Bill Lauer writes on the Apartment Association email discussion group:
I was having breakfast with a friend familiar with landlord issues and we were agreeing that in this business, our tenants are our customers, low vacancy rates are cyclical, and things always change.“The enemy of my customer is my enemy”. The issues that conflict with my customer buying more product are issues that I need to be concerned about.In the rental housing industry the issues that cause my tenant to not pay rent, are my issues too. We are joined at the hip. To think otherwise is foolish.
I have thought about this often from a political perspective.
Why are the Democrats typically the political polar opposite to providers of lower cost housing and the Republicans often more supportive of our issues? Every proposal that increases costs or decreases competition in that market adversely impacts the lower income residents, a constituency the the Dems purport to be theirs. If you think about it the Dems should be the allies of rental housing.
A decade or so ago I hired former Governor Schreiber to represent the Association at the statehouse. More than a few people thought I lost my mind. But it was a good choice as he understood the dynamics of the market and could explain to other Democrats how our bill was good for the lower income families. We succeeded with a major piece of legislation at a time that even Green Bay Packer stadium financing was at a stalemate.
Tim Ballering
