Opinion: If rent control is the answer, then why does Los Angeles have a housing crisis?

To the editor: Steve Lopez is under the impression that “most renters do not live in rent controlled units,” when in the city of Los Angeles, about 80% of all rental units are covered under the city’s rent-stabilization ordinance, which means they are rent controlled. (“Housing crisis can be good news, if you’re a landlord,” Nov. 15)

In this housing crisis, a renter is more likely to live in a rent-controlled unit than a market-rate unit. This is an excellent example of how rent control does not result in affordable housing.

It is easy to blame landlords for high rents, but most economists agree that our elected officials have not only failed to plan for our region’s housing needs, they have also implemented policies that have discouraged development for decades, thus creating the housing shortage that is responsible for driving up rents.

Playing the blame game does not create housing, so let’s get to work creating policies that do.

Beverly Kenworthy, Los Angeles

The writer is vice president of the California Apartment Assn.

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To the editor: That anyone making $5.5 million in one year needs to whine about expenses is surreal.

Let’s put landlord Gerald Marcil’s income in perspective. If you made $100,000 a year for 50 years, that would not equal his one-year take. As Chuck Collins and Josh Hoxie pointed out in their same-day op-ed article on America’s wealth gap, median family wealth in this country is $80,000, a tiny fraction of Marcil’s income in one year alone.

Starting teachers can’t live near their schools, Amazon warehouse workers have to live five to a unit, and cities trample over each other offering concessions to Jeff Bezos to win the second Amazon headquarters. Someone inform Marcil that renters, too, have expenses and would like not having to pay 50%-75% of their income just for housing.

Mitch Paradise, Los Angeles

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