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Tenants rally at 741 Longfellow St NW. Residents lived through the winter without heat, but their landlord just announced a 8.9% rent increase.? |
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Dear Friend,? ? Thank you for joining us in the fight to keep DC residents in their homes. This week we suffered a set-back, where we were not able to stop a 8.9% rent increase from going into effect before the May 1 start.? ? You can learn more about the details that prevented a solution from going into effect before rents begin to rise. But long story short, tenants began receiving notices that their rent will go up nearly 9%.? |
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Rent control is a critical program that allows many people to live in DC. By offering predictable and moderate rent increases, it gives them financial and housing stability. As a program that requires no additional applications or processes, it allows a wide range of residents to access it. Seniors, families, young professionals, immigrants, and people of diverse races all live in rent controlled units, often in the same building. ? Many families have not recovered from the pandemic and are dealing with debts or recovering from lost income. Additionally, expanded SNAP is ending as well as student debt repayment deferment. All of this is happening while food prices have just leapt up 11%.? ? Tell DC Council, we need a strong rent control program.? ? Tenants should never have a rent increase of more than 5% in a single year and rent should not raise faster than inflation. DC must cap annual increases at 5%. And landlords should no longer be able to take an additional 2% above the rate of inflation - a provision that means rents always increase more than the cost of living. ? The DC Council must act to prevent tenants from experiencing record-high rent increases. We need legislation NOW that stops this kind of increase from impacting over a hundred thousand DC residents this year and in future years.? ? In solidarity,? ? Damiana Dendy |
