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… is from page 147 of the 2021 35th anniversary edition of Steven Rhoads’s excellent 1985 book, The Economist’s View of the World: And the Quest for Well-Being [2]:
Rent controls also magnify housing discrimination. Under rent control, there is usually a shortage of apartments. If the landlord doesn’t like African-Americans, he can lie and say that he has promised the apartment to someone else. Given the shortage of apartments, he can be sure that he can refuse the African-American and still have people of other races lined up to sign a contract. If there is no rent control, there will be vacant apartment, sometimes for months at a time. The landlord will know that acting on his prejudices may cost him a lot of rent; he will be more likely to accept the African-American tenant, lest his apartment stay vacant for months.