I was digging into the upcoming meeting of the Renters Commission on April 1 (ironic day for the meeting) at which the Commission will consider rent control. I don’t know what they have in mind but we opposed the creation of the Commission because we figured it would be simply a tax payer supported forum for, well, terrible ideas like rent control. I can’t imagine that the Renters Commission would consider the issue and then conclude rent control is a bad idea. We’ll see. while I was trying to see what the Commission had in store for the meeting an article from The Stranger earlier this month popped up in my search. The story was essentially an attempt to publicly shame three Democrats who voted against bad legislation that will simply make life more difficult for renters and landlords. One legislator quoted in the story, Representative Kristine Reeves made some very bold comments:

Her decision was largely influenced by conversations with her grandmother, an 88-year-old woman who used to rent out a duplex as part of her retirement plan. Reeves also mentioned a veteran in her district who told her that he supplements his income from the VA with money from renters.

“The assumption is that folks have the luxury of owning a piece of property for retiring, and that 14 days isn’t going to imperil them,” Reeves said. “But when you live paycheck to paycheck and someone chooses not to pay you—she [Reeve’s grandmother] didn’t have the luxury of coming up with the money.”

“She still has bills to pay. She’s not independently wealthy, and she doesn’t have a huge safety net to draw off of,” Reeves added, still referring to her grandmother. “What we’re doing is perpetuating a cycle of poverty for folks. That’s a cycle that I’m not interesting in perpetuating.”

I say these are bold comments because The Stranger sees itself as the arbiter of progressivism, a kind of ongoing inquisition of political correctness and lefty orthodoxy. But Reeves probably isn’t all that worried since her district is far outside the domain of The Stranger; in fact people her Federal Way district probably think The Stranger is a novel by Camus or someone that person they don’t recognize at Winco. I don’t think Reeves is too worried about The Strangers endorsement.

And when people don’t have to worry about pressure from the left, they tend to get clear headed about things like the rent and the challenges of managing rental property. So I took a moment to thank Representative Reeves.

Hello Representative Reeves,

I just read the article in The Stranger where you respond to criticism for your “No” vote.

Thank you for your vote and your brave comments.

We’ve been struggling against a dominant narrative that landlords are bad people, racist, and greedy simply because they rent their private property. As you stated so well, most people who rent their private property do so to earn a living. Managing property is work not just cashing checks.

I can say that your understanding is appreciated and a bright spot in an otherwise pretty dark time for those of us looking for solutions, fairness, and efficiency in the way we deal with housing issues.