I inherited an apartment building from my grandmother. She kept rents low for decades—many tenants have been there 20+ years, paying far below market rate. Some are elderly on fixed incomes. Some are families who've built their lives around this affordable housing. I can't afford to do what she did. Property taxes have tripled. Maintenance costs are crushing me. I've been subsidizing the building from my own salary, but I have kids approaching college age and no retirement savings. If I raise rents to market rate, most of these people will have to leave. They can't afford anything else in this city. One woman told me she'd be homeless. My financial advisor says I'm being foolish—"You're not a charity. These people would have had to move eventually anyway. You didn't create the housing crisis." He's right that I didn't create it. But I'm being asked to enforce it. My grandmother sacrificed her own financial security for these tenants. Was that noble or naive? Am I obligated to continue her sacrifice, or is it fair to finally pursue my own interests? — The Landlord's Dilemma in Los Angeles

From The Life of Charles Dickens, Vol. I-III, Complete

"No one is useless in this world who lightens the burdens of another—we are bound to those who depend on us"

Your financial advisor speaks of the housing crisis as if it were weather—something that happens to people, with no human agency involved. But you are not weather. You are a person making a choice. The woman who would be homeless is not an abstraction. She is a person your grandmother chose to protect, and she trusted that protection would continue. I know something of what happens to people when they are cast out by those who could have helped them. Your children need college, yes. But what are you teaching them about what matters? That comfort comes first? That promises made by others can be abandoned when inconvenient? Find another way. Raise rents gradually. Seek assistance programs. Sacrifice something yourself before you ask the most vulnerable to sacrifice everything.

From An Inquiry into the Nature and Causes of the Wealth of Nations

"Self-interest, properly channeled, serves the common good—but even markets require moral foundations"

Your grandmother's sacrifice was noble in intention but unsustainable in practice—and unsustainable charity helps no one in the long run. You are subsidizing these tenants from your own family's future. Your children's education. Your retirement. These are not luxuries; they are legitimate claims on your resources. The housing crisis is a systemic problem that requires systemic solutions, not individual martyrdom. However—and this is crucial—the market also has moral limits. You need not maximize profit. Raise rents to sustainable levels, not market levels. Give tenants time to adjust. Help them find resources. The goal is not to exploit but to survive yourself while minimizing harm. Your grandmother's gift was time. You can extend that gift, within reason, while still caring for your own.