Op-Ed: Don’t Let the DC Council Pass Another Bare-Bones Rent Control Bill
When rent control expires at the end of 2020, the Council has a chance to finally tackle the affordable housing crisis head-on.
Right now, the DC Council is patting themselves on the back for unanimously saying they’ll vote for the current rent control reauthorization bill. Rent control is essential to managing skyrocketing housing prices in DC. It covers more units than any other housing program in the city — more than 90,000. For people living in rent-controlled apartments, there are limits on the amount rent can increase and how often rents can be raised.
However, calling renewal alone a win hides the bigger picture. Rent control could do way more, and in our current housing market, it absolutely needs to. And the best part? Rent control doesn’t cost the city a dime, because it regulates the private market.
Councilmembers ready to vote for the bare-bones reauthorization bill are hiding the fact that the status quo is already responsible for this city losing more than 50,000 rent-controlled units. The status quo is responsible for landlords strong-arming tenants into agreeing to 476% rent increases. The status quo is responsible for encouraging landlords to neglect conditions in their apartments, so that their tenants move out in frustration and the rent can go up 20%. The status quo is responsible for why we haven’t added a single unit to rent control in 44 years, while the city’s population has ballooned and average rent skyrocketed. The status quo guarantees that landlords can raise rents faster than inflation every year. The status quo — and this bare-bones reauthorization bill — is an absolute failure of political imagination.
The council can change all that.
On December 31st, 2020, DC’s rent control laws will expire. This creates an opportunity to significantly strengthen rent control in DC and stabilize our communities instead of passing the bare minimum law. We have 44 years of evidence — going back to 1976, when this law was first passed — to show what our bare minimum law does. It upholds a weakened rent control law that incentivizes kicking out longterm tenants, pits residents against one another, and has led to some of the fastest-whitening zip codes in the country. It doesn’t include a single building built after 1975, or any of the thousands of four-unit apartment buildings scattered across the city. It guarantees landlords a 12% profit — a preposterous holdover from 1970s inflation — and allows them to raise the rent until they meet that outrageous return. And it doesn’t require landlords to show any evidence that they’ve bothered to use their rental income to fix up their properties before raising said rent.
The good news is that the council can change all that. More than 40 organizations have come together under the banner of the Reclaim Rent Control campaign, which has put forth a commonsense platform that would more than double the number of units included under rent control. We’ve written a bill that envisions a more affordable, stable District for all of us, one that would slow the mass exodus of the black and immigrant residents who built this city.
Now, we need someone to introduce that bill. Brianne Nadeau, councilmember for Ward 1 — which has one of the highest concentrations of rent-controlled buildings in the city — will join us at a rally to Reclaim Rent Control on Saturday at 3:30 at 3435 Holmead Place NW. The residents of this rent-controlled building are on rent strike against UIP, the owner of the building and one of the most notorious abusers of rent control loopholes. We need to show up on Saturday to show Brianne Nadeau that we love rent control, and we want more of it.
RSVP here. If you haven’t signed the petition to reclaim our rent control laws — sign here, and indicate whether you want to volunteer with the campaign!
