News

There are better ideas than rent control

In 1985, graffiti on a wall outside the Harvard Housing Office in Cambridge, Mass., said “Hell is looking for an apartment in Cambridge. Heaven is finding one under rent control.”

At the time, I had a rent-controlled apartment in Central Square, halfway between Harvard and MIT. It wasn’t heavenly, but I was eternally grateful to have scored it a few years earlier.

Last week it was reported Sen. Linda Lopez, D-Albuquerque, intends to introduce a bill in the upcoming legislative session enabling Santa Fe and other New Mexico cities to pass rent control ordinances to address an affordable housing crisis.

Rent control is currently prohibited by state law. It should stay that way.

Read the rest at the Santa Fe New Mexican