As College Park landlords fight the city’s proposed rent control ordinance, saying they will no longer be able to afford basic upkeep, some students argue this is irrelevant when landlords don’t properly maintain their property as it is.
“We’ve seen our landlord once, and she never fixed anything,” said Silas Pugatch, a senior government and politics major who lives near the College Park Metro Station and supports the cap.
The College Park City Council stated in its “rent stabilization” plan released at a worksession Tuesday night that rent control will “strengthen College Park neighborhoods by reducing the number of single-family homes that are rental properties.”
Lisa Miller, president of the Prince George’s County Property Owners Association, said the city is attempting to push students out of the neighborhoods and into apartment complexes such as University View.
“The real purpose of rent control is to reduce student housing; students don’t understand that,” Miller said. “Initially, the lower prices may look really bright and cheap, but five years down the line when the houses are so bad no one wants to buy them — then what? There won’t be any more rental units and students will be forced to go live in those expensive high rises.”
Landlords in the city already have a lawyer and plan to sue the city after the proposal is presented at a public hearing, Miller said.
“We’re building a lot more housing closer to campus so that students can make a choice whether to live in nice apartments or live in dumps — we’re not pushing them out of the neighborhoods,” said District 2 Councilman Bob Catlin. “But by putting more attractive options that students are willing to pay for, the economics of the situation will cause a lot of landlords to give up.”
Dan Koepke, a senior physics major who lives in a house on Knox Road, said he’d prefer the city focus on enforcing maintenance rather than lowering rent.
“People don’t have a problem with the rent in general; it’s what they are getting for that rent,” Koepke said.
Meredith Stanton, a senior journalism major, agreed she would rather pay more to live in a nicer place than pay to live in what she deemed a “slum.”
