Planning Committee

[ijmorlan]

A moratorium on rent increases would tend to prevent supply from catching up with demand. Calling such a proposal useful is a very confusing thing to do.

Don't over think it. Stopping rent increases (especially between tenants) wouldn't correct the lack of housing, but it would help people who are struggling to pay rent. I'm not a city planner, obviously, but I think that helping people is useful. That's my logic. If you helped people by making their lives more affordable, all while increasing supply by other means, maybe the housing crisis might start to reverse its trend? I don't know - you're the expert.

You’re right that you don’t know, but wrong that I’m the expert. However, I do know some basic economics, enough to know that price controls have to be imposed very carefully if they are not to cause harm.

In extreme cases, rent control can actually destroy a city. Even more mild rent control has to be used carefully. If it is done in a way which keeps rents depressed below market levels for an extended period of time, it will cause harm. On the other hand, A mild form of rent control can be helpful to avoid sudden and/or unexpected rent increases for existing tenants. These more mild forms, such as what exists in Ontario, need to be carefully designed.

What we need is more housing. Concentrating on price levels is just a way of diverting attention from root causes by instead looking at a symptom.