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Affordable Housing, Tenant Rights and Diversity |
- Rent Control: Preserved affordable rental housing in the District by extending rent control for another five years.
- Rent Control: Introduced and won Council approval of the most significant change to rent control in more than 20 years. Abolishes the complex and ineffective rent ceiling system. Directly caps rent charged increases, and limits them to once annually.
- Chief Tenant Advocate: Established the Office of the Chief Tenant Advocate to advocate on behalf of tenants and thereby level the playing field between tenants and housing providers. Won Council approval of legislation to make the office an independent entity.
- Affordable Housing: Co-introduced legislation to fund more affordable housing with local funds. The legislation would help as many as 2,650 low-income District families pay rent and encourage developers to build and maintain affordable units.
- Tenants Rights: Investigated the sale of the Village and Tower at McLean Gardens apartments after more than 100 tenants protested the sale of nearly 600 units.
- Affordable Housing: Introduced and won Council approval of legislation to prevent low-income disabled tenants from being involuntarily displaced when their rental housing is converted to condos or coops. Raised the maximum income levels from a flat $40,000 to graduated higher amounts tied to the AMI.
- Condo Warranty Bond: Introduced and won Council approval for condo warranty bond legislation to be held by DCRA and paid t o new condominium owners to repair developer defects, as part of the budget.
- Affordable Housing: Advocated the redevelopment of DC-owned vacant buildings into affordable housing. The legislation allows 38 properties in Wards One, Five, Seven, and Eight to move forward.
- Affordable Housing: Tightened the developer requirement to pay 5% of the sale price into a fund for housing assistance for rental units converted into condos. Vacant buildings are no longer exempted.
- Affordable Housing: Made sure $5 million in housing assistance goes to low- and moderate-income households that need it most.
- Agency Oversight: Charged DCRA with determining how many condo converters have been delinquent or have never deposited their bonds, a crime that could be punishable by up to a $50,000 fine and six months in prison.
- Housing Violations: Co-sponsored emergency legislation that would increase the penalties of builders, developers or residents who violate the District’s housing code. ($2,000 in fines, 90 days in jail).
- Tenants Rights: Introduced and won Council approval for legislation that would prevent landlords from denying tenants their first opportunity to purchase by selling less than 100 percent of a building to a buyer.
- Tenants Rights: Introduced and won Council approval for legislation that would ensure that tenants are informed of pending ownership changes so they can have an opportunity to organize and purchase the building themselves by matching the price of a third party buyer.
- Tenant Rights: Called for the investigation and the cease and desist order that halted the tenant evictions at the Embassy Apartments after its owner tried to convert the building to a condominium.
- Affordable Housing: Principal sponsor of legislation to ensure that residents facing higher heating fuel prices don’t encounter an unintended tax increase as well.
- Housing Inspections: Participated in the inspection of a 27-unit apartment building after receiving complaints from tenants about gas odors and sewage. Although there was no sign of leaking gas, more than 50 building violations were found.
- Tenants Rights: Investigated and prevented the eviction of tenants in four buildings – one near Capitol Hill, one in Shaw, and two in Adams Morgan – due to the attempted abuse of eviction law and negligence by the DCRA Rent Administrator (who later resigned).
- Affordable Housing: Worked to preserve more than 1,000 apartments and Section 8 certificates at the 14th St. corner (2000 14th St, Jubilee Housing Complex, Fairmont I and II, Clifton Terrace, Wardman Towers, and Trinity Towers).
- Affordable Housing: Helped obtain financing to assist tenants to purchase and/or renovate 1225 Fairmont St, 1438-1440 Columbia Rd, 1418 W St, 1611 Park Rd, and 2900 14th St (Columbia Heights Village), and others.
- Affordable Housing: Sponsored the requirement that residential development proposals for the Columbia Heights parcels include set-asides of units for families of four, earning as little as $24,000 annually.
- Tenant Rights: Authored legislation that permits tenants as a group to appoint a receiver to oversee building repairs (a mechanism that is now being used at 3500 13th St).
- Rehabilitation: Led the initial effort to focus public attention on slum property conditions (e.g. 1418 W St, 1611 Park Rd), which resulted in the creation of the “hot property” list and consequent criminal prosecution against slumlords.
- Rehabilitation: Worked for rehabilitation of slum properties without evictions – not one tenant in any “hot property” was evicted in Ward One.
- Agency Oversight: Successfully pressured DC Housing Authority to improve pace of rehabilitation of boarded-up properties. Currently, firm deadlines are set, or work done, for nearly all seventy-three properties in Ward One.
- Agency Oversight: Worked with DC Housing Authority to improve conditions at public housing centers.
- Graffiti Removal: Authored legislation, unanimously passed by the Council, that allows summary removal of graffiti by the DCRA at nuisance properties.
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