The D.C. Council on Tuesday tentatively adopted major rent control legislation, taking a first step, members say, toward protecting the District’s dwindling affordable housing stock.
The bill, which must be voted on a second time before final approval, caps annual rent increases at 2 percent plus the cost of living, or just cost of living for the elderly and disabled. It eliminates rent ceilings — the maximum amount a landlord can charge on a single unit — and limits hikes on vacant units to 30 percent.
Ward 1 Council Member Jim Graham, who co-introduced the measure, said rents today are “in the cosmos” and “defy reality.” The bill, he said, shores up the District’s 30-year-old rent control law, “the single most important legal device we have here to ensure affordable rentals in this city.”
Roughly 100,000 city apartments are affected by rent control.
“I think this strikes a marvelous balance,” Council Member Carol Schwartz, R-at large, said of the bill.
The council, Mayor Anthony Williams’ administration, landlords and tenant advocates all worked to craft the final version of the bill.
