After years of fighting multifamily development, banning micro-housing, fining new construction and adding regulatory hurdles to existing homes, Seattle City Councilmember Kshama Sawant has exacerbated a housing shortage in Seattle. It would be hard to tailor-make a set of policies better suited to decrease the housing stock. 

Renters are rightfully mad at the result. Rents have increased drastically since Sawant’s tenure began. Most of the new housing that has been created is luxury, the only type that pencils out. Her solution? Further barriers to the housing supply. Sawant is the sole sponsor of a policy initiative to cap rents at current rates for all time, which is not legal in Washington at this time. Under her proposal, rents would be allowed to move with inflation, but could not increase to cover expenses, improvements or most emergencies. 

Rent control has been discredited by economists again and again, leading Assar Lindbeck, former chair of the Nobel Prize in Economics Committee, to assert, “In many cases, rent control appears to be the most efficient technique presently known to destroy a city — except for bombing.” It is one of the only things some economists agree on since the law of supply and demand shows that price ceilings result in shortages. Not what most growing cities want. 

Without an incentive to provide a superior product, the housing stock will deteriorate and the motion inherent in cities will calcify. In Berlin, a rent-control measure was quickly rolled back after active apartment listings dropped by half. In San Francisco, Stanford researchers found a loss to renters of $2.9 billion. New York City consumers lose $500 million annually according to a 2004 Harvard paper. 

The final hypocrisy of Sawant’s plan is Seattle will become a less welcoming place, increasing the commute time and carbon footprint of newcomers as builders move to more lucrative locales outside the city. Whether housing should be a government service can well be debated, but instead of offering a new way to provide housing, this policy shuts down the one we have and would ensure Sawant’s legacy of depressed housing stock remains long after she departs in December. 

If price controls aren’t the solution, what is? 

∙ Rental subsidies: Expand existing housing voucher programs without distorting market dynamics. 

∙ Zoning reform: Upzone urban spaces to increase density. 

∙ Permitting reform: Reduce the 18-to-24-month wait time on building permits.  

∙ Tax reform: Remove taxes on beneficial things like development. Tax harmful things like carbon emissions. 

∙ Public housing: In 2007, Helsinki, Finland, launched a “housing first” initiative to build public housing. Finland’s homeless population subsequently fell by 35%.

The bill now sits with the eight other council members (a vote is expected Tuesday, Aug. 1, or Aug. 8). Will we position ourselves for growth, or capitulate to debunked populist policy? In an attempt to achieve immortality, the first emperor of China drank mercury. Sawant prescribes the same remedy. Shiny, alluring and toxic.  

Penton Mott is a Seattle landlord.