Path: utzoo!mnetor!spectrix!lsuc!ncrcan!brambo!morgan
From: morgan@brambo.UUCP (Morgan W. Jones)
Newsgroups: can.politics
Subject: Re: rent review
Message-ID: <295@brambo.UUCP>
Date: 1 Mar 88 00:44:15 GMT
References: <1988Feb24.140628.28040@jarvis.csri.toronto.edu> <1433@looking.UUCP> <1988Feb26.225840.21116@jarvis.csri.toronto.edu>
Reply-To: morgan@brambo.UUCP (Morgan W. Jones)
Distribution: ont
Organization: Bramalea Software Inc., Bramalea, Ont.
Lines: 52

In article <1988Feb26.225840.21116@jarvis.csri.toronto.edu> eem@csri.toronto.edu (Evangelos Milios) writes:
>Rents these days are way out of line with respect to salaries people 
>make. Paying at least $1000/mo + utils for a 2bdrm apt in Toronto 
>on a salary of 32K/yr is ridiculous. A family with children and a 
>non-working spouse simply cannot survive.

First of all, if it's not practical, why is there a non-working spouse
and children?  If they can't afford children, why do they have them?

Secondly, why do you think it costs $1000/mo.  Don't kid yourself that
it is because the landlord is greedy; some are, but most are quite
reasonable.  The rent is so high because they know that after x years,
they will be forced into rent control; so they have to make their
rents so high that they will be able to make some money under rent
controls.

Or do you feel that landlords should provide housing as a service to
the community out of the goodness of their hearts?

>True, but a new profitable place is far too expensive for the average person.
>So thank God there are controlled apartments around, which are by no means
>cheap, but almost within reach of the average person.

What do you figure is a good price for housing? $50/mo? $100/mo?  How
much to you think a person should pay for housing? 1% of their salary?

>I am in favor of rent control. Without it, in a .01% vacancy rate, only the
>sky is the limit of what greedy landlords may ask for rent.

Why do you think that there is only a .01% vacancy rate?  If landlords
are so greedy and making so much money, why don't they build more
buildings and make more money?

>The only solution I see is for the city or the province to support more co-op
>housing projects, so that people who cannot afford to buy can still get decent
>housing at reasonable prices outside the "free market" economy. Otherwise,
>the average person is steadily being squeezed out of Toronto or forced into
>a substandard quality of living, inhabiting basements or delapidated dwellings.

Or why don't we just provide free housing?  I'm sure that the middle
class can be squeezed some more.  I happen to live next to a co-op
housing project.  It's a really great place, they've got boats and
snow mobiles, and some of the best cars you've ever seen, Cadilacs,
300zx's, RZ7's.  Tell me they can't afford decent housing on their
own!

>Evangelos E. Milios	        Internet(UUCP,ARPANET,BITNET,CSNET):          

-- 
Morgan Jones - Bramalea Software Inc.        morgan@brambo.UUCP
      ...!{uunet!mnetor!lsuc!ncrcan, utgpu!telly}!brambo!morgan
"These might not even be my opinions, let alone anyone else's."