Barry Pushes Housing Measures
Rent-Control Plan Among D.C. Bills

By Nikita Stewart
Washington Post Staff Writer
Friday, June 1, 2007

D.C. Council member Marion Barry is pushing an ambitious legislative package to address the city's lack of affordable housing, including a controversial rent-control bill that would protect low-income residents from losing their homes.

Barry (D-Ward 8), chairman of the Housing and Urban Affairs Committee, is sponsoring five measures, which will be discussed at a public hearing Monday.

The bills include one that would require the D.C. Housing Authority to create a rent-to-own plan that would give some residents of public housing an option to buy their rental properties. Another would provide $5,000 housing grants for math, science and special education teachers if they commit to working in D.C. public schools for five years.

Several council members have co-sponsored the legislation, but Barry is the lone sponsor of the rent-control bill. "That's going to be the tough one, but I'm going to forge ahead," he said.

Under the bill, buildings constructed before 1975 that have four units or fewer, including single-family homes, would be subject to current rent-control laws. Annual rent increases would be restricted to 2 percent plus inflation with a cap of 10 percent.

Those dwellings are exempt from rent-control laws approved last year after tense negotiations with tenant advocates and building owners. That legislation marked the first overhaul of the city's rent-control laws in 20 years.

Officials with the Apartment and Office Building Association of Metropolitan Washington, which represents landlords who lease buildings with larger numbers of units, said they will oppose the legislation.

Single-family homes make up about 25 percent of the city's rental housing stock, said Shaun Pharr, senior vice president of government affairs for the association. "There's no data, but anecdotally, it's logical to assume that it's smaller owners who bought one or two houses as an investment," he said.

Overall, Pharr said, rent control contributes to less affordable housing for people who need it, because wealthier tenants abuse the system. "Unfortunately, it's inefficient because it's not means-based," he said. "You have a lot of beneficiaries of rent control who do not need it."

The D.C. Fiscal Policy Institute, a think tank that studies District tax issues, found that U.S. Census data show that the city lost 7,000 occupied rental units from 2000 to 2005.

In the District, about 40,000 families are on a Housing Authority waiting list for low-income housing, Barry said.

"We support all of Barry's bills," said Jim McGrath, chairman of the D.C. Tenants Advocacy Coalition. "We have seen a lot of landlords squeezing out from under rent control. It's absurd. A landlord is a landlord is a landlord."

Council member David A. Catania (I-At Large) disagreed, saying that landlords of smaller buildings and single-family homes are not the same as those who have larger dwellings.

However, Catania is backing Barry on the Own Your Own Home Act, a bill that Catania originally sponsored before the housing committee was created in January and Barry became its chairman.

The legislation would require the Housing Authority to sell 10 percent of its single-family homes to residents who have lived in the units for at least two years at a price based on their income. The mortgage payments, utilities, maintenance, insurance and other costs could not exceed 35 percent of the buyer's adjusted income.

Drew Hubbard, clerk of the housing committee, said the bill could result in the sales of 240 homes.

Under the proposal, profits from the sales would be used to replace the housing with new units.

"The reality is that many people end up spending years, if not decades, in these units," Catania said. "People who get up every day and work and pay rent ought to have a chance to own their own homes."

Barry's proposal to support teachers identifies math, science and special education as "critical shortage fields." There are similar grant programs for D.C. firefighters and police officers.

To increase the city's affordable housing stock, another bill would expand the city's Homestead Housing Preservation Program -- which allows nonprofit developers to buy and renovate city property -- to include for-profit developers as long as 100 percent of the units renovated are affordable to moderate- and low-income residents.

For residents who are renting, Barry is also pushing the Evictions With Dignity Amendment Act, which would give evicted residents the option of having the city store their belongings for up to 90 days. After the 90 days, the city would be allowed to sell the items at auction or dispose of them.