San Francisco artist who is being kicked out of apt. is perfect example of why rent control is awful

Business Insider ^ | 02/02/2016 | Jim Edwards

[SeekAndFind]

If you're interested in whether rent control makes rent prices go down or not -- and plenty of people think it actually makes them go up -- then stop what you're doing right now and watch this video on San Francisco's real estate war, by my colleague Andrew Stern. The video features a heart-breaking interview with artist David Brenkus, who has lived in a rent-controlled apartment on Walter Street for 34 years. His building has been bought and now he is being evicted so that the new landlord can move in. Brenkus's rent is $735 month for a two-bedroom apartment, which includes a woodshop in the basement.

And this is the centre of the entire rent control debate, whether it's in San Francisco, New York, London or anywhere else: Rents and property prices are undeniably high. Low- and moderate-income workers are being forced out of neighbourhoods they have been living in for years. And yet ...

... Brenkus' bargain-rate flat has turned out to be his undoing. Rent control is great if you're poor, at least in the short-term. But here is a guy who has had three decades to get his act together and buy his own place. He failed, undoubtedly, because $735 for a five-room spread tempted him into staying just a bit long, just a bit longer, just a bit longer, and he never got around to obtaining a mortgage on his own place. (You can read a bit more about Brenkus's situation here and here.)

It's a perfect illustration of the way rent control can hurt the poor and benefit the rich, even though it is intended to do the opposite. Rent control might help poor people temporarily, but because they don't own the place they are screwed in the long-term.

[dp0622]

OR a smart person would do what i did when rent was still 500 a month on staten island.

work day and night for overtime and pay your rent with the first two 10 hour days and sock away money every month till it goes up. that was 17 years ago.

friend owns the house, apartment now rents for a grand, which still aint bad

[Opinionated Blowhard]

Alistair Cooke famously lived in a rent control apartment in New York City. And I had the personal experience of subletting a rent controlled apartment in New York City for a summer from a very famous movie producer. He paid $800 per month for a one bedroom apartment two blocks from Times Square, but he made well into the eight figures per year. Its a scam.

[Little Ray]

Given the housing market, $735 for a five room apartment is about $1000-2000 too cheap for San Franfreako. The owner was being abused.

[SaxxonWoods]

We have a friend who lives in Battery Park across from the WTC. $300 a month, she’s been there 41 years and will never leave.

Is she lucky or a prisoner? She does like it, the caged bird sings in this case.

[sparklite2]

It’s hard to empathize when so many non-poor people live in rent-controlled abodes. The whole thing is a rip-off.

[IllumiNaughtyByNature]

This doesn’t seem like a rent control story. ?

[nathanbedford]

Rent control is fine... Until you run out of other people's property.

Actually, rent control is a truly malevolent policy when coupled with criminal sanctions against landlords who fail to maintain standards of upkeep which often becomes impossible when the rent is controlled below market value. Landlord is caught in a squeeze and must forfeit his building, but that often incurs criminal penalties.

[vette6387]

This article mis-states what has to happen in order for the Landlord to “move in” to his own property. Under SF housing law, the entire building has to be taken off the rental market for ten years. We have friends who live in another state who purchased a five-unit building on Telegraph Hill about 15 years ago. It took them five years (and a bunch of money) to be able to have an apartment in their own building, then another five to finally have the bachelor who lived in the penthouse decide to move out on his own so they could occupy that space. Oh, and thanks to rent control, landlords in SF can only raise rents 60% of what they should be based on market conditons. I guess the only thing that tickles me about our friends predicament is that they are Raving Lberals who have gotten a taste of their own medicine!

[Huskrrrr]

But here is a guy who has had three decades to get his act together and buy his own place.

Exactly.

[Robert A Cook PE]

He paid $800 per month for a one bedroom apartment two blocks from Times Square, but he made well into the eight figures per year. Its a scam.

We have a friend who lives in Battery Park across from the WTC. $300 a month, she’s been there 41 years and will never leave.

And they both vote socialist. (Er, democratic.) Just as they have been trained by their masters.

[fungoking]

What is the legal cover that allows cities to deny property owners the value of their property?

[ifinnegan]

How did it hurt this guy?

It didn’t.

He can now move to Crockett.

[OddLane]

People have an irrational attachment to this city. I was listening to a segment on WNYC last year that focused on residents of Park Slope being priced out of their apartments. They interviewed a middle-aged woman who couldn't afford her new rent so was relocating to L.A. to live with her sister.

I can understand why a grown woman wouldn't want to share a small apartment with her sister, but the way she described leaving New York would make you think she was being deported to Haiti to be macheted by the ton ton macoute.

[lakeman]

Is there property tax control on these properties?

[ladyjane]

I’ve known some rent control landlords and many occupants of rent controlled apartments.

Many of the renters I knew were well off. Actually they all were well off. They lived during the week in their cheap apartment and spent the weekends at their country homes or waterfront homes. Some owned Mercedes that they used to drive to their real home, one had a home and a 43’ sailboat. It was all legal. A woman I worked with actually had tears in her eyes talking about losing her $210 a month rent controlled place. She needed a tissue from her Louis Vuitton purse.

The story for the landlords was very different. One of the landlords I knew had to get an entirely new heating system for his apartment building. The commie rent control board lowered his rents because they said he now had a more efficient heating system.

[dp0622]

lol!!

i’ll admit when i got sick (head injury) and had to leave my job at Rockefeller Plaza it hurt!!

but I ALWAYS lived on staten island which is not rural by any means, with half a million people, but it’s manhattan and brooklyn, and i LOVED coming home to my quiet apartment,

i’m 47 now and work on staten island as a dispatch manager overnight (far cry from graphics but good pay, esp. for staten island)

i dont miss the cummute :)

and now that i’m older, there would have been no more chasing women anyway. the mrs. might not like that :)

[PGR88]

My sister lives in a rent-controlled apartment in Brooklyn Heights and has for the last 25 years. She’s tiring of living in the City, but free government sh** is a major anchor. Who wants to give up a cheap NYC apartment?

The building was built in 1880. I think that’s the last time any renovations were done to the place as well.

[MeganC]

“What is the legal cover that allows cities to deny property owners the value of their property?”

Here you go:

“We’re going to take things away from you on behalf of the common good.” - Hillary Clinton

[Grampa Dave]

If a renter can find a two bedroom apartment with no garage or basement in the counties around Gay Frisco, the rents will be around $3000 per month.

Besides a good credit rating, renters need a monthly income from 2.5 to 3.5 times the monthly rent and an excellent credit rating to even be considered as renters.