Where are the rental rate caps in Summit County? Everyone wants to put their two cents into our housing crisis debate, but it seems like we’re all skirting around the real problem with short-term rental regulation and affordable housing development bandaids (when a more tangible solution is being ignored). 

The County understands the blatant discrepancy between wages and living costs, so shouldn’t this core issue be the core of the solution? When you calculate average wages of renting residents, it’s glaringly obvious that no one should spend more than about $900/month on housing in order to comfortably live here. This type of proposal would lead to affordable monthly rental caps that equate to $900 for a studio, $1,200-ish for a one bedroom, $1,800 for a two bedroom, $2,700 for a three bedroom, etc.

If Summit County is “ground zero” for the housing crisis, then it’s on all of us (including Summit Daily and County officials) to be role models towards a more sustainable economic future. Anything and everything less than rental caps likely won’t be enough to solve this ongoing crisis, so it’s long been time for our community to firmly question its complicity when it comes to the livelihoods of our friends, neighbors and co-workers who are continually struggling to make ends meet. 

The most recent short-term rental regulations are a great start, but there will always be a housing crisis in Summit until we actually start talking about rental rate caps.