'Don't Blame Rangel for His Rent'

A recent article in The New York Sun, "Don't Blame Rangel for His Rent," presents rent regulation as an abuse-ridden system rather than what it actually is: a very effective solution to New York's debilitating housing shortage [Oped, July 14, 2008].

Rent regulation was created because the government realized that the housing shortage in New York, if left unaddressed, would causes rents to skyrocket and make tenants extremely vulnerable to landlord abuses.

It provides important protections to more than 1 million households: protection from unreasonably rent increases, from eviction, and from landlord refusal to provide essential repairs and services.

The average rent regulated tenant is not, as suggested, a congressman or a movie star. Rent regulated tenants are working people struggling to get by. They have a median income of approximately $34,000 a year, and close to 40% are newcomers to America.

And it's not reasonable for you to suggest that owners are somehow being treated unfairly by not being allowed to maximize profits on rent regulated buildings. We shouldn't make the mistake of conflating reasonable profit with maximum profit — especially not in the middle of a housing shortage.

Presumably the owners knew when they purchased their buildings that they were covered by rent regulation, and still considered the purchase to be a sound investment.

The press tends to seize upon every opportunity to discredit rent regulation and obfuscate the reality of why rent regulation was created and who it actually serves. Your story is no exception.

MAGGIE RUSSELL-CIARDI

Executive Director

Tenants & Neighbors

New York, N.Y.