It’s supply: Tina Kotek’s rent control bill will have the wrong effect (“Portland’s Tina Kotek explains her rent control plans – and landlord pains,” Feb. 4). Economists Paul Krugman, Gunnar Myrdal on the left and Milton Friedman, Friedrich Hayek on the right all agree that rent control is the wrong approach. Each of those gentlemen is a Nobel laureates and well-respected economists. But Kotek knows better, I suppose. Meanwhile: she stated in the interview that she has not seen “one report that specifically states that rent stabilization reduces housing supply.” She can’t be serious. In California, the non-partisan Legislative Analyst’s Office published a report titled “California’s High Housing Costs: Causes and Consequences.” In this report, their top recommendation to contain prices and rents is: “Aim to build more”. Nowhere in the report did they suggest that rent control is the answer to rising rents.
In a short search I found a variety of nonpartisan studies with similar outcomes. Instead of rent control, we should encourage building. Rather than punishing landlords, we should encourage them to develop more low-cost housing.
Doug Austin, Milwaukie
Government must do more: I read in the Oregonian that Multnomah Country is paying $28,000 to keep children in school by paying extra rent to stop them being evicted from their homes for no reason other than the landlord wants more money! (“County to pay rent for 26 Portland children so they don’t have to change schools,” Feb. 2) What are you going to do when the rents are increased again? Why doesn’t our governing body meet and change the law? Tell these unbridled Scrooges “Sorry, no can do without a rock solid reason” and require that any rent increase be linked to the cost of living.
To allow whole families to be thrown out onto the streets, without cause, is barbaric. Where are all the good Christian people who scream bloody murder whenever their church has a problem? Where are our clergymen? Don’t you care about your constituents? They are probably some of the people who contribute to the church keeping you off the streets. You give food and clothes to people on the streets but why do you allow them to be put there in the first place. The churches should band together and use their sway to change this very bad law.
Frank Halpin, Oregon City
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