Regarding the front-page article about rent increases (“Cost of living, rents on rise, straining many Clark County residents,” The Columbian, Feb. 8): In the mere seven years the Zoriches have lived in their manufactured home, they have seen their rent hiked by 287 percent. Meanwhile, inflation has increased 24 percent. Of course they can’t keep up.
I’ve owned my home only slightly longer than the Zoriches and have seen my mortgage payment increase by only a fraction of what they have, mainly due to increased property taxes and insurance. I have owned rental properties in the past and currently own some land and, yes, taxes and insurance increase over time but certainly not by the exhortationlike rapacious rates they and many other renters are experiencing.
We are being told by the investment entities who own the land on which mobile and manufactured homes sit that it’s taxes and insurance costs that are driving up rental prices. I don’t buy those specious statements. It’s a fraudulent tactic that erroneously shifts the blame in order to facilitate legalized theft while leaving many quite literally on the street. When are we as a society going to wake up from our stupor and shut down this miserable heartless crime?
