In the online publication of The Independent on November 4, readers were treated to an opinion from Randy Rowse, our current mayor, on the topic of housing affordability. In it he posits that enacting any form of “rent control” would ultimately hurt renters and the housing market, and thus should not be entertained.
Somehow rent control for Santa Barbara is cost prohibitive, but a housing voucher program that would funnel public money to those who already own million dollar properties just needs “financing mechanisms realized.” At one point “wage floors” are labeled as a maligned remedy for “socio-economic issues.”
The opinion piece reads more as a conceptual exercise — free from the context of the limited geographical space, historic lack of home building, etc. — in free market economics than any sort of pragmatic approach toward keeping working people housed in one of the most expensive areas in the country.
As working-class people in Santa Barbara continue to struggle to make ends meet there is no time for conceptual think pieces. The wage floors that our mayor speaks ill of have been grossly outpaced by costs, and we are being squeezed from every angle. The free market has not and will not rescue us from rising rents and languishing wages.
It is time to act on behalf of the working class, the tenants, and those who make this city run. Rent stabilization may not be the only cure, but it would help every teacher, waiter, carpenter, and working parent make their next month’s rent.
