Rent Control

Regarding Rent-Control Letters in your Feb. 2 issue: It is totally understandable that people want rents they can afford to pay. It is also important to understand that rental property owners are neither arms of the government nor servants of the state and the government does not own or pay for their property.

If more affordable public housing is what is wanted, then the public should seek it through the government, not mom-and-pop landlords. Mom and pop have to pay mortgages, taxes on the property and the income and pay for maintenance and improvements and maybe a manager and then hope to net some income after all that.

Private citizens cannot afford to subsidize rents. Who is going to buy rental property and run it at a loss as a public service?