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To the Editor, Asbury Park Sun:

This is in response to the December 16, 2021 TriCityNews article “Economic And Political Time Bomb In Asbury Park.”

On April 20, 2021 a vote was held on a petition for rent control. The Mayor and Council rejected the petition before it went to vote for several reasons. A primary reason was that it would have been impossible to amend any shortcomings for three years without another ballot initiative. At the time, Dan Jacobson called me a housing expert.

Now he characterizes the council fulfilling our promise to tweak the ordinance based on further research and feedback as a TIME BOMB all in capital letters in the headline, bemoans that the issue is “coming back,” and says the council doesn’t understand economics.

The issue of affordable housing and rent control addressed in this ordinance isn’t “coming back.” It never went away, and won’t. Because here’s one thing I understand about economics. A handful of people are doing very well, and a lot of people are struggling. I see it every day in the work I do as a housing attorney who represents people who can’t afford an attorney. Which is the credential that led him to classify me as a housing expert.

Furthermore, there are three crucial points that were wrong in the rent control editorial last week.

1. Jacobson recommends, as part of “a compromise,” that we reduce the number of units included in rent control to 3 or 4 from 5. In fact, that’s exactly what the amendments to the ordinance already propose.

2. He says every other town in the state uses the Consumer Price Index as the basis for yearly increases, implying that we’re doing something crazy. 50 municipalities with rent control do base it on CPI, and 51 do not. Among those 51 that do not, the set percent is anywhere from 2% to 6%. Our 3.5 % is close to the middle of that range. It is not some number we pulled out of thin air as Jacobson suggested.

3. He says we should not create a new rent registration requirement for each unit. That requirement was there all along. What we’re doing is specifying required information because we need to be able to contact the relevant parties and keep proper track of base rents, among other relevant information.

I was disappointed to read scare tactics in the editorial. Federally funded senior housing is specifically exempt. A large portion of rental properties in Asbury Park are owned by individual landlords who own individual condos or single family homes. None of this applies to them either.

I was also disappointed by the suggestion that we haven’t studied this matter carefully. When have you known this council to do anything without talking both to the experts and the people directly affected?

Anyway, I’m Amy Quinn, and here to help.

Amy Quinn, Deputy Mayor, City of Asbury Park

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