The 2 proposed rent-control laws are lousy

Everybody — or everybody in California, at least — knows that the rent is too damn high.

Or rather we think that it is, because we have memories of when it wasn't.

Too little supply and too much demand is what created the current situation, which is very much not our grandmother's monthly check for a big, clean two-bedroom apartment in a nice building in a great neighborhood.

It's that lack of supply, thanks to onerous restrictions on building in our state, and not a cabal of Simon Legreeish landlords, that has created the California rental housing dilemma.

When something costs too much, there is a certain political mindset that believes that the answer to bringing costs down lies in making it against the law to charge more than some arbitrary amount for that good or service.

But price controls don't work. It's not a matter of goodheartedness or political leaning. Attempting to artificially control prices runs up against the laws of economics, which are (almost) as inviolable as the laws of physics.

That's why economists from right to left in their personal politics almost universally agree: price controls, very much including rent control, simply do not work. At all. In anything but the extremely short run, they are counter-productive for both buyers and sellers, creating artificial shortages that drive a black market and usually end up in making things cost more in the end and be of inferior quality.

As, in the case of rent control. apartments and rental houses that are falling apart.

That's why, once again, we join the California Apartment Association in urging action against two new wrongheaded rent control bills being introduced in the California Legislature.

Here's what the CAA said this week: “With state Senate hearings looming, the California Apartment Association has urged its members to request no votes on two anti-housing bills that could lead to stricter rent control regulations and exacerbate the state's housing crisis.

“SB 466 by Sen. Aisha Wahab, D-Hayward would allow cities to impose rent control restrictions and set price controls on any apartment unit that is 15 years old or more.

“SB 567 by Sen. María Elena Durazo, D-Los Angeles, would largely repeal the California Tenant Protection Act of 2019, passed as AB 1482, and impose a statewide rent cap, limiting rent increases to the rate of inflation or 5%, whichever is lower. The bill would also make it more difficult to evict tenants and renovate older rental units.

“The California Apartment Association has warned that these bills would create more regulations, penalties, and government bureaucracy, which could make it harder for rental housing providers to offer quality homes to renters across the state.

SB 567, for one, has a legislative committee hearing Tuesday. CAA has called on Californians to contact members of the committee and tell them to vote against the bills.

In Southern California, those legislators include Sen. Ben Allen, whose Redondo Beach Office is reachable at (310) 318-6994; Sen. Dave Min, whose Irvine office is (949) 223-5472; and Sen. Tom Umberg, whose Santa Ana office is (714) 558-3785.

As real-estate economist Jay Parsons has written, “One important note that is often overlooked: Rent control primarily benefits wealthier households who do not need the benefit. Case in point: Former NYC Mayor Ed Koch for decades kept a $475-a-month bargain in high-end Greenwich Village, which meant he (and many others) received benefits others need more — which means wealthier households are either squatting in affordable units or squandering benefits that could otherwise be spent on lower-income households in need.”

Urge your legislators to get right with the laws of economics, forget rent control and concentrate on growing California's housing stock.