New legislation could be coming to the District that D.C. Mayor Muriel Bowser says would make life easier for the city’s residents.
On Friday, Bowser announced a package of bills designed to protect affordable housing and modernize housing laws in the nation’s capital.
The Housing Investment Protection Act, one piece of proposed legislation, is meant to improve the city’s housing laws by providing more support to tenants during unit repairs or rehabilitation. It also expands the Local Rental Supplement Program, an effort to increase affordable housing supply, and clarifies the right of a housing provider to access units in order to make repairs.
Bowser said the act will improve court processes by establishing an eviction case hearing timeline of 60 days, with the intent to make the process more predictable for landlords and tenants. It would also modernize the process of delivering and receiving eviction notices.
The other proposed law, the Illegal Occupancy Enforcement Amendment Act, would update short-term rental law to specify that guests have no lawful rights to remain in vacation residences beyond the agreed-upon terms of their stay. This would give D.C. police the authority to remove guests who refuse to leave such units on time.
Per the release, Bowser said these new laws would allow for “a fairer, more predictable housing system that protects tenants, while giving housing providers the confidence to continue investing in” the District.
“By adding tens of thousands of new homes over the past decade, we’ve been able to blunt the rise in housing costs and get more Washingtonians into affordable housing,” she said in a statement. “But to keep making housing more affordable, we have to make sure DC is a place where people want to keep building.”
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