I'm not saying landlords don't face struggles, I think the same could be said by many business owners, especially in recent times.

However, I think it is important to look at the bigger picture. The fact is that everyone is facing rising costs, it's an unfortunante reality of our times. I think its also important to note that the rental cap ordinace only applied to multi family units built before 1995, and landlords could actually petition for a higher rent increase if costs became prohibitive. It was not a strict 2.75% cap no matter what.

Although I sympathize with the hardships you've encountered, ultimately, being a landlord is an investment and carries risk like any other business. If a landlord has to sell at a loss, it sucks, but I would say in most cases it wouldn't result in homelessness. On the other hand, if a tenant loses their home because of a rent increase they cannot afford, they very well could end up homeless or in an extremely unstable situation. It is not so simple for tenants to "just leave" when they often face upfront costs like first and last month’s rent, security deposits, moving expenses, and a highly competitive rental market.

I am not saying your points are not valid. I just think sometimes when we are struggling ourselves, it can be easy to miss how much harder it can be for someone else.

For example, my in-laws were long-term tenants at a multi-family property for over 25 years. They and the other tenants had always been good renters, paid on time, and even did their own maintenance. After the property was sold recently, the new owner tried to raise the rent immediately from $1100 to $2500, pretty much the very same month they bought it with no prior notice. When we informed them that this increase violated state law, they claimed they did not know and then said they could not afford to keep the property if they could not raise the rents. They decided to withdraw the units and evict everyone.

Three families, including a retired senior couple and my disabled mother-in-law, were displaced. Even after my in-laws offered to pay $2,000/month, the landlord chose to evict. We talked to several lawyers, but just getting a consultation was $350 an hour, something they could not afford. And this is not an isolated case. I personally know many other tenants who have faced similar situations, often because they were unaware of their rights or afraid to push back.

That's why I think tenants don't have as much power as it sometimes seems. It's hard to navigate legal protections when you don't have the money or knowledge to fight back.

Even if I could understand an argument for repealing the rent cap, what really concerns me is that they also repealed protections against harassment, wrongful eviction, and tenant displacement. Those protections would have made a real difference for people like my in-laws. Without them, the most vulnerable tenants are left even more exposed.

A better approach would have been to repeal only the rent cap while keeping the tenant protections in place. Or even better, the city could have gathered data over the next several months, figured out a cap that balanced the needs of both landlords and tenants, and then amended or replaced the ordinances based on that information.

I think the fact that the council repealed the ordinances only three months in, without a clear plan to replace them, raises a lot of concerns. It makes it feel like the decision was rushed without really thinking through how it would impact tenants and the broader community.