Yes on A: Fix Rent Control Portland

06/14/2023

Portland voters have fully embraced socialist housing policy and the most extreme rent control in the country. What’s next?

We worry where this path will lead, which is to a worse housing crisis. Ironically, this result most punishes small mom and pop landlords who will exit the market leaving only large corporate landlords and conversions to condos, all of which reduced options for renters. While we know Ethan Strimling is smiling tonight, we are very concerned about the future of Portland.

Thank you to the thousands of Portland voters who supported Yes on A!

06/12/2023

Tomorrow is the big day! If you are not sure where to vote, look it up here:

Maine.gov - Official site includes links to services available online, Governor, state agencies, Legislature, US Congressional delegation, state parks, and tax information.

06/10/2023

Listen to small landlords like Bobbi, Rudina and Alan and vote Yes on A!

Check out this great segment from WGAN this morning.

Host Aaron Chadbourne is joined in studio by Bobbi Cope, a local housing provider, to discuss the proposed referendum on the June 13 ballot that would allow rents to be set to market rates when an apartment becomes voluntarily vacant. Phone calls come in discussing the Yes on A campaign and the Demo...

06/08/2023

"I am also a landlord. I started investing in rental housing for my retirement in Portland seven years ago, starting with a duplex in Oakdale. As a landlord I work hard, often 50 hours a week, and my efforts have paid off. I provide quality, safe housing at fair market rents for a few dozen tenants, half of whom are either first-time renters on General Assistance, or have a Section 8 voucher. I love Portland and I love my community. I am a landlord, and I am not the person the DSA wants you to believe I am."

The cap of a 5% increase on a vacant unit means that landlords have no choice at the end of a lease term but to increase the rent on long-term tenants.

06/07/2023

“I have had friendly relationships with all my tenants over the years, now I feel like I am in the rent control business,” said Bobbi Cope, a small landlord who has been working in Portland for almost 50 years.

“Before rent control I may have had a tenant for 20 years, never raised the rent,” she said. “When that tenant moved out, that’s when I made the adjustment to the rent.”

Cope explained that the rent control ordinance forces small landlords to decide between keeping their units below market value indefinitely, or to raise rent on current tenants, which she explained many small landlords are reluctant to do.

Portland residents will have the opportunity to vote Tuesday on a referendum, Question A, that would amend the city’s current rent control ordinance to eliminate a 5 percent cap on how much landlords are allowed to increase rent when a unit turns over. Portland’s rent control ordinances were imp...

06/03/2023

Letter to the editor: Rent control? Focus on inadequate housing supply

For two generations, rent control laws have been a fact of American life. The early adopters, like Cambridge and San Francisco, have detailed property use records, and their long history has enabled elegant research into the usefulness of control ordinances. The results are in.

The two stomach-churning findings for control advocates? Rent control soon discriminates against the least wealthy tenants and apartment owners use available strategies to withdraw from the control market. Compared to pre-control, gentrification runs hot. Landlords use avoidance methods: ownership sales via condominium conversions, exploitation of ordinance exemptions to achieve rent resets, evictions for renovations justifying more profitable post-renovation rents. All these and others are forms of avoidable gentrification. The lower rental market size means higher competition for units, unfavorable for tenants without access to subsidized housing.

Recommended for anyone interested is research published by Stanford economics professor Rebecca Diamond, who did a historical study of San Francisco rent control. In addition to her data work, she annotated 118 other research papers and articles.

The problem is inadequate housing supply. Backward, ham-fisted regulation doesn’t work. As the research shows, it makes the problem worse. Portland’s experience may be different, although no reason that it would be is obvious. Competition for apartments is already brutal. Question A will fix a little of this. Vote “yes.”

James Cloutier
former city councilor
Portland

05/31/2023

Check out our latest ad in the Portland Forecaster. It's a letter from Bobbi Cope, a lifelong Portlander and small landlord. Please take a moment to read it.

05/28/2023

In-person absentee voting is going on at city hall during normal business hours or request an absentee ballot here:

Online Forms Portal

05/27/2023

Check out our ad in the Portland Forecaster this week. We hope you are enjoying your Memorial Day weekend!

05/25/2023

Check out this lively discussion hosted by the Portland Phoenix.

It's clear that Portland needs more housing and the policies passed over the last few years have discouraged investment in our community and hurt our local economy.

Portland Phoenix Editor, and Portland Rising host, Marian McCue hosts a lively discussion on the current housing crisis facing Portland and much of Southern ...

05/24/2023

He said rent control made it nearly impossible for landlords who renovate and upgrade a vacant property to pay for that by charging a new tenant market rent.

"Take any unit where the tenant has been there for 5 years, 10 years, you've got to go in and do work,” Vitalius said, "And with costs that have increased – for labor, for taxes, for our utilities, you cannot catch up with a 5% increase. You can't do it. So, what do we do? We start raising the rent on all our tenants every year – that’s what’s happening.”

In Question A, landlords seek to repeal cap on rent hikes between tenants

05/21/2023

What a gorgeous day! We will be door knocking all day! DM if you'd like to volunteer!