Rent stabilization: ‘We are the good guys here’

Re: “We’re landlords and we agree with rent stabilization” (March 21, Opinion):

The op-ed from landlords declaring opposition to House Bill 1217 as coming from “rent gouging” small-scale landlords is unfair. We are a retired public health nurse and a retired nonprofit manager, now on fixed incomes. We were able to buy the houses on either side of our home in White Center 25 years ago.

Our tenants have been in these homes for over 20 years, and our rents continue to be 20%-25% below market. We subsidize these homes to keep them safe and clean, and our tenants have become good friends. Every Wednesday, we all sit around a campfire with our neighbors and celebrate.

For legislators to tell us that as small-scale landlords, we must limit rent increases to 7%, when property taxes alone went up 14% this year, is an insult. One of us has early-onset Alzheimer’s disease, and we could be facing needed in-home care. Taking away our ability to raise rents to market rate as our health declines is cruelty. We are the good guys here, even if this legislation is treating us like price-gouging criminals. Excluding “mom and pop” landlords like us from this legislation is the right thing to do.

Mark L. Ufkes and Lois A. Schipper, Seattle