The standard argument against rent control, see here, is that while it claims to help the poor - in reality, it is a boom to the well off and well connected. If housing for the poor is your real objective, there are many other efficient ways to do it - without rent control.

Example number 8,674,322 of rent control in practice:

While aggressive evictions are reducing the number of rent-stabilized apartments in New York, Representative Charles B. Rangel is enjoying four of them, including three adjacent units on the 16th floor overlooking Upper Manhattan in a building owned by one of New York’s premier real estate developers (see pictures above).

Mr. Rangel, who has a net worth of $566,000 to $1.2 million, according to Congressional disclosure records, paid a total rent of $3,894 monthly in 2007 for the four apartments at Lenox Terrace (16M, 16N, 16P and 10U), a 1,700-unit luxury development of six towers, with doormen, that is described in real estate publications as Harlem’s most prestigious address.

The market price for the apartments would be $7,000/month. Link via Mark Perry.