Word: landlords
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Paul Walkins, a landlord and member of the tent board said last night he thought the "vast Majority" of Tenants would pay the increase...
...facet of rent control's administration which both reports miss is the fact that it is biased against the small landlord. The large landlord who owns a number of properties has the money and know-how to get the most out of rent control; the live-in owner of one or two buildings may not. Furthermore, present rent rates in Cambridge are based on 1967 rates which tend to be higher in buildings owned by large landlords, both because they were more attuned to what the going rates were, and because owner-occupiers often rent at reduced rates to friends...
Then there's the issue of rent control and its effect on housing quality. The Sternlieb report makes a strong argument that landlords, confronted with stable rents and rising costs, are cutting back on their only variable-maintenance costs. Mortgage payments and taxes are by far the greatest costs for landlords, and are almost entirely beyond their control. The margin left for maintenance is never a large one, but with inflation (especially in heating fuel) and rent control, it may be non-existent. With a housing stock such as Cambridge's, consisting largely of older buildings, maintenance costs are substantial...
Both reports also fail to realize that rent control affects different areas differently. Harvard Square is much better able to absorb rent control because of the cushion provided by high rents. In Central Square, however, the landlord's profit margin is much thinner, and as a less affluent area, its housing deteriorates much more quickly with any cutbacks on maintenance. Ironically, rent control is hurting most the very groups it was designed to aid-the lower-income group tenant...
Nevertheless, Jacobs is backing Papp's efforts; this season the Shubert organization gave Papp's off-off-Broadway Public Theater $150,000 to present ten new playwrights. The grants reflect the change in Shubert, the multimillion-dollar real-estate empire. As landlord of 16% Broadway houses, it was for decades a powerful and increasingly neglectful influence. In 1972, Broadway's blackest year, Shubert was hit hard. It even seemed likely that many Broadway houses would be replaced by office buildings but for the kind of chance known as "actor's luck"; the theater slump had coincided...