D.C. Council members and apartment owners were singing their own praise-hymns earlier this week after the legislature approved on first vote the Rent Control Reform Amendment Act of 2006. But tenants shouldn’t dance to the music coming from the John A. Wilson Building.
The bill passed by the council abolishes rent ceilings. That is the death knell for rent control. Its death will be incremental — but certain. Rent ceilings, coupled with restrictions on how often and how much landlords could increase rents charged in the District, were the linchpins of the city’s rent control law.
The abolition of ceilings allows for the unobstructed Manhattanization of this city. The city could have been a contender in the fight to preserve affordable rental housing stock. Instead, it acquiesced to landlords, ensuring that rents in the District, like those in New York City, will become lethal weapons.
The Ward 1 representative and chairman of the Committee on Consumer and Regulatory Affairs, Jim Graham, was on the right track when he took up rent control reform. For years, tenants were unable to interest other lawmakers in closing numerous loopholes while creating a more buffed law. Since last year, Graham teased tenants with the promise of giving them the upper hand.
That frightened landlords. They solicited help: Mayor Anthony Williams, who made no secret that he wasn’t a friend of rent control; Council Member David Catania, who is a real estate lawyer, among other things; and Sharon Ambrose, who, truth told, never met a developer or landlord she didn’t like.
Graham was certain he had the votes to get a bill through his committee. But mayoral wannabe Adrian Fenty turned on him, and at-large Council Member Kwame Brown wimped out, leaving Graham alone. He had allies in the full council. But his reputation and re-election are partially tied to the approval of the legislation, so he took the politician’s way out: He compromised.
Landlords and others, including Graham, argue rent ceilings are meaningless. They say a $4,000 ceiling, for example, means nothing to someone paying $2,500 in rent. What it means is that the landlord can’t go higher than $4,000, regardless of the market, without first going through a mandated process.
The city’s hot real estate market is both past and prologue. Often rents and home sale prices escalate simultaneously. While the housing market is going flat, it will heat up again. When that happens, rent ceilings will be gone. The cost of rental units will have already increased, and middle-class professionals hoping to move into the District will find themselves priced out.
Graham, his council buddies and landlords are passing off their actions as a win. But the only thing that ever comes out of the jaws of defeat is defeat.
Jonetta Rose Barras is the political analyst for WAMU radio’s “D.C. Politics Hour with Kojo and Jonetta.” She can be reached at [email protected].
