In 2011, I purchased a boarded up home in the Sunnyside community of Houston. This low-income neighborhood was filled with similar homes. Many of these homes were in disrepair and hadn’t seen a fresh coat of paint in decades. To call the area economically depressed would be an understatement. Yet, I took a risk and spent the money to purchase the home and repair it. I transformed an uninhabitable structure into an attractive home. Despite providing affordable housing to numerous families in the years since, I am among a group of people coming under increasing attack. I did something good, and yet, I am demeaned.
Across the nation, and indeed around the world, housing producers are under attack. Though they have long been vilified as greedy vultures who put profits before people, the pandemic has elevated the attacks as lock downs place millions of renters in dire straits. Housing advocates are finding politicians eager to embrace their cause, and the result is more restrictions and controls on those who produce and supply housing, whether they are landlords, developers, or gentrifiers.
Moratoriums on evictions are only one example. Landlords are prohibited from evicting tenants for non-payment of rent, yet those same landlords must pay their mortgage, insurance, property taxes, and maintain the property while receiving little or no revenue. Fueled partially by Bernie Sanders’ call for national rent control, municipalities around the country are enacting or considering restrictions on what landlords may charge. Groups like Black Lives Matter harass and demean those who bring economic investment into previously impoverished communities and gentrify neighborhoods.
Though these attacks are unjustified, they enjoy growing support. The specifics of the attacks vary. For example, landlords are vilified for charging rents that are “too damn high” while gentrifiers are vilified for displacing long-time residents. Developers are charged with destroying neighborhoods by investing in a community, attracting jobs, and creating opportunity. While the specific arguments differ, the underlying method does not. That method consists of three flawed steps.
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