Editor:
I recently attended a Town Hall Meeting at Mariner High School.
It began with a “Land Acknowledgement” statement.
The statement acknowledges the ancestral lands of the Coast Salish Tribes.
History: The Point Elliott Treaty, signed in 1855 by representatives of the United States government and many tribes guaranteed fishing rights and reservations.
The treaty abolished slavery.
Rent Control: The Washington State Legislature is considering a bill to impose a 7% cap on how much landlords can raise rents each year and would add to current regulations like how much notice of a rent increase is required. Landlords help people live under a roof (if they want to) and pay property taxes that fund schools, state and local governments and emergency services.
By offering rentals, people can:
– have mobility where they live. (Renters are not tied to mortgages that often last 30 years.)
– choose neighborhoods for schools, convenience to work and sometimes to live near family or friends.
– choose how much they want to budget for monthly living expenses by a selection process.
Landlords are part of our community and have been for a long time. They are partners in keeping communities stable and vibrant. Without them, people lose flexibility in their housing choices.
Perhaps it is time to offer a Landlord Acknowledgment statement to educate everyone of the things that happen when someone buys a property and then offers it to rent, sometimes to a total stranger.
Jeff Scherrer
Edmonds
Just a quick peek at the internet this morning and I don’t see anything limiting how much real rent you can pay to the tribes, the actual land lords. But I do like your recommendation that we include language in the land acknowledgments to help raise awareness about real rent and how important it is as, well as stronger language about the real story of the treaty and how embarrassing it is that our country cannot be trusted to keep its promises.
Jeff, true observations. Rent control ultimately destroys housing availability.
Wise government would support free market and consumers (renters) will not reward the bad landlords.
However, although I think you meant this tongue in cheek, our most appropriate acknowledgement before meetings is to our Creator of THIS great United nation, the United States of America. How can we expect things to go well by participating in the Marxist practice of dividing the people and crediting any but the Creator?
Rent control does signal significant legislative virtue and moral compass to those voters who believe that measure will help the poor and downtrodden. Usually, those same legislators will have retired by the time the inevitable negative consequences appear, and voters will have forgotten which legislators had so totally screwed up the housing market.
Rent control has a long history of virtually total failure. It was always a terrible idea, and we should drop it now.