If there is one thing my long-suffering editor really likes, it is when I write an essay in which I rant on for a while before ultimately deciding that I don’t have an answer for the problem I posited (Ed: no, that’s not what I said). Upon reading a recent Colorado Politics story on “rent stabilization,” I find that I am again conflicted, as both sides present arguments that are both cogent and compelling.

A recent Denver rally encouraged folks to support local leaders that would reverse a ban on such rent controls in Colorado. Back in 1981, the Colorado state legislature passed a law that prevented local governments from implementing rent controls on private property. Rent controls currently exist in five states: New York, New Jersey, California, Oregon and Maryland, as well as in Washington DC. And on first blush, I readily see the appeal of such controls.

Housing prices are, well, crazy. Both home prices and rents have soared in recent years. Heck, I bought the house I live in now back in 1998, when I was a major in the Air Force. I paid around $225,000 and that seemed like a crazy amount to spend on a home. My late first wife and I were nervous, but plunked down a 20% down payment and moved in. Now, this same house is valued at more than $765,000, and that same 20% for money down would be $153,000. There is no way now, even as a retired lieutenant colonel, that I could afford to buy my own house in today’s market.

Rents have similarly raced upward, with a relatively small Colorado Springs apartment of approximately 850 square-feet costing an average of $1,465 per-month, more than my house payment. And yet that is a bargain compared to Denver, where the same apartment will likely cost you $1,879 per month, or just under $23,000 per-year, just for the rent.

So, what’s the problem and how do we fix it?

The answer to the first question is supply, and the answer to the second question is, I don’t know.

As noted in the CP article, rent controls can feel like a good solution, and my heart goes out to those people (the article contains many heartbreaking examples) who cannot afford housing. But rent controls are tricky things. The problem is that the forces that are pushing up housing costs are not also restrained by rent control laws. Landlords might find it easier to be rid of rent-controlled properties as they see their own costs rise. In some cases, as noted in CP, landlords will just convert their rentals to condos or similar structures.

So, cities like Denver and Colorado Springs need to build more housing that is affordable for more people. That is a very easy sentence to say but putting it into effect is more difficult. Here in Colorado Springs, there is construction all over the place, and each new home and apartment complex puts additional strain on city resources, especially water.

Now, I am fully aware that it is quite easy for me to sit here in my comfy home and pronounce what others in crisis should do. Recently, there was a proposal to build a large apartment complex not far from my home. Though I personally had no problem with it, as it would have added a couple hundred rental properties to the local market, others in the area rose up and fought back at the planning commission, ultimately getting the development canceled. The opponents argued that the local roads and infrastructure of the area could not support that many new folks. Though other Colorado Springs new constructions have been approved, the one in my back yard didn’t make it.

So, supply appears to be key, and in the absence of adequate supply, wouldn’t rent controls help those in need find affordable housing in the mean time? Well, maybe. But I also learned from the CP article that in San Francisco, a Stanford professor’s study of that city’s rent controls showed that the limits on rent eventually backfired, with an increase in neighborhood gentrification, the opposite of the intentions of rent control.

Once again, I end a column with only questions and no real answers. My heart is with the rent-control efforts, but absent other work on supply – and maybe something to help landlords who might own properties with controlled rents but with other rising costs unregulated – I have trouble with the concept. The evidence seems to show that rent controls haven’t worked terribly well unless, of course, you are one of the people getting a lower rent locked in. In those cases, it works just fine.

Urban planning is both complex and complicated. And perhaps some form of limited rent controls, for a limited period of time, might be a compromise that could work. But unless we address the larger issues pushing housing prices skyward, we may be jousting at windmills.

Hal Bidlack is a retired professor of political science and a retired Air Force lieutenant colonel who taught more than 17 years at the U.S. Air Force Academy in Colorado Springs.