To the Editor:
We used to live in a rent controlled building. Everyone in the building had bedbugs. Five visits by the exterminator provided by the landlord only made the situation worse. We had to grease up the whole floor with cooking oil so that the bugs couldn’t bite us in bed. Private exterminators told me that the entire building needed a thorough treatment but the landlord refused to do this. The ceiling in our bathroom leaked a lot of water from the gentleman upstairs when he took a shower. The super refused to respond to our requests for service. Our rent was $825 a month, and the city of Bayonne’s representative, whom I shall not name, would get on the phone with the landlord and speak with him like he was a long lost friend! Although the landlord is probably a wealthy man indeed, he is first a businessman, and a businessman is less prone to repair a domicile when there are limited profits involved. If he cannot raise the rents of at least the renters who are living there, he may look at it like he is not in the charity business. Conversely, who in their right mind would buy a building knowing that they cannot raise the rents? The answer is quite simple. It’s some cretin who doesn’t want to get involved in maintaining the building. That’s the sad truth. If one wants rent control in Bayonne, make sure that the Housing Division of the Fire Department is prepared to confront renters’ complaints quickly and efficiently, or else, as is the case, let’s do away with rent control, I guess.
PETE A. DEMATTEO