(Washington, DC) – The DC Department of Housing and Community Development (DHCD) today released “A Rent Control Report for the District of Columbia,” which provides a comprehensive study of rental units in the District that are subject to rent control.
The D.C. Rent Stabilization Program (“rent control”) is one of the city’s longest established and most significant policies for maintaining affordable housing. Owners of housing units covered by rent control are restricted in the frequency and amount by which they can adjust monthly rents. The law also requires landlords to give tenants adequate notification of rent increases and provides for an appeals process for tenants who believe that rents have been raised improperly.
The report reveals that there are 9,352 primarily multifamily rental apartment buildings in D.C. with 119,288 units. Of these, currently 4,818 properties, with 79,145 housing units, are potentially subject to rent control regulation.
“This report is an important part of the Department’s review and understanding of the impact of rent control in the District,” said John E. Hall, DHCD Acting Director. “With this information, we can best utilize resources and continue to strengthen our administration of the Rent Stabilization Program.”
Also included in the report is a ward-by-ward analysis of the total number of rental units and the number of units subject to rent control. Additional data includes studies of the number of units in rent-controlled properties, the types of owners for rent-controlled properties and the number of properties owned by the same owner.
The purpose of this study was to create a database of all residential properties potentially subject to rent control regulation in the District. The database was compiled from multiple sources, including the D.C. Office of Tax and Revenue (OTR) real property data; the D.C. Office of the Chief Technology Officer Master Address Repository (MAR); and the D.C. Preservation Catalog.
Rent control was established under D.C. law as part of the Rental Housing Act of 1985 (DC Law 6-10) as amended (the Act), which is codified as DC Official Code §42-3501.01 et seq. Additional regulations implementing rent control are enacted under D.C. Municipal Regulations, Title 14, Chapter 4200 et seq. The Rental Accommodations Division (RAD), which is part of the DHCD Housing Regulation Administration (HRA), is responsible for administering the Act. For additional information, please visit the “Housing Regulation Administration” section of the DHCD web site. The report can be downloaded below.
"A Rent Control Report for the District of Columbia"