Path: utzoo!yunexus!spectrix!lsuc!hcr!jimr
From: jimr@hcr.UUCP (Jim Robinson)
Newsgroups: can.politics
Subject: Re: Rent control, zoning, and politics.
Message-ID: <3167@hcr.UUCP>
Date: 16 Mar 88 14:47:57 GMT
Article-I.D.: hcr.3167
Posted: Wed Mar 16 09:47:57 1988
References: <594@oscvax.UUCP> <2303@unicus.UUCP> <2399@geac.UUCP> <17362@watmath.waterloo.edu>
Reply-To: jimr@hcr.UUCP (Jim Robinson)
Distribution: ont
Organization: HCR Corporation, Toronto
Lines: 13

Someone earlier mentioned that they used to believe that the rental
crisis was was caused by rent control before they read an article in
the paper (G&M or Star) which stated that rent controls were introduced
*because* of a lack of affordable housing. Well, I think I read the
same article and I don't recall a vacancy rate being quoted for the
pre-rent control days. Seems to me that back in the good old days
(1974????) a vacancy rate of 1% may have been considered a "crisis".
Since the vacancy rate is now a tiny 0.1% that would mean that the
rental crunch has become 10 times *worse* since the introduction of
rent controls. So, anyone out there know just what the vacancy rate was
back then, or are we all just shooting in the dark????

J.B. Robinson