Those Who Can, Do

To paraphrase George Bernard Shaw, “Those who can, do; those who can’t, try to control those who can.” Cea Weaver, a housing activists at New York’s Housing Justice for All is a prime example. Weaver has been a leading voice for tenant “protections” in New York, including a “rent stabilization” law—a euphemism for price controls—passed in 2019.

A landlord group—CHIP—recently released a video showing about 20,000 rent stabilized units that are vacant because of the 2019 law. CHIP argues that landlords can’t afford to repair the units because their income has been capped. Weaver responded by demonstrating her ignorance of economics:

Maybe landlords should take some of the tremendous amount of equity and value they have accrued via New York City real estate values and invest [it] back in the building, and rent out the unit or something, idk.

 In short, she suggests that property owners deplete their equity to pay for operating costs. This might work in the short-term, but eventually the equity will evaporate. And with rents capped, at some point in the future landlords will have no equity remaining and they will lack the funds to perform maintenance and repairs. Weaver hasn’t created a single housing unit, but she claims to know how to produce and operate rental housing. Weaver wants to expand the 2019 law, signaling that she doesn’t care if those 20,000 ever get back on the market.

New York City is facing a severe shortage of affordable housing for low-income households. Yest, Weaver is unwilling to consider returning a little freedom to landlords in an effort to increase the supply. Instead, she wants to control property owners.

When a housing activist shows little concern about increasing the supply of housing, we must question her motives. A housing supply shortage cannot be alleviated by making it financial suicide to produce more housing. Yet, financial suicide is what Weaver proposes.

Weaver—one of those who can’t produce housing—casually dismisses the claims made by landlords—those who can produce housing. Property owners, she says, “are people who have access to wealth and resources … who can take steps to alleviate this crisis.” Certainly, landlords often have access to resources, but they know better than Weaver when and how to use those resources.

That landlords may know more about producing housing is of no concern to Weaver and those who can’t. They think that they know best, and they are willing to use the coercive power of government to control those who can.