Carmel reader applauds legislature’s approach to lack of housing options

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Dear Editor:

As a recent college graduate, renting was the only reasonable housing option after graduation. Doing so in Carmel allowed me to be close to my family without losing my independence.

However in the past few years, Carmel has attempted to make renting more difficult. Rental availability is not the enemy of homeownership. Early in your career, renting is practically mandatory. Later, renting in a community is how people decide whether they want to stay there long enough to buy. Shrink the rental supply in Carmel and you do not just inconvenience renters, you shrink the pool of future buyers who put down roots here in the first place.

I enjoyed reading Marcy DeShong’s recent piece shining a light on these misguided policies. Carmel and Fishers have been the focal point of the discussions around rental caps because they were the first to institute them. But what Carmel and Fishers seemed to forget is that all the time and money they’ve spent building nice places to live are the exact reason why both supply and demand for rentals is so high. Institutional influence on the rental market runs counter to the goals both cities have aimed to achieve in recent years.

The supply-side approach the legislature took this year is the right call. Build more homes, ease the barriers to construction, and let the market work. The prices will sort themselves out. Capping who can own property does not add a single unit to the housing stock, and the people who pay the price for that are the ones who can least afford it.

I’m glad the legislature got involved to put a stop to these rental caps. I hope they’ll do even more to protect renters in the 2027 session.

Lucas Wright
Carmel