DC Council Proposes Plan to Make Rent-Controlled Housing Easier to Find

• March 4, 2015

by Lark Turner

A proposal from Councilmember Anita Bonds introduced on Tuesday would establish a database that makes all the city’s rent-controlled housing searchable in one place.

Bonds’ proposal, which was cointroduced by every member of the council, is called the Rent Control Housing Clearinghouse Amendment Act. It’s mostly intended to make affordable housing easier to find for DC residents while providing the council with more data about how rent control works in the District. Currently, Bonds said in a statement, rent control in DC “is one of the city’s most significant policy tools for maintaining affordable housing.”

And yet, she noted, “we still do not know how many units are actually subject to rent control, where they are located and what their rents are. We know even less about how well the various provisions of the Rental Housing Act are succeeding in their goals of preserving affordable housing.”

By requiring landlords to register with the database, Bonds says the legislation will allow DC to have a much more accurate and up-to-date view of the affordable housing stock in the city. Better data should lead to better policy-making about rent control, Bonds suggested.

This article originally published at http://dc.urbanturf.com/articles/blog/city_council_proposes_plan_to_make_rent-controlled_housing_easier_to_find/9600