New York Housing Horrors

The Post’s argument for rentregulation reform underscores the real cause of NYC’s housing crisis (“Tower Power,” Editorial, Feb. 21).

It is this arcane and inequitable system that prevents landlords like me from making needed upgrades to their property, because the city does everything in its power to ensure owners won’t receive a warranted rent increase.

This system forces those who want to work and live in the city to pay 10 times or more for the apartment than one that’s regulated. This same system allows a family of four that owns other property, fully paid for and rented out, to live in a threebedroom apartment for $300 a month.

This affects the smallproperty owners of this city like myself, and not the Donald Trumps of the NYC realestate world.

I have very little hope this will change, but unless it does, NYC’s housing market will continue to be a tale of two cities. Robert Proto

Manhattan

The Post’s editors set it up this morning for Mayor de Blasio to recognize and eliminate the market pricing distortions of rentcontrol laws.

Given the recent rhetoric about relieving people of “joblock,” perhaps de Blasio will see an opportunity to free rentcontrol tenants of “apartmentlock.” We’ve all met people who suffer from this chronic condition, which prevents people from freely moving to newer, nicer apartments because they have gotten so comfortable paying lowerthanmarket rents, subsidized by their neighbors. Brian Daniel

Manhattan