Los Angeles wants to tax landlords for vacant units

The Democrats/Left just never learn do they. So they want to tax vacant units which are already costing the owners money so than means they will have to raise rent on other units making them even more unaffordable.

"All of this foolishness is in response to the city being embarrassed by the fact that although the city and county spent nearly $600 million last year to combat homelessness, the number of transients shot up 16 percent to 60,000 people."

"City Councilmen Mike Bonin, Marqueece Harris-Dawson, Paul Koretz and David Ryu have asked city staffers to come up with a plan for an “empty homes penalty” or vacancy tax.

“No bed in this city should be empty when people are being forced to sleep on pavement. … Empty-home penalties encourage landlords to keep people housed, and they help raise needed funds to create more affordable housing. This is an important tool for addressing one of the root causes of homelessness in L.A., and it is a step we desperately need to take,” Bonin said."

Well yes a home can be empty if the owner wants it empty for whatever reason.

"Property owners are already operating vacant units at a loss because they pay property taxes, special assessments, mortgages and regular upkeep, but derive no income from them. Now you want to add to their losses. How does this lead to more affordable housing for Los Angeles?

Additionally, property owners say rental units usually sit empty when they are being sold or prepared for a major renovation (which can take years, given L.A.’s draconian permitting process). Both of these activities are good for neighborhoods and the tax pool."
https://www.dailynews.com/2019/06/19/los-angeles-wants-to-tax-landlords-for-vacant-units/

They create these problems and then think they can bail themselves out on other peoples money and property.

 

Can you post the article? The Daily News requires a subscription to read this.

 

It's kinda like the city is scapegoating property owners for the city's failure where homelessness is concerned.

It's not the fault of property owners that there's homeless people, and they shouldn't have to pay for it.

There's no legit reason to tax empty private space. It's not generating profit for the owner, and it's consuming little to no utilities.

This looks to me like a simple case of government being out of control and attempting to do unjustifiable things because it can.

 

The same laws are in the UK. It's ridiculous. To escape the payment landlords just demolished the buildings. No business rates on open land. It was then up to the local council to prosecute the landlord fur demolishing without permission. And the fine was less than the tax that would have been paid so it made it worthwhile for landlord to demolish. London ended up with many barren eyesores

 

Liberals are like my homeowners association:

They fined my neighbor $50 for having a few weeds in the landscaping in front of his house. So instead of weeding, he just took out all of the landscaping. Now he has his lawn right up to the front of his house.

No landscaping. No weeds. No fines.

Liberals always over regulate.

 

Some states used to tax each closet in a house. Designers drew up houses without closets. People had remodelers take closets out of their houses.

Steel wall lockers and German style schranks were in high demand to replace closets.

Personal property tax? Buy less, have less, get taxed less.

High income tax? Do less, earn less, get taxed less.

 

Again, I'm not sure I understand the goal here...

Is the goal to force owners to let bums stay in their homes for free?

Or are they trying to force owners to drop the prices below the point of profitability?

 

Democrats are insane

 

The root cause for homelessness in L.A. is illegals with anchor babies taking up all the government housing. I suspect they are not worried about the homeless, but are worried more about illegals not having shelter.
Absolutely no homeless Hispanics or blacks, or asians for that matter in my town. We have lots and lots of old Asians here that should be living with the people who sponsored their immigration, but instead they are living in subsidized housing. Nope, all the homeless here are white males with a few older white females.

 

LA city council demonstrating once again they are entirely stupid. I don't miss being there at all...

 

No can do. Rental properties are very expensive to maintain.

Get a professional burn man, burn it down, collect the insurance, never invest in rental property again -- or just let it decay, don't pay the taxes, let the county have it, then the bums will move in and make it a crash/drug pad.

 

Didn't for me and we are limited to how much of an article we can copy and paste here.

 

And they already pay for those utilities and pay property taxes.

 

There are 2 issues that have produced a crisis in California as well as several other areas [Honolulu/ Seattle]. The sheer number of homeless in Los Angeles is like nothing we have ever seen before. I worked in 'Skidrow' for several years some time back and was overwhelmed by the poverty/ substance abuse/ untreated mental illness. Now there are homeless encampments scattered around the city including Venice Beach and nearby Orange county [Santa Ana/ San Clemente]. The city and state are trying to resolve this humanitarian crisis. Forcing landlords to rent their houses/ apartments or face fines sounds a bit extreme but the need for housing is critical.

 

"Los Angeles wants to tax landlords for vacant units"

would regular people be taxed for a vacant house?

 

Isn't the intent to make the landlords lower the rent and allow some of the full time working homeless to be able to afford the out of control housing costs???

 

Seems a tax break for housing the homeless would be more effective.

 

Perhaps you could get the ultra rich folks in LA to agree to repricing all of their valuable real estate so the cost wouldn't be so astronomically high? Think they'd go for that? I bet Jane wouldn't mind if her 10 million dollar estate were revalued at say... 150K... Now, that's rent control folks. Who will the first adopters from Hollywood be to demonstrate their resolve??

 

SF was talking about something similar. Doesn’t make much sense to me, but something has to be done about the housing costs around here. I’m skeptical this is a helpful solution though.

 

You realize the value is what someone will pay for it right? Not some imaginary number lol

 

From a personal perspective BOTH!

 

Oh so now you're complimenting them, shame on you!

 

"City Councilmen Mike Bonin, Marqueece Harris-Dawson, Paul Koretz and David Ryu have asked city staffers to come up with a plan for an “empty homes penalty” or vacancy tax.

“No bed in this city should be empty when people are being forced to sleep on pavement. …

Do any of them have guest rooms?

 

Thread winner

 

Worked fine for me, after I just closed down the subscription cookie