ABSTRACT
Rent control has been a mechanism cities have used periodically in the past to deal with the socioeconomic problems of housing costs. The fact that rent controls significantly outlasted general price controls in many areas attests to some of the peculiar aspects of housing which create the need for special consumer protection. On equity and efficiency grounds, critics of rent control often contend that a program of direct rent subsidies for tenants in need of special protection would be a preferable approach to the problem of housing cost. A related concern, with regard to equity and efficiency, is the distribution of housing space effected by a rent control system. Critics of rent control argue that by reducing incentives for new housing construction, rent control intensifies the very housing shortage it was designed to alleviate. To the extent that any system of housing controls can facilitate the needed changes in the housing system, its social utility is that much enhanced.
