Problem isn’t housing supply; it’s rent costs

Published 1:30 am Friday, April 14, 2023

We have a homeless problem. It seems every city and town has a homeless problem. And yet everywhere you look there are these gigantic apartment complexes being built. We hear on the news constantly that we need more housing. And more money for the homeless. I question more housing. I would bet if anyone did a survey of all these multi-family projects and looked to see just how much vacancy there is in them, they’d be surprised. To my mind, it isn’t lack of housing, it’s the rents that are being charged and increased.

A whole lot of homelessness is caused by people not being able to afford rent. There was a time in our state history when we had rent control; and it worked! Landlords could not up the rent like they’re doing now, it was set.

By the same token, the owners of these apartment complexes are getting tax breaks on the vacancies. It would seem to me that if our legislators are so concerned with homelessness, instead of continually throwing more money and more money at homelessness, they’d pass legislation to control rents, that would have a huge impact on homelessness. Oh, and just maybe the remaining neighborhoods that haven’t been ruined by these massive apartment buildings would still leave us some history.

Just my take.

H. Wood

Mountlake Terrace