Letters from Our Readers

"By 1970, much of the housing stock was fifty years old and in need of substantial capital investments: new roofs, elevators, plumbing, and electrical wiring. Many small landlords simply couldn't afford these improvements. They did not abandon their buildings because they lost value-they abandoned them because they were losing money. Some of these landlords had put their life savings into their buildings."

"The same dynamics are reëmerging here today. A.I.-related job losses are coming, with the more than five hundred thousand positions in the financial-services sector among the most vulnerable. New York's 2019 Housing Stability and Tenant Protection Act is re-creating the conditions under which landlords' expenses outpace their rental income. Mortgage defaults are rising. If there is to be rent control, it has to serve those who really need it, and either match the true cost of operating buildings or be paired with low-cost mortgages,"

Between 1970 and 1983 New York City lost roughly 310,000 apartments to abandonment or demolition, many due to arson. Manufacturing jobs left the city from 1950 onward, with a loss of 600,000 jobs between 1969 and 1977, reducing residents' incomes. Inflation and regulatory limits on rent increases caused operating costs to outpace permitted rent rises, squeezing landlords' margins. Aging housing stock required capital investments that many small landlords could not afford, prompting abandonment even when properties retained value. Similar pressures—A.I.-related job losses, restrictive rent laws, and rising mortgage defaults—are resurfacing and threaten current housing stability.

Read at The New Yorker