If Supreme Court nixes NYC rent control, tenants and landlords would be better off

[Kamaji]

If Supreme Court nixes NYC rent control, tenants and landlords would be better off

By NY Post Editorial Board   
August 27, 2023

In a case that promises to utterly upend New York politics — and boost the city’s housing market — the Supreme Court may soon strike down the essence of the rent control laws.

Local politicians love nothing more than to gesture on behalf of cheaper housing, as with the City Council bill aiming to force landlords to pay broker fees on rental units, or the drive for a state law that would (in the name of limiting evictions) make rent control statewide.

This case could end the never-ending game, by gutting the core rent law.

In the process, it would end New York’s eternal housing “crisis” practically overnight — benefiting both tenants and landlords.

In May, New York landlord groups asked the court to hear their challenge to the state Rent Stabilization Law, which lets the city cap rent hikes and gives tenants a virtually ironclad right to renew their leases.

It’s led to some people renting the same unit for decades — and then passing it to a family member, caretaker or friend.

In many cases, building “owners” never regain control over those units, even if they want them for their own families or other purposes.

And that, the suit contends, amounts to an unconstitutional “taking” of property, in violation of the Fifth Amendment.

For years, few would’ve imagined the law — which dates to 1969 — could be overturned, even though it forces landlords alone to eat the cost for a public good (affordable housing) and essentially deprives them of their own property.

The US District Court and the Second Circuit Court of Appeals both dismissed the suit after it was filed in 2019.

Yet the Supremes lately have stood up for property rights, backing owners with 6-3 votes in several key cases.

In 2021, by 6-3 they struck down a decades-old California rule that forced farms to let union organizers on their land, noting that private owners have a right to exclude people from their property.

That, argue the New York plaintiffs, is a far less intrusive “taking” than New York telling a landlord he or she must offer lease renewal at a city-dictated rent.

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Source:  https://nypost.com/2023/08/27/getting-rid-of-nyc-rent-control-would-benefit-tenants-and-landlords/

[DefiantMassRINO]

Rent-control leads to slums.

Even Massachusetts did away with rent control ... after it was discovered that many judges, lawyers, and college professors were occupying rent-controlled units, not the poor.

To make housing affordable for the poor, housing needs to be affordable for all.  The most efficient way to do that is to allow for the construction of more housing.

In the Northeast, unaffordable housing is a crisis created by snobbish NIMBY zoning laws.

[Weird Tolkienish Figure]

What rent control leads to is waiting lists (as does public housing).

[Kamaji]

What rent control leads to is waiting lists (as does public housing).

Yup.  Time was, in NYC, the waiting list for desirable buildings could be 5 to 10 years long.

[Weird Tolkienish Figure]

Yup.  Time was, in NYC, the waiting list for desirable buildings could be 5 to 10 years long.

Neither are solutions to the housing problem (which is real). Solution is to build more housing.

[Kamaji]

Neither are solutions to the housing problem (which is real). Solution is to build more housing.

Exactly.  But that is well nigh impossible in NYC given all of the other liberal b.s. that limits construction, including exclusive zoning, mandatory unions, and out-of-control historical designations, to name a few.

[Weird Tolkienish Figure]

Exactly.  But that is well nigh impossible in NYC given all of the other liberal b.s. that limits construction, including exclusive zoning, mandatory unions, and out-of-control historical designations, to name a few.

 

[jmyrlefuller]

Exactly.  But that is well nigh impossible in NYC given all of the other liberal b.s. that limits construction, including exclusive zoning, mandatory unions, and out-of-control historical designations, to name a few.

That, and a simple lack of land to build upon after 400 years of development. You cannot legislate away a fundamental scarcity.

[PeteS in CA]

Set me straight if I'm wrong, but weren't NYC rent control laws a temporary "emergency" measure passed due to WW2? I'm pretty sure Germany and Japan surrendered a bit of a while ago.

[Weird Tolkienish Figure]

Set me straight if I'm wrong, but weren't NYC rent control laws a temporary "emergency" measure passed due to WW2? I'm pretty sure Germany and Japan surrendered a bit of a while ago.

Laguardia passed them I believe.

[Kamaji]

That, and a simple lack of land to build upon after 400 years of development. You cannot legislate away a fundamental scarcity.

Nonsense.  There is plenty of building space in NYC - blocks and blocks of outmoded, used-up 4 and 5 story walkups that should be converted to 6 to 10 story elevator buildings, and even a bunch of one-story buildings in many areas which, IMHO, is an obscenity in a city like NYC - the grocery store I used to go to when I lived in Stuytown was part of a half-block that was mostly one story.

Within 5 years, with a rational zoning and building control, several hundred thousand new apartments could be built.

[Fishrrman]

"...walkups that should be converted to 6 to 10 story elevator buildings, and even a bunch of one-story buildings in many areas which, IMHO, is an obscenity in a city like NYC - the grocery store I used to go to when I lived in Stuytown was part of a half-block that was mostly one story."

In other words, you want the place to be like Moscow -- Soviet-style slabs.

[Weird Tolkienish Figure]

"...walkups that should be converted to 6 to 10 story elevator buildings, and even a bunch of one-story buildings in many areas which, IMHO, is an obscenity in a city like NYC - the grocery store I used to go to when I lived in Stuytown was part of a half-block that was mostly one story."

In other words, you want the place to be like Moscow -- Soviet-style slabs.

Need more housing everywhere. People who want to live in NYC can live in NYC, people who want to live in the burbs can live in the burbs. Freedom.

[Kamaji]

"...walkups that should be converted to 6 to 10 story elevator buildings, and even a bunch of one-story buildings in many areas which, IMHO, is an obscenity in a city like NYC - the grocery store I used to go to when I lived in Stuytown was part of a half-block that was mostly one story."

In other words, you want the place to be like Moscow -- Soviet-style slabs.

Try again, idiot.