More tenants in D.C. are not paying their rent, causing the city’s affordable housing system to experience “significant financial distress,” city leaders said Wednesday, as Mayor Muriel Bowser’s administration announced new legislation related to the issue.
Many affordable housing providers are currently struggling to cover expenses due to nonpayment of rent and increased costs, according to city leaders.
“It’s important for us to be able to navigate through the current market conditions so that we can get back to the place that we were at, which is producing more affordable housing and producing more market-rate housing as well,” said Nina Albert, D.C.’s deputy mayor for planning and economic development.
According to Albert, D.C. is falling behind the region in overall housing production.
One of the key factors, Albert said, is that the District currently has a 15% to 20% rate of rental units either empty or occupied by tenants who aren’t paying their rent.
A healthy, stable system would have a vacancy rate no higher than 5%, according to Albert.
The legislation introduced Wednesday, which will now be considered by the D.C. Council, would modify eviction timelines to be consistent with pre-pandemic timelines and those of neighboring jurisdictions, such as Maryland and Virginia.
Albert said around the country, on average, the eviction process typically takes somewhere around six months.
In D.C., it can stretch on for a much longer period of time, sometimes lasting 24 months.
“We just have an exceptionally long timeline,” said Albert. “The purpose is not to increase evictions. The purpose is to bring the tenant and the landlord to the table earlier and faster.”
The legislation would authorize an eviction if a tenant or other occupant of a rental unit is arrested or charged with a violent crime that happened in or adjacent to their building, and it would expand the number of people who are able to receive housing assistance through the “Local Rent Supplement Program.”
Currently, to be eligible for vouchers through the program, household income must be at or below 30% of the Area Median Income.
Under the legislation, the AMI threshold would change from 30% to 50%.
Another piece of the legislation that will likely be viewed as controversial involves proposed changes to the “Tenants Opportunity to Purchase Act,” which is a D.C. law that gives tenants the first right to purchase their rental building if the owner decides to sell.
Under the legislation, TOPA would no longer apply to the sale of market-rate buildings and would be focused only on properties where more than half the rental units are making below 80% of the Area Median Income.
“We are not changing TOPA and the rights of low and moderate income renters,” said Albert. “It’s staying exactly the same if you are a low and moderate income renter, you will have the right to acquire your property, according to TOPA rules.”
Albert said the change would make the more expensive market-rate buildings more attractive to larger investors who are currently turned off by delays related to the TOPA process, which can amount to 18 months worth of delays in a real estate transaction.
“Market-rate investors in residential real estate are making choices, and they’re seeing that 18-month delay in being able to sell property, and they are choosing not to invest in D.C.,” said Albert.
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