detriment of the rental-dwelling market and thus the tenants.
The latest scheme proposing capping rent increases at 60 percent of CPI (Consumer Price Index) does not take into account realities of inflation, utility costs, price and availability of insurance, and it may not cover annual property tax increases. Lastly, it disproportionately punishes structures built prior to 1995, which, while aging and prone to needing repair, provide a major source of below-market opportunities for tenants…