NPR Article Highlights Homelessness, but Fails to Provide a Balanced Perspective
Glenn Godden | RHAWA Member
A recent article published by NPR titled “Homeless Population Rises, Driven By West Coast Affordable-Housing Crisis” caught my eye not only for the importance of its subject, but in how it was presented in an imperfect and unbalanced way.
Homelessness is not exclusively a condition of housing affordability. Homelessness has manifold causes, including loss of income, medical crisis, substance abuse, lack of legal residency / age, lifestyle choice, lack of affordable housing options in an area, etc.
Rent control is the Holy Grail for many low-income housing and tenant advocates who see it as the only solution for escalating housing costs in Washington State, particularly around the Puget Sound region. Currently, Washington State law — RCW 35.21.830 — bans any local jurisdiction from implementing rent control. This has been the case since 1981 when the Rental Housing Association successfully passed legislation to ban rent control after Seattle voters brought down a city initiative which would have created rent control in the city.
The potential consequences of rent control becoming a reality are based on what we have seen in countless other areas when rent control is enacted, e.g. rental housing costs will soar, new rental housing construction will halt, and housing opportunities and mobility will be limited for anyone not lucky enough to already be living in their preferred rental unit.
The most conspicuous examples of all of these problems have been found in San Francisco and New York City, two cities with the strongest rent control protections in the USA, the two most expensive rental housing markets in the nation.
As RHAWA members we encourage all landlords to engage in discussions regarding homelessness. Discussion of solutions to our homelessness problem cannot be presented only as an issue of housing affordability without recognition of its many other root causes. We must hold individuals accountable to discussing this issue in a balanced manner.
