Many smart people are trying to fix the problem but solutions have been elusive. Why haven’t we gotten stronger tenants laws? near everyone hates landlords so shouldn’t that be a popular law to pass? We need stronger measures to police bad landlords. That might help offset the negative affects of rent controls. If you want to get involved this is something good to advocate for. It is an issue that is constantly discussed here in pittsburgh. Oakland student slums and Larimar absentee landlords and abandoned housing in the hill are some topics I’ve heard of.

you addressed that rent controls disincentivize construction of new housing and you mentioned government funded housing to fill the void. One issue with that is government built housing has been some of the worst maintained housing in the city of Pittsburgh and most projects older than that from 70s are simply being torn down and being replaced with smaller amounts of housing like the terraces in the hill district. The federal housing agency is known as one of the most corrupt and poorly run government agencies for handing out sweetheart contracts to political buddys. the housing they build tends to end up more expensive than the housing private developers build on their own.

So after all that is said and done, the simplest solution is to build more housing in neighborhoods where people want to live and that have good transit to jobs. I’m very much in favor of cracking down on bad landlords and the government filling the void with new housing but I’ve lost most faith in the government properly policing landlords and construction contractors so I’d rather focus on supporting more housing in the right places. That’s just my opinion on the issue lately

Thank you for including the link, after giving it a read here are my thoughts. The researchers seemed to have analyzed their data on the rent control methods alone. While this made for good take aways on the effects in some areas and the differences in the method, I feel it didn't do enough to highlight how the landlords themselves let it fail. No measure to reform exists in a vacuum and when they put the rent control measures into effect I dont feel enough was done to punish landlords that let rent controlled units fall into decay. Or where the forprotfits moved nothing came to fill the void, non-profit or government funded.

With that said I don't think building more housing is a problem, but I dont think it is the only answer and it bothers me that the idea of holding landlords responsible for price gouging isnt heavily considered.

Housing should have never been made for profit, but since it is and that is nearly impossible to change, it should be regulated to a degree that means it is a safe, but NOT exponential investment.