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D.C. Latino History Project / D.C. Community

Stronger tenant protections proposed

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Pie chart showing the percentage of ownership of occupied units (60% renter occupied)

As more and more rent-controlled buildings have been remade into luxury apartment or condo complexes, politicians and other public officials have expressed increasing concern over the erosion of the city’s rent-controlled housing.

D.C. Attorney General Karl Racine, Mayor Muriel Bowser and the D.C. Council are working on different approaches to mitigate the loss of rent-controlled apartments and houses and crack down on slumlords who fail to make repairs in order to, tenants rights advocates say, encourage low-income tenants to move out.

Racine is taking some building owners to court over long overdue repairs at some buildings. Last year, the D.C. Council passed two rent-control measures including one strengthening protections for elderly and disabled tenants living in rent-controlled buildings.

Other bills before the D.C. Council include the following:

  • The Landlord Transparency Amendment Act 2017. Introduced by Mayor Bowser, this bill would give the city new subpoena power to track ownership of buildings with numerous housing-code violations.
  • The Rental Housing Affordability Stabilization Amendment Act 2017 proposes to restrict annual rent increases for most rent-control units to CPI alone or 5 percent of the rent charged, whichever is less. The bill also limits rent increases of vacated rent-control apartments to 5 percent of the rent charged.”
  • The Preservation of Affordable Rent Control Housing Amendment Act of 2017 would eliminate the use of Voluntary Agreements and other agreements between landlords and tenants that would result in higher rent for future tenants.

While housing experts and tenants’ advocates say these are promising developments, the magnitude of the city’s affordable housing shortage means fixing rent control can address only part of the problem.

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Read more of our updated stories on affordable housing and rent control.

— Story by Rebecca Toro

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