COMMENTARY: Biden proposal would be a massive mistake

When I saw President Joe Biden call for rent control, I was truly saddened for the community to which I moved to escape these kinds of failed policies.

I spent several years living in and around New York City in the 1960s and ’70s. Rent control was very much a part of life in the Big Apple. Housing was very expensive in the city because demand was always greater than supply. If you were fortunate enough to find a rent-controlled unit, you sacrificed other things to get it.

Rent control dictated your personal choices about where you worked, shopped or went to school. I saw people give up promotions or new jobs because they didn’t want to move from their rent-controlled apartment to another community. Who knew that being a slave to your rent could be so soul sucking. The “golden handcuffs” effect of tenants forgoing better life opportunities and choices because they were reluctant to give up their rent-controlled housing wove deeply. It continues today wherever rent control is enacted.

Additionally, there was always something inherently unfair about rent control in New York City. We were thankful that we could have this very affordable housing. We were working-class people and needed to afford to live in the city. However, this led to very apparent disparities in our neighborhood, where very wealthy people lived in rent-controlled units and paid nominal rent. Our neighbor, a former governor and one of the richest men in the state, lived in a rent-controlled building. Tenants were also allowed to pass their rent tenancy onto a family member. Even today, many of these rent-controlled buildings are filled with multigenerational family tenants.

We decided that the only way we were truly going to be able to find an affordable home, make common-sense lifestyle choices and be free of the rent-control grip was to head to the wide-open southwest part of the country. Our decision came down to a basic equation of supply and demand. There was more land for more homes, condos and apartments in Nevada and Arizona. The housing markets naturally incentivized developers to build more. Apartment developers and landlords were incentivized to build more because there were no artificial restraints as to what could be charged and what tenants would pay. Choices abounded.

A great Forbes article highlights a study of the negative effects of rent control across the country. It points out what many other studies show: Rent control creates housing shortages, less landlord investment in upkeep of properties and fewer housing choices for folks. These are all things I witnessed first-hand while living in New York.

It appears now that Southern Nevada is flirting with the idea of rent control. It’s a huge mistake. Over the years so many of us have come to this area because of the wide array of housing choices at affordable prices. We still have land, especially if the federal government released more federally owned land back to the state or local governments to build affordable housing units. We could also build up a bit more without creating high density problems.

A move by the state or the county to create rent control should not even be considered. There are alternatives to making rents affordable and ensuring we have a market that incentivizes continually adding more units as they are needed.

In our lifetimes we have seen the real problems with rent control. We came to the wonderful Las Vegas Valley with the expectation that those mistakes would not be repeated. We need to do everything we can to make sure it isn’t so.

Ruth Madison is a former New York resident who now lives in Las Vegas.