At-large D.C. Councilmember and congressional candidate Robert White recently announced that he will resign from his council seat shortly before Nov. 3, so as not to be in violation of a 1970 provision forbidding D.C. delegate candidates from holding office on “the day of [their] election.”
Local housing advocate Damiana Dendy said White’s departure — two months before the end of his council term — throws a wrench in grassroots efforts to hold negligent landlords accountable, improve housing conditions, and ensure fairness in eviction court proceedings.
“Robert White was at first [using] similar talking points to the landlord lobby, but really turned around and was supporting tenants. It’s just too late,” said Dendy, a Ward 1 resident and housing organizer with D.C. Jobs with Justice. “Unfortunately, he’s going to go to Congress and then it’s really unclear what he could do to help. The Housing Committee has not taken a strong stand against slumlordism, and absentee landlordism and that needs to stop.”
Much to Dendy’s chagrin, and that of housing advocates, the council approved the Rebalancing Expectations for Neighbors, Tenants and Landlords Act, also known as the RENTAL Act, last fall. The legislation, which went through White’s Committee on Housing before going to the entire council, included provisions further narrowing the Tenant Opportunity to Purchase Act (TOPA) and shortening the timeline for eviction proceedings.
Dendy has since continued to challenge what she describes as narratives painting tenants in a negative light. Part of that fight has involved her support of White’s more recent legislative work, including a bill that: speeds up court action for properties with health and safety risks; authorizes the Office of the Attorney General’s use of a special fund for emergency housing repairs, relocation, and receivership fees; and paves the way for a building sale when a landlord refuses to make repairs.
Another bill that Dendy spoke highly of, the Lifesaving Intervention Empowering Neighborhoods Amendment Act of 2026, was introduced by White, along with D.C. Councilmembers Janeese Lewis George (D-Ward 4) and Zachary Parker (D-Ward 5), to: expand the D.C. Department of Building’s authority to record liens on real property; protect a tenant’s right to withhold rent in response to housing code violations; and prohibit landlords with unpaid housing violation fees and unresolved debts from receiving or maintaining District licenses.
“All of those bills are important because there’s so many life-threatening conditions that exist,” Dendy told The Informer. “It would be great if the government can fix them because we know that the landlord’s never going to do it. Hopefully, the lien would actually encourage the landlord not to allow their buildings to fall into disrepair and be negligent.”
Tenants and advocates continue to stand up against one of those landlords, Buwa Binitie. In September, D.C. Attorney General Brian Schwalb sued Binitie, the head of Faria Management, for “extreme and pervasive disrepair” at Delta Pearl, an affordable housing community near H Street NE. Dozens of the tenants living in some of Binitie’s other properties across the District have since united in an attempt to hold Faria Management accountable.
Landlords, meanwhile, continue their crusade to change policy in their favor. Earlier this year, advocate Dean Hunter wrote a letter to Rep. James Comer (R-Kentucky) in request of a congressional review into the local housing market and eviction court proceedings. Hunter’s move, made not long after Comer introduced legislation for congressional control of local tax policy, incited criticism from White, whose congressional run centers on stopping Republican infringement on District affairs.
For Dendy, however, the landlord lobby has long been emboldened by a council she said took them at their word too easily.
“The Housing Committee did not put their foot down earlier in the [council] term and it’s a shame now that we have to pay for that,” Dendy said. “Robert White let us down with the Rental Act, and people’s lives are being shortened by the fact that our housing system doesn’t work, that mold remediation is not really happening, elevators are broken, floods are just sitting in people’s apartments, and there’s not enough urgency.”
Interpretation of the Law, Council Moves that Never Happened, and a Word from Other Delegate Candidates
Other legislation on the table in the Committee on Housing comes from D.C. Mayor Muriel Bowser to, among other things: allow for police action when short-term renters refuse to leave rental property; establish a 60-day hearing timeline for eviction cases; clarify the meaning of “tenant” as it relates to TOPA, and provide D.C. Housing Authority the flexibility to support tenants during the repair or rehabilitation of housing units.
White, an official with a decade of service on the council, also led the charge to replace the Housing Production Trust Fund with the Housing Opportunity Fund. This work, he said, will be jeopardized with a resignation he initially tried to avoid.
“We have been working, and so much of that legislation may stop. That’s not to the benefit of our residents,” White told reporters on Oct. 28. “The early resignation also means possibly a significant financial cost to the city, because if you dissect the resignations of me and, presumptively, [Democratic mayoral nominee] Janeese Lewis George, that two-month difference may make it impossible to hold both special elections at the same time, so the city would have to flip the bill for two elections.”
On Oct. 26, City Cast DC broke the news of communiques between White’s office and other council staffers about his eligibility for the D.C. delegate seat. White, City Cast DC said, had been in conversation with the council’s Office of the General Counsel to determine whether the council could change the law, which appears in local and federal code.
D.C. Council Chair Phil Mendelson (D) told The Informer that the issue concerning White’s eligibility was brought to his attention on Oct. 20, though he didn’t say by whom. He went on to note that, on Oct. 23, he and White had a conversation.
“The question came up whether the law could be amended,” Mendelson told The Informer. “I didn’t think it was a good idea. That’s not the same as saying I opposed it.”
In his exchange with The Informer, Mendelson rebuffed the notion that he stopped White from pursuing a change of the local law.
“He said, ‘Would you think about it?’ I said, ‘Yes.’ That was the last I heard from him,” Mendelson said about White. “No council member asked me about legislation or asked me to call a special meeting. Several members called me and said, ‘What’s going on?’”
On Oct. 28, White didn’t mince words about Mendelson’s alleged inaction.
“[I’m] disappointed,” White told reporters. “We amend the law. You will overturn ballot initiatives. You will change liability laws, but you won’t correct something that clearly was not intended. I disagree with that.”
On Oct. 30, one week after White and Mendelson’s meeting, Mendelson opted out of telling The Informer how he would’ve acted, despite having time to think about his decision. “The beautiful thing about it is I don’t need to. It’s moot,” Mendelson said. “I do know that an argument can be made that we’re prohibited from amending the law. That’s not my view.”
Earlier this week, White told reporters that he learned about the 1970 provision earlier this year as he prepared to file to run for the D.C. delegate seat. His decision to trod on, he said, stemmed from his interpretation of “the day of election” being Dec. 2, when D.C. Board of Elections certifies the general election results, and not Nov. 3.
The Office of the Attorney General reportedly took a stance in opposition to White. The Informer unsuccessfully attempted to secure a copy of the decision— what White calls a disagreement between legal scholars.
“Lawyers have different readings,” White said.
On the day following White’s meeting with reporters, Denise Rosado, the Republican nominee for the D.C. delegate seat, gave her take on the at-large council member’s eligibility.
“Robert White is already disqualified from the delegate race because he failed to resign before the start of early voting,” Rosado, an attorney and former federal advisor, wrote in an email. “The 1970 law was written before early voting existed and thus, today, the ‘date of election’ is every single day voting in the general election takes place. That includes mail-in and in-person early voting. Thus the last day for White to have resigned in order to maintain eligibility was the day before early voting began.”
Rosado and White are running against Kymone Freeman, co-founder of We Act Radio and D.C. Statehood Green Party candidate. Freeman, who ran previously for the congressional seat in 2024, told The Informer that White’s efforts to change the law call his credibility into question.
“I completely understand why it’s not been presented as such because he’s the darling of the establishment and that’s who they prefer,” Freeman said about White. “He’s guilty of misleading the public and that should be treated as such. This is the chairman of the Housing Committee that made evictions possible in the midst of an emergency rental assistance program application.”
Alleged Interference, and the Long Road Ahead for the D.C. Democratic Party
With White scheduled to resign from the council, the decision of how to fill that vacancy falls with the D.C. Democratic Party. On Oct. 30, party officials released a statement affirming as much.
“We are aware of efforts to go around the party’s process,” the D.C. Democratic Party said. “We know who is involved. To them, we say plainly: stop. There is one path to this seat, and it runs through the D.C. Democratic Party.”
That person, according to a party insider who requested anonymity, is D.C. Councilmember Christina Henderson (I-At large).
“She has been asking around the council, talking to colleagues to garner support for switching party affiliation,” the party insider told The Informer. “She had even gotten support from Chairman Mendelson. I got a sneaky suspicion that he might be aligned with the switch.”
The Informer unsuccessfully attempted to speak with Henderson and Mendelson about this matter.
