As D.C. Mayor Muriel Bowser’s affordable housing bill navigates the legislative process, April Jones stands among those demanding that the D.C. Council changes provisions deemed harmful to low-income tenants.
Jones, a community organizer, told The Informer that the final version of Bowser’s legislation must reflect the desires of District residents struggling to hold landlords and property managers responsible for subpar living conditions.
“The council should listen to the people [because] our voices matter,” said Jones, a Southeast resident and site coordinator at the Frederick Douglass Community Center in Anacostia. “They are responsible for ensuring that all [D.C.] residents are treated equally. Communication is key.”
For three years, Jones has represented the Community Service Foundation (CSF) in a support role that’s taken her to Carver Terrace, Congress Park, and now Cedar Gardens — complexes where tenants have been battling rodent infestation, flooding, and other elements of a crumbling infrastructure.
That’s why, while currently at Frederick Douglass Community Center, which serves residents of Cedar Hill Apartments, Jones is helping tenants launch a tenants association intended to hold the property manager at Cedar Gardens more accountable for subpar building conditions.
“Residents have asked [about things] that someone paying rent shouldn’t have to deal with,” said Jones, a CSF site coordinator at Frederick Douglass Community Center. “The new management company has been doing their best to implement new services and prevent problems, but it still needs some work. We want to give residents a voice so their grievances won’t go unheard.”
The Tug-of-War Seen Across the District
Jones’ endeavor follows that of other tenant organizers across Ward 8, and other parts of the District, who’ve started movements against landlords and property managers they say haven’t responded to concerns about their living conditions. Over the last few years, some of those associations, including those representing tenants of Barry Farm, a Bellevue apartment complex , and residences on St. Elizabeths East Campus have elevated residents’ voices in matters involving consistent service and building sales.
In other communities — Marbury Plaza on Marion Barry Avenue in Southeast for example — tenants continue to complain about broken elevators, and most recently, as told by a Ward 8 official, a water service cutoff. Tenants are expressing grievances, even after securing a $810,000 settlement and eviction protections against a property manager that just filed for bankruptcy.
In Northwest, residents at 3003 Van Ness Street also alleged landlord neglect.
However, D.C. Mayor Muriel Bowser (D) said there’s more to the picture when it comes to the subpar living conditions that tenants experience.
“The immediate concern is the decline and quality of tenant services in these properties,” she told reporters and developers on Feb. 12. “Most tenants are paying rent, and because people are not paying rent, we see an inability for property owners to invest and provide security and long-term ownership.
In announcing her new legislation, titled “Rebalancing Expectations for Neighbors, Tenants, and Landlords Act,” or the RENTAL Act, Bowser said she intends to recalibrate the local housing market — primarily by making permanent emergency legislation that the D.C. Council passed last fall to re-establish pre-pandemic rules around eviction and certification for emergency rental assistance.
On Feb. 12, she called the legislation a viable and proactive means of saving D.C.’s housing ecosystem.
“Some elements have come outside of our control — including inflation and higher interest rates,” Bowser said. “As a government, we must take control of those things that are our responsibility and rightsize our policy environment.”
Last year, amid the tug of war between landlords and tenants, D.C. Department of Housing and Community Development (DHCD) received 69 applications from housing providers — nearly 20% of the District’s affordable housing units — for $144 million in financial assistance to avoid foreclosure.
On Feb. 12, DHCD Director Colleen Green said that the influx of Housing Production Trust Fund (HTPF) dollars yielded repairs to nearly 8,000 units of housing, the majority of which are designated as affordable. She then delved into the specifics of a stabilization program through which 30 properties received a total of $6.6 million, with another $8.8 million reserved for 25 other projects.
“We hope this stop-gap measure would be fruitful in preserving homes, in addition to the emergency rental assistance legislative changes we asked for last year,” Green said on Feb. 12.
As Green explained, HPTF dollars aren’t funding production, as intended, but maintenance that would’ve been subsidized by the 15% of rental income lost across the District. At the time she spoke to reporters, DHCD reported a watchlist that includes 170 properties, all of which Bowser administration officials said are experiencing the drawbacks of a COVID-era housing policy.
For Green, the RENTAL Act promises to bring a sense of normalcy to the housing market.
“Stav[ing] off long-term eviction processes so people could … get back to the basics [of] the contract between landlords and tenants, Green said. “We’ve seen judges using their discretion and trial dates continue to lag. We hope to see changes in legislation to promote the housing market and get back to the production of units.”
Concerns Loom about Elements of the RENTAL Act
Bowser said that she hopes to secure the passage of the RENTAL Act before the submission of her Fiscal Year 2026 budget proposal. If passed, the bill would also make the D.C. Housing Authority’s Stabilization and Reform Board permanent, expand eligibility for the Local Rent Supplement Program, restore DHCD’s ability to acquire and reposition vacant properties, and ensure that the agency can utilize Fiscal Year 2025 low-income housing tax credit allocations for affordable housing projects.
Some provisions of the bill, however, have sparked controversy.
For instance, the legislation further narrows the scope of the Tenant Opportunity to Purchase Act (TOPA) by excluding tenants of majority market-rate housing from exercising their right of first refusal during building sales. The bill also evicts voucher recipients charged or convicted with a violent crime from their dwelling while, in response to an appellate court ruling favoring displaced condominium owners, clarifying that D.C. can’t be held liable for subpar housing that it finances.
For D.C. Councilmember Robert White (D-At large), the bill as it stands doesn’t reflect a desire for collaboration with the D.C. Council.
“If the mayor wanted to get the bill passed, she would talk to us and work with us,” White told The Informer. “I understand the urgency but I want to see something meaningful.”
On Feb. 13, At large Councilmember White conducted a tour of apartment buildings throughout Southeast. His tour — which included stops at Cedar Gardens, Butler Gardens, and Maple View Flats — followed the council member’s meeting with Washington Highlands community members who lamented inconsistent trash collection and other long-term property management issues.
In speaking about the Talbert Street condominium owners seeking recompense for structurally unsound mortgaged homes they could no longer live in, White, chair of the council’s Committee on Housing, said he doesn’t want them affected retroactively by the RENTAL Act.
He then pivoted to the bigger picture, telling The Informer that all parties involved in the District’s housing dilemma must walk away feeling that the RENTAL Act serves their interests.
“There’s a lot of ground to cover with tenants, owners and agencies,” White said. “It’s important that we pass something to help the residents. My discussions with the administration and housing providers was that the courts need flexibility.”
The Bowser Administration Continues to Ring the Alarm, While the Development Community Speaks
It’s that flexibility that the Bowser administration said it wants to eliminate, particularly as it relates to court proceedings and tenants’ use of TOPA, which officials credit with discouraging investment in market-rate properties.
Nina Albert, D.C. deputy mayor for economic development, emphasized what she called the importance of creating an environment that attracts investment and expands the housing stock.
“When the mayor achieved the 36,000 goal for both market rate and affordable housing, we saw a slowing of rent increase,” Albert said. “It’s incredibly important that we continue to produce a supply of market rate and affordable housing. We’ve been a leader in the region [but] we have fewer housing permits being started with the Department of Buildings. There’s an internal change in the marketplace where even market-rate units aren’t getting invested in.”
Flanking Albert, Bowser and Green on Feb. 12 were a quartet of affordable housing developers and mom-and-pop property management company advocates, including: Priya Jayachandran of Community Housing Trust, D.C. Housing Finance Agency Vice Chairwoman Heather Wellington, and Janine Lind of Enterprise Community Partners (ECP).
For Lind, the gap caused by tenants’ nonpayment jeopardizes her ability to address concerns and produce new housing. “We go to great lengths to keep our residents housed, but today many of them are not responsive,” Lind, president of ECP’s community development division, said.
Lind, whose local portfolio includes Mayfair Mansions in Northeast, said ECP, and other local housing developers for that matter, have struggled to remain in good standing with the banks because of the 15% economic vacancy rate — an indicator of tenant nonpayment — that’s well above what housing industry mavens consider healthy.
“On the development front, the investors are staying away from the District [because] our balance sheet is at risk, and they’re questioning investments in other states where we do business,” Lind said. “We don’t have the funding to be able to redevelop these communities, which puts them at risk. I’m not sure how to solve the gap.”