Today’s Chronicle carried an op-ed on the topic of City Council’s plan to fine the owners of apartment complexes that suffer from too much crime. The point writer Teresa Lowery makes is that the costs incurred will increase rental prices, thereby impacting Houston’s affordable housing market:
Even if the apartment owner is a faceless institution, it is not immune to simple math. The apartment owner who is required to make significant capital improvements and maintain a large force of security personnel will have greater expenses that must be covered by rent revenues. The rent situation is complex and the upward pressure on rents is multi-faceted.
The crime ordinance is not the only thing that will force rent increases in Houston apartments. In the aftermath of the hurricane devastation on the Gulf Coast in 2005, insurance companies have imposed very large increases on apartment landlords.
Insurance for apartments has more than doubled in many cases. The new insurance policies often carry higher deductibles and more risk for the landlords.
With insurance costs rising and the impact of the crime ordinance looming, apartment rents in Houston are going to rise significantly. This will diminish one of our city’s greatest assets — affordable housing.
[snip]
When the evacuees arrived in Houston, the Houston apartment community responded like the rest of the city — by opening our arms, hearts and doors to the victims of this most horrible natural disaster. If a small segment of the evacuees is responsible for an increase in crime, as the police claim, then one must ask why the landlords are now being criticized. One could reasonably argue that the apartment landlords should be praised for reaching out to evacuees, instead of being subjected to laws that make it harder to realize a profit.
The debate over this ordinance has successfully shifted the focus away from HPD’s manpower shortage onto apartment owners who responded to the city’s request to take in Katrina evacuees. It doesn’t seem fair, but in the end, apartment owners will pass the costs on in the form of rent increases.
