A good journalistic piece in The New York Times: “The Perverse Effects of Rent Regulation.” (Thanks to R.M. for the link.)
Rent control is a classic case of bad economics and bad ethics. The bad economics is ignorance of unintended consequences — in this case a price control that makes the initial problem worse. The bad ethics is the altruism that motivates both ignoring the economics and using political compulsion — in this case the willingness to help relatively poorer tenants by sacrificing relatively richer landlords.
Here is Walter Block’s fine discussion of the economics and politics of rent control at the Concise Encyclopedia of Economics, and here is my full video lecture on Rent Control, part of my Business Ethics Cases series.