Is enough really enough? Local elites have a slogan for their campaigns against progressive policies: “Enough is enough.” Sen. Bernie Sanders used the slogan to criticize a system “rigged in favor of the wealthy and powerful” in 2015. Local reforms in Portland have been met with vehement reactions from powerful groups that have turned a slogan of working-class resistance into a battle cry of the elites.

Now one of these groups seeks to roll back tenant protections. Allowing landlords to raise rents after voluntary turnovers creates a bad incentive. As lots are developed or redeveloped they increase in value, as do surrounding lots. Landlords seek to capture the difference between present and increased value – what some economists call the “rent gap” – through higher rents, even if they’ve made no improvements to their particular lot. The more the gap increases, the less attractive it is to maintain good conditions for current tenants at lower rents. An incentive creeps in to gently encourage turnover, typically by withholding improvements and maintenance until frustrated tenants “voluntarily” vacate. Rent control prevents this while allowing landlords to petition to recoup improvement costs. Question A would break rent control.

Private ownership of a social commodity means that homes for human beings also serve as a means of private accumulation for landlords. The fact that they seek to increase rents during a homelessness crisis reveals the truth. Enough will never be enough for them.

Vote “no” on Question A.

James Buzzell
Portland