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John Reed

It's A Long Term Decision

Updated: Jun 17

Hi, John Reed here, with a pitch for taking a balanced approach to the current housing situation. As many of you know, I voted to augment the California rent control laws to encourage both sides to discuss their differences and concerns through a mediation process. Any dispute is always a balancing act between the needs of the parties, and sometimes it’s hard to see it from the other side.


For years, while I was on the council, I argued that a very good solution to keeping our community healthy, was to encourage affordable small rental units, granny units that fit the character of Fairfax, and that those would help to keep our community members here. Kind of a carrot (rather than a stick) approach, because as we know, providing housing is an optional choice. Nobody can force someone to be in the business of providing housing, especially if they are going to lose money doing it. They will just choose not to do that. So, It has been somewhat disturbing to me, along with several other council members I imagine, to see what we worked for many years to create all go up in smoke.


Providing housing, especially affordable housing that fits into our community, is an inherently long-term decision. For providers, this decision is not taken lightly, because it affects lives, living situations, and quality of life. It’s also tied in with economics, and plans for how to grow old safely in place, with a horizon of 20 years or more. The decision to open your house and provide housing for others is a really big one. It needs to be done thoughtfully and with careful consideration. With this in mind,  I , along with many other council members, encouraged people to take this step , because we thought it would be good for the community, and provide affordable housing for many of our community members.


The Democratic Socialist Party had an idea that would both elevate their own profile, and promote their philosophy that housing should be provided as a right, and lobbied the Fairfax Council to rush through a one sided piece of legislation. There was very little input or even awareness from the “mom and pop” provider community.  The somewhat reactionary approach that the Council took after listening to this campaign was both depressing and alarming. Rather than a carrot approach, it’s the stick approach. They adopted a seasoned tenant activist’s recommendation wholesale without any input or stabilizing factors from the providers’ viewpoint. While it has the potential to work out well for a privileged few lucky tenants, what it mainly does is skew the delicate balance of needs in a way that will result in a dramatic reduction of rentals available .


  I know so many people who have lost their housing and moved away, or are looking and not being able to find anything.  Many of them are older, or disabled, and find that the “protection“ deemed for their category of tenants (under the “just cause” regulations) mean that younger and upwardly mobile tenants are the ones that get chosen. At the same time I’m seeing long-term rental houses being put up for sale, or just kept empty, or turned into Airbnb units. I’ve talked to many owners who, having been encouraged to provide second units, feel that they have now had the rug pulled out from under them. Some of them convert the unit to an office. Some of them just up and sell their house, because what they thought was going to be a place where they could grow old , and have a place for a caregiver or family member to stay, was threatened. Just the idea of perhaps making a mistake in who to rent to, coming back to haunt them for years, in their own house, kept them from taking the scary step of taking that risk. It unfortunately doesn’t take a lot of imagination to see how the present situation can be abused.


There are other ways to resolve disputes than create an expensive bureaucracy and regulatory system. How about a moderator that encourages both sides to listen and work together? There are always going to be both “landlords from hell”, as well as “tenants from hell”. Why not create (in a way that is hard to abuse), a forum where people repeatedly unable to positively work out problems in the above mentioned moderator process, get mentioned as those who it might be better to avoid? We are a small town, where traditionally people have worked out their problems in a humane way. Most people want and enjoy a good experience, and treat each other accordingly. Instead of drawing battle lines, and writing laws that reinforce those battles, let’s figure out ways of positively working together.

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