I’m haunted by an online post I saw recently. A young woman said she’d been homeless for months and living in her car. She had lost her apartment because she couldn’t afford it. “Yes, I’m working,” she informed readers. A Good Samaritan had given her a camper shell, and she found a place to park it but needed help with the move.

In the furor over homelessness, let’s remember that this category includes regular people who simply can’t afford any rentals that might be available. In the parallel furor over affordable housing, consider the bigger picture.

Rentals are now an industry. Forget your friendly local landlords. In recent years out-of-state companies have bought up properties of all kinds and raised rents — 20% in 2022. Whether the renters could afford that hike is of no concern to them because somebody will pay the price. I saw this in action with a family member who shared a run-down house near UNM with fellow students.

It’s a national trend. With the consolidation of housing stock ownership came automation of property management, wrote an investigative reporter in Harper’s Magazine. Now faceless management companies rent the units, collect money, and may or may not maintain the property. Renters who fall behind hear from an attorney who specializes in evictions; investors and property managers don’t have to be involved in the messy part of the business.

This industry model thrives in an unbalanced market — too many renters, too few rental units. What else thrives? Homeless camps.

New Mexico legislators have passed some creative bills to stimulate construction of affordable housing, but this doesn’t help somebody who needs a place to live now. We should also note that lawmakers killed a rent-control bill, knowing that it discourages new building.

There’s more that government can do to help balance the market. Create tax incentives for homeowners who convert space to rental units or to property owners who convert derelict buildings. Streamline regulatory approvals for builders of affordable housing. Require owners to maintain their properties. And offer mediation between owners and tenants to avoid eviction.

Here’s a development we’re likely to see more. 

Last week tenants sued owners of the troubled La Vista Del Rio Apartments in Española to “stop illegal rent increases and evictions, and enforce the affordable housing requirements at the property, including making necessary repairs to keep the housing safe and habitable,” according to a news release from the New Mexico Center on Law and Poverty, which is representing tenants along with the National Housing Law Project.

In their federal lawsuit, tenants said the out-of-state owner collected millions in rent and federal subsidies but denied requests for maintenance and security. Last year the U.S. Department of Agriculture allowed the apartments to leave a federal loan program that provides affordable housing in rural areas. The owner then sold the complex to investors and evicted 121 tenants.

The same company is the target of another tenant lawsuit for failing to maintain the Santa Clara Apartments, Española’s only other affordable housing complex, which led the city to condemn the building. When apartments like these close, however dilapidated they’ve become, tenants have no place to go.

Española isn’t unique. Housing is a troubling issue across the state. 

Which raises a question. New affordable housing will enter the market in the future. How do we assure that it stays affordable? How do we see that owners care for the property? After all, tenants of La Vista Del Rio and the Santa Clara and probably even the owner hailed the original agreements as a win for everyone. What happened?

Lawsuits always complicate open discussions, but these two might teach us a useful lesson.