To the editor: The Times report shows that public pensions are driving up rents, worsening California's affordable housing crisis. Thousands of military veterans are homeless and rent is too high for millions more.
Housing is arguably our most important need, so balancing the needs of the commercial real estate market and human rights is essential. However, the debate over tenants’ rights is polarized between outsized profits and the thesis that rent control will kill housing.
A healthy community provides housing for all income levels. A sick community makes housing affordable only to the upper class and, through government assistance, to the poorest. That is a death spiral.
In the 1950s, Detroit was the richest city in the world. Despite having wealthy suburbs like Grosse Pointe, Michigan, Detroit collapsed. This is now happening in cities like Los Angeles and San Francisco.
We are sacrificing the California dream of freedom, equality and opportunity to the greed of billionaire corporate landlords who have a stranglehold on our politicians. They demonize rent control as a communist plot. The truth is that rent control in the United States has been around since 1919 and fits perfectly into the framework of public utility regulation.
Does it make sense that gas and electric companies have to ask for rate increases, but landlords in most cities can do pretty much whatever they want? Of course not. Without rent control, the California dream will die.
Michael Weinstein, Los Angeles
The author is president of the AIDS Healthcare Foundation, a leading proponent of Proposition 33, a rent control measure.
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To the editor: It is reasonable to expect that the returns on investments in housing will be similar to those on investments in food and clothing. The more basic the product, the more modest the return.
Individuals and families should not compete with private capital for the necessities of life.
Mary Bomba, Los Angeles
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To the editor: Any institution that takes sociopolitical factors into account in its investment decisions will likely have less money available to benefit its constituents. Not no money, but less.
Capitalism can be a double-edged sword.
Alan Bell, Los Angeles
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To the editor: It's a dirty secret that universities invest in rental properties. That's not an investment that benefits the people. These modern day robber barons are ruining lives and putting people out on the streets.
Housing, like the air we breathe, should never be an investment vehicle.
Mindy Taylor-Ross, Venice
