Oh, the frenzy

Unfortunately, there haven't been a lot of 'blog-worthy' topics/events occuring in my life recently, so I've been sadly negligent about adding updates and the like. Tonight, even though I'm dead tired after riding to and from ultimate practice, I am fired up enough to write a quick entry. In fact, I am writing this after firing off 3 letters: one to my MLA, one to the provincial government and a short one to Global News.

There is a frenzy going on in Edmonton regarding rent increases and rent control. Rent prices have been spirally steadily upward over the past 6 months, due to high demand and, in my opinion, landlord greed. This week, the Alberta government implemented some legislation regarding rent increases, which mostly stated that rent can only be increased once a year (no cap on the amount it can be increased). Unfortunately (or stupidly) the government didn't implement these new policies immediately, allowing a number of rental agencies to print out letters detailing HUGE rent increases in the days before the policies went officially into legislation. For example, a couple of my friends are having their rents increased by 100$ and 120$, from an original 650$ and 920$, respectively. This is greater than a 10% increase! I don't understand where landlords think tenants are going to find this extra money? An extreme example in the news described someone's rent going from 650$/month to 1000$/month. That's a 350$ increase!

I am aware that property taxes have increased in Edmonton, however I feel that the increases in rent are driven more by greed than cost recovery. I understand that a free market dictates that the landlords should be able to charge that which the market can bear, but at what cost to the renters? Will all of us students have to move into the ghetto and commute an hour plus each day on the terrible Edmonton transit system? It just seems ridiculous!

I could go on in a similar vein for awhile more, but I will spare you all, as I'm sure you understand the gist of my rant. I haven't heard from my landlord yet about changes to my rent, but probably will by the end of the month, and I'm hoping my landlord falls into the category of 'reasonable' and 'not greedy' so that I won't have to move. But if it goes up too much, I will not let The Man suck me dry. I will move and share a place with other grad students who are in a similar situation, splitting the rent to manage the costs.

The contents of this blog entry were contained in my letters to the government and my Liberal MLA, although with much less exclamation marks and with more facts, figures and formal speech. I'll have to see what sort of replies I get!