LETTER: Landlord rights

This letter is in response to Tuesday’s article (“Renters can get free eviction help”) about a nonprofit law firm in Las Vegas that advises tenants who are facing eviction.

The article points out that evictions “cause homelessness, and have been linked to health problems, job loss and the disruption of children’s education.” While this may or may not be true, it is not the responsibility of the landlord for those issues. Landlords have a responsibility to provide livable housing for which they are to be compensated. The concern of a nonprofit such as this is to punish or harm landlords by allowing non-paying or problem tenants to stay in their homes or apartments longer than they should.

The examples given in the article, in which governments allocate funding to ensure every tenant facing eviction is guaranteed legal representation, are San Francisco and New York. Those cities are two of the highest-priced rental markets in the country because of the many regulations. That includes strict rent control laws that continually hurt both the tenant and the landlord.

We do not want to become California or New York.