The topic of Rent-Control has always been a topic that has evaded me before reading these articles. What struck me, in particular, was the contrasting views that the Furman Center for Real Estate and Urban Policy presented and W. Dennis Keating’s Rent Control: Its Origins, History, and Controversies. Keating’s work outlines the controversy over Rent Control while the Furman Center stresses the importance of Rent Stabilization in New York City.  One of the arguments for rent control that Keating attacked was that many low-income tenants cannot afford market regulated rents (11).  According to to the data provided by the Furman Center,  in NYC “stabilized units are home to lower-income households than market-rate units” (3).  Keating contested that the influence of rent-control on low-income tenants was ultimately unclear.  He cited a 1987 study of Santa Monica’s renter population that I found insightful. The study concluded that while low-income renters benefited from rent-control, it did not inhibit the trend of decline of black and Latino tenants.

Where Keating cites studies to reinforce the arguments against rent-control, the Furman Center provides data and charts to show the demographic characteristics of Rent-Stabilized Units. I found some parallels between the two works but found it ultimately difficult to develop my own definitive opinion of rent-regulated housing. However, I believe that the presence of Rent-Stabilized Units in NYC serves as a crutch that the city depends on. As of 2011, Rent-regulated units represented 47 percent of the city’s rental housing stock which shows that it comprises a large part of the city’s housing stock. While the long-term influence of low-income and minority tenants might be unclear as Keating cited, this does not change the fact that in 2008, 52 percent of rent-stabilized households were nonwhite as exhibited by Table F of the Furman Center’s fact brief. I wonder how the role of rent-regulated units differs among different cities as of 2018 and how this translates to the argument of its overall effectiveness.