Readers React: California’s failure to keep rents affordable

To the editor: California’s new home construction failure over the past three decades is only surpassed by its failure to develop sufficient rental housing. (“California doesn’t have enough housing, and lawmakers aren’t doing much about it,” April 14)

With middle income families unable to purchase homes, rents on existing units increase due to supply and demand. As a result, families at lower income levels are often forced to pay up to 80% of their incomes for studios and one-bedroom apartments, while others sublet a single room in another family’s home.

I continue to be amazed at the failure to address the ever-increasing body of evidence that overcrowded and precarious housing conditions seriously impact the mental, emotional and educational development of young children, particularly during their earliest years.

Case in point: A separate article notes that a report says the state should spend an additional $5 billion a year to provide universal child care and preschool because “children’s experiences in their first five years … can influence brain development, future academic performance, economic outcomes and health risks.” Perhaps some of those funds could subsidize rents.

Tanya Tull, Los Angeles

The writer is president and chief executive of Partnering for Change.

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