During the pandemic, emergency legislation made it easier for people falling on hard times to obtain rental assistance and stay in their homes or apartments.
Now, D.C. leaders say some are using the changes to delay their eviction, and those delays are impacting landlords that provide affordable housing in the city.
“The long-term continuation of these emergency policies, some of them becoming permanent policies, have put the affordable housing that we have invested so heavily in at risk, ” said D.C. Mayor Muriel Bowser at a press conference on Monday.
Bowser joined D.C. Council Chair Phil Mendelson to announce emergency legislation that both said would roll back the Emergency Rental Assistance Program, or ERAP, to where it was before the pandemic.
“The current situation is forcing landlords to essentially subsidize their tenants,” Mendelson said. “That’s not the way that housing policy should work.”
Among the problems that have resulted in what Mendelson calls a “financial crisis” for affordable housing providers, is some tenants used the emergency legislation to delay the outcome of evictions, resulting in unpaid rent totals growing.
The city said before the pandemic, an eviction case could be resolved in a year or less. But now, many cases take between 18 months to two years to resolve.
“The D.C. rental housing industry is in a state of crisis,” said Dean Hunter, CEO of the Small Multifamily Owners Association, which is a trade group that represents smaller landlords.
Hunter said a big percentage of homes, condos and apartments that are rented out belong to smaller landlords. He said the city went too far during the pandemic and enacted “anti-landlord laws” that left many struggling.
“What’s happening to that family that owns, rents out that house and can’t get a tenant out for a year? Those people are seeing their life savings wiped out there. That’s literally food taken off their table,” Hunter said.
He said for those landlords, once the tenant is evicted, many are forced to sell the property because they are so far in the red.
Eric Jones is vice president of government affairs with the Apartment Office Building Association of Metropolitan Washington. He said landlords are seeing tenants who are anywhere from $10,000 to $40,000 behind in rent; but despite not paying, the tenants cannot be removed.
Jones said the impact goes beyond the landlord.
“You have tenants who also live there who are paying, who are stuck in a situation where they’re paying to live in a place that’s unsustainable because there’s not enough money to come in to pay for utilities, general maintenance and upkeep, security and things of this nature,” Jones said.
Janine Lind, with the affordable housing developer Enterprise Community Development, said the situation is already having a negative impact on housing in D.C.
“We are definitely seeing that investors are hesitant as they look at the current situation, at the properties, and some investors are pulling out,” Lind said.
Lind, Jones and Hunter called the legislation, if it passes, a big step forward.
The legislation will do two main things: First, it will give judges more discretion during eviction proceedings regarding whether a case can be stayed or extended. In some cases, the city said those applying for ERAP will be granted stays in their case, as they apply multiple times for emergency assistance they may not be qualified for.
“They would have the discretion and that the number of stays would no longer be as often as a tenant applies for ERAP, the tenant would get one chance for a stay with one application for ERAP,” Mendelson said.
Income is a decider as to whether someone qualifies for ERAP, and right now, a person does not need to show proof that their income has dissipated. The emergency legislation would also require a tenant to provide proof that they are eligible.
Bowser said passing this legislation is not about seeing more evictions.
“I don’t want anybody to leave this room thinking that we’re talking about wanting more evictions, because that’s the last thing that anybody wants. What we want is for people to pay their rent,” Bowser said.
Bowser said the concern here is that inaction could have a negative impact on the more than 97,000 D.C. residents who depend on the city’s affordable housing units.
“In the long term, it means our communities could lose their affordable housing forever if these landlords can no longer pay their mortgages,” Bowser said.
The D.C. Council will take up the emergency legislation Tuesday, and Mendelson believes there is enough support among council members for the measure to pass.
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