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Chairman Phil Mendelson Councilmember Brooke Pinto
1 A PROPOSED RESOLUTION
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5 IN THE COUNCIL OF THE DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA
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9 To declare the existence of an emergency with respect to the need to amend the Rental Housing
10 Act of 1985 to extend the prohibition on residential rent charged increases for qualified
11 tenants from 30 days to one year after the end of a public health emergency, if a tenant
12 attests to a housing provider supplied form that states that the tenant has qualified for
13 unemployment benefits or experienced a reduction in household income, incurred
14 significant costs, or experienced other financial hardship due, directly or indirectly, to the
15 COVID-19 outbreak or the tenant has qualified for certain other COVID-19 related rental
16 assistance programs, and to end the prohibition on residential vacancy increases.
17 BE IT ENACTED BY THE COUNCIL OF THE DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA, That this
18 resolution may be cited as the COVID-19 Rental Housing Emergency Declaration Resolution of
19 2021.
20 Sec. 2. (a) On March 11, 2020, the Mayor issued Mayors Orders 2020-45 and 2020-46,
21 declaring a public emergency and a public health emergency (PHE) in the District due to the
22 imminent threat to the health, safety, and welfare of District residents posed by the spread of
23 COVID-19.
24 (b) As the public health emergency continued and worsened, many District residents
25 were severely impacted by decreased work hours or layoffs and as a result, had their earnings
26 greatly reduced. Without work, residents were unable to pay their rent and in turn, many housing
27 providers had similar difficulty in servicing their mortgages.
28 (c) The dire situation of these residents made it imperative for the Council to stabilize
29 rents by prohibiting monthly and vacancy rent increases during the PHE. Thus, on April 7, 2020,
30 the Council unaminously passed the COVID-19 Response Supplemental Emergency
31 Amendment Act of 2020, effective April 10, 2020 (D.C. Act 23-286; 67 DCR 4178) and the
32 COVID-19 Response Supplemental Temporary Amendment Act of 2020, effective October 9,
33 2020 (D.C. Law 23-129; 67 DCR 6601), which prohibited residential rent increases during the
34 PHE plus 30 days.
35 (d) Although the COVID-19 pandemic appears to be coming to an end as more residents
36 are vaccinated each day, the hardship that many residents and housing providers are experiencing
37 will not automatically expire at the end of the PHE.
38 (e) Accordingly, as the Council works to aid in the recovery of the rental housing market,
39 emergency legislation is needed to respond better to the requirements of residents experiencing
40 hardship, reassure tenants as soon as possible that their rents will not increase for at least one
41 year, and allow for reasonable flexibility for housing providers so they are not saddled with
42 overly broad rules. This bill addresses these problems as follows:
43 (1) (A) Currently, rent increases are frozen for tenants during the PHE, and only
44 for an additional 30 days. For tenants who have had reduced work or have been out of work for
45 months, the 30-day buffer period is simply insufficient for tenants to find work, save up enough
46 funds to pay back rent, and then be able to absorb a rent increase.
47 (B) Therefore, beginning after the end of the PHE, tenants who are
48 experiencing COVID-19 related hardship may extend the period where their rent may not be
49 raised from 30 days to one year.
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50 (C) To qualify for rent increase prohibition, a tenant is required sign a
51 written attestation that the tenant has qualified for unemployment benefits or experienced a
52 reduction in household income, incurred significant costs, or experienced other financial
53 hardship due, directly or indirectly, to the COVID-19 outbreak and that this statement is true and
54 complete.
55 (D) The bill adopts qualifying attestation language from the U.S.
56 Department of the Treasury FAQs on the federal Emergency Rental Assistance program.
57 (2) By allowing general rent increases on vacant units.
58 (A) Currently, rent may not be increased when a unit becomes vacant
59 during the PHE. Depending on the quality and location of an apartment, rent has decreased in
60 some rental markets in the District during the pandemic. Assuming a particular rental market can
61 support a rent increase upon vacancy, housing providers should be able to increase rent
62 according to either the Rental Housing Act of 1985 for rent stabilized units or to market
63 conditions for non-rent stabilized units.
64 (B) Thus, applying prepandemic vacancy increase law, this bill would
65 allow general rent increases on vacant units as follows: if the unit is rent stabilized, then rent may
66 be increased according to the Rental Housing Act of 1985 by 10% if the unit had been occupied
67 for 10 years or less and by 20% if the unit had been occupied for more than 10 years; and if the
68 unit is not is rent stabilized, then rent may be increased according market conditions.
69 Sec. 3. The Council of the District of Columbia determines that the circumstances
70 enumerated in section 2 constitute emergency circumstances making it necessary that the
71 COVID-19 Rental Housing Emergency Amendment Act of 2021 be adopted after a single
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72 reading.
73 Sec. 4. This resolution shall take effect immediately.
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