The paper, “Discussion on Rent Control: Its Role as a Public Benefit and its (In)effectiveness as a Tool to Maintain Affordable Housing,” by Joseph Lewis, won the 2016 Law Student Writing Competition. Lewis is a student at the University of San Francisco School of law. This is the latest and perhaps the most exhaustively researched paper I have seen yet on the subject.

Lewis concludes, “A study of the economics of rent control illustrated not only the short-term advantages of creating affordable housing that can’t be built ad hoc, but also a path likely to greatly diminish a city’s housing stock in the long term.”

Even though rent control has not yet gone into effect in Richmond, it is having a negative effect on the potential for additional housing development. A tour assembled by the Bay Area Council to meet with Richmond Planning and Economic Development teams on November 16 to discuss development opportunities in the City of Richmond, including a tour of some of the many development sites in the City, was canceled because of concern about Rent Control and Just Cause as well as the pending RPA control of the City Council.

The tour was intended to bring five residential real estate developers to highlight three to five development opportunity sites in the City – both along our shoreline and in transit areas. It was also seen as a good chance to change regional perceptions of Richmond and share the up-sides for developing in the city. Rent Control and Just Cause has changed all that.

Richmond Development Tour: CANCELED
November 16 @ 9:00 am - 12:00 pm

The Bay Area Council is hosting a tour of Richmond. Save the date for a meeting with Richmond Mayor Tom Butt and his Planning and Economic Development teams to discuss development opportunities in the City of Richmond. The meeting will be followed by a tour of some of the may development site in the City.