How a Strike Force Recommends DC Save its Rental Housing Market

• May 24th 2021

by Nena Perry-Brown

A group set up to recommend ways that DC can transition from emergency tenant protections implemented during COVID to a more permanent set of protections, as well as identify reform measures that can increase affordable housing stock, released those recommendations on Friday. 

The recommendations from the Saving the District’s Rental Housing (SRH) Strike Force include:

• In the near-term:
  • Prioritizing rental relief for the most financial vulnerable in DC; and
  • Permitting eviction notices and filings to resume in some cases.
• In the mid-term:
  • Put a commission together to revisit rent stabilization goals and strategies;
  • Find ways to remedy housing violations without displacement; and
  • Increase funding and support for the Tenant Opportunity to Purchase Act (TOPA) and begin using the District Opportunity to Purchase Act (DOPA).
• In the long-term:
  • Use federal funding toward affordable housing production, including via land and commercial building purchases;
  • Incentivize creation and preservation of housing affordable to extremely low- and middle-income households in High-Opportunity Neighborhoods; and
  • Support using increased density for affordable housing production.

The SRH Strike Force was formed last December by Mayor Bowser to ensure the city bounces back from the economic hardships and restrictions imposed by the pandemic. For tens of thousands of city residents, those hardships included an inability to pay rent. Meanwhile, the Class A apartment market was impacted by increased vacancies and steep rent decreases in most neighborhoods.

This article originally published at https://dc.urbanturf.com/articles/blog/how-a-strike-force-recommends-dc-save-its-rental-housing-market/18298.