In such a climate it's not surprising to hear some people grumbling about rent control again. But that probably won't happen, either. And the bleakest feature of the housing landscape is its utter lack of attractive solutions. Then, as now, renters comprised roughly 40 percent of the local population. Besides, philosophical and practical problems with rent control abound.
Many landlords view rent control as discriminatory at worst and economically unsound at best.
If we put caps on one piece of the market, we need to put caps on food, caps on wages, too. We believe in supply and demand. If you put in rent control, my fear is that it wouldn't encourage the developers to come in and create more units for the students and other people who are now coming back to Santa Cruz. Of course, to people house-hunting in this fiercely competitive market, it already feels closed. Most people agree that demand for housing is responsible for high prices and the scarcity of rentals.