Officials and activists in cities around the United States are lamenting the lack of affordable housing in their communities. Even the federal government is getting involved, as the Secretary of Housing and Urban Development Julian Castro was recently in Minneapolis to discuss the issue.

Most Americans know about the sky-high housing prices in places like San Francisco and New York. But fewer are aware that a similar outcry over housing prices exists in places such as Houston, Denver, Minneapolis-St. Paul, Seattle and Wilmington, N.C., areas not typically known for their high housing prices. Thankfully, these cities have yet to copy New York and San Francisco’s biggest affordable-housing blunder — rent control. Yet, despite the repeated failure of rent control to restrain housing prices in New York or the Bay Area, it remains a popular policy proposal among affordable-housing advocates. This is unfortunate since rent control is not only an ineffective policy; it is also an unjust one.