The following comes from a June 7 posting on Catholic San Francisco.
Supporters of an initiative to impose rent control and limit evictions on multi-family rental properties in the city of San Mateo were gathering signatures at St. Matthew and St. Timothy parishes as they aim to place the measure on the November ballot.
About 10,000 signatures are needed for the ballot measure to qualify, said Aracely Mondragon, community organizer for Bay Area Faith in Action, part of San Francisco Organizing Project/Peninsula Interfaith Action and the PICO National Network.
The proposed San Mateo city ballot measure is designed to limit annual rent increases to the cost of living, would create a Rental Housing Commission and a process for tenants to appeal rent increases, and protect renters from evictions without cause. The measure would have no impact on a landlord’s ability to evict tenants for non-payment of rent and other lease violations, according to Faith in Action….
During the month of May, Faith in Action recruited volunteers to assist with signature gathering and encouraged San Mateo city registered voters to sign the petition, said Reina Gonzalez member of both Faith in Action and St. Matthew social ministries groups. Parishioners are gathering signatures after Mass and in the neighborhoods. “I have two jobs and don’t get home until past 6 p.m., I rest five minutes and I go out to gather signatures hoping to help pass the law,” said Gonzalez.
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When will we learn?
“Rent control” is like a “higher minimum wage.”
They both sound good in theory, but result in less housing inventory and less jobs because landlord withhold rentals and employers lay off to meet the requirements of regulation.
This plan will hurt more than it helps. It is not charity but ideology.
Rent control is stealing from property owners. If the property or area commands a high rent, owners should be able to charge what the market will bear. As with nearly every misguided leftist advocacy project, this one will have negative unintended consequences if it succeeds: properties under rent control will not be maintained well (too expensive to justify), fewer rental properties will be built or introduced (not profitable enough), and there will consequently be a housing shortage and homelessness. Rent control causes a shortage in affordable housing, causing an increase in homelessness. That’s foolish leftist economics.
Hooray for rent control! In no time at all property owners will not be able to afford to keep up their properties,or pay taxes on them. Then the government can take them over. The Bernie Sanders syndrome at work. Everything is Free! Free! Free!
Economics 101 teaches the Law of Supply and Demand. It’s as inescapable as the Law of Gravity. Holding rents artificially low will reduce the availability of affordable housing. It will limit the cash available to the landlord for maintenance. It’s a sure path to a blighted neighborhood.
More secular atheist social teaching from the Church of Man.
What’s the story with these Facebook posts that immediately follow the articles and precede the comments? They’re the same for each article. They never change, and they no longer make sense. I’m suspecting a technical glitch.
The editor responds: We have our IT folks working on it.
OK. So I have been easy going with my tenants on the only rental I own. It is my retirement. I have no pension. We actually worked and saved and invested for this. I have had one new car in 40 years: I buy used. Now we see how stupid that was.
Because we worked and saved and paid taxes and never took money from the government now we are the fools.
What I charge for rent is 1/2 of what it should go for. WITH RENT CONTROL I WILL BE FORCED TO CATCH UP before it passes. What will that do to those dear people! They are not relatives. But my costs keep increasing. Brings me closer all the time to questioning wether I will be able to hold on to the property over time. We all take hits in life. If you can’t afford to live in the area…
It’s too bad Ed’s message above was cut off. I know him and this is him. His last sentence was cut so as to make him appear to be other than sympathetic. Is this a political site or Christian?