‘Rent Control Is Missing Its Target’

Michael Koss correctly argues that rent control is detrimental to providing affordable housing (“Rent Control Is Missing Its Target, Helping Neither the Needy Nor Housing,” Op-Ed Page, July 28). But he has missed the point. Rent control is not about housing, it is about power.

This power is exercised by an unholy alliance between tenants and politicians. The tenants get bargain rents. The politicians, ever alert for opportunities to buy votes with other people’s money, gain office and ever-increasing regulatory fees. Property owners are odd men out, but that’s the way this form of majority rule works.

Yuppies, paying peanuts for prime apartments in Santa Monica, are saving up to buy houses in Manhattan Beach. Once they buy their dream house, they’ll desert Tom Hayden, vote Republican, and faint at the mere mention of low-income housing anywhere near their zip code.

There is a good reason why producers of food and clothing are not forced to lower their prices for the benefit of low-income Los Angeles consumers. Faced with such regulation, they’d simply sell their products elsewhere. Property owners, with giant investments in buildings rooted firmly in Los Angeles soil, are not so mobile.

Koss says that rent control does not work the way it was envisioned. Wrong again. Like most corrupt and counterproductive policies, it works exactly the way its proponents intend. California should join the 15 enlightened states that have outlawed this naked and outrageous rip-off.

KEVIN G. MOORE

Redondo Beach