The Columbian’s opposition to a sensible policy to limit how much landlords can increase rents on residential tenants is extremely disappointing (“Cleveland wise to embrace big picture on rent,” In Our View, April 15).
Urging lawmakers to focus on profits of property owners and developers over the “myopic focus on the needs of renters” is hurtful for my family and thousands of others who have been displaced repeatedly and even driven into homelessness by excessive rent increases. Unrestricted rent gouging is depriving the nearly 40 percent of us who rent our homes of the stability and predictability that homeowners have.
As a Colville Tribe member, disabled veteran and survivor of domestic violence, my family already experiences challenges trying to maintain housing stability. My children and I have had to move five times in four years because of large rent increases.
Without a meaningful limit on rent increases, discrimination in housing through large predatory rent increases will continue. People of color, seniors and disabled people, workers and families with children will face more destabilizing moves and impossible decisions about what basic needs we can afford to cover.
