Letter to the Editor

Editor:
John M. Lee's latest column condemned SF Supervisor Matt Gonzalez's rent control proposals. Actually, it went further than that and condemned rent control in general. Lee wrote, "Even with the high vacancy rates in residential housing in the current market, our rents are very high. Thus, one can conclude that the rent control laws are hurting renters in general rather than keeping the lid on rents."

I disagree.

In fact, I would argue that the absence of vacancy control is what led to the spike in rents during the dot-com boom. In 1995, a two-bedroom apartment in the Richmond went for about $1,000 ­ a reasonable sum for, say, a family of three in which one spouse was a groundskeeper and the other a nurse (friends of mine). Such units soared to more than $2,000 during the boom and those rents have not dropped significantly since the onset of the recession.

Also, I have been able to live in this City and work first as a teacher, and then as a substitute teacher (when I became a student again), not in spite of rent control but because of rent control.

Rent control doesn't work? For me it has.
Susan Vaughan