D.C. Rolls Back Eviction Protections Over Millions in Unpaid Rent

(Photo by OLIVIER DOULIERY/AFP via Getty Images)

The Council of the District of Columbia on Tuesday passed emergency legislation reforming the city’s eviction proceedings due to a surge in unpaid rent, causing some affordable housing developments to be on the brink of foreclosure, reported NBC Washington.

Under the Emergency Rental Assistance Program, which provides low-income residents with subsidized housing, people were protected from eviction each time they applied for assistance.

The result: hundreds of millions of dollars in losses for landlords.

“Now, we have a serious problem. We are at risk of losing that affordability, and once we lose those affordability covenants, they’re gone,” Mayor Muriel Bowser said Monday.

“And here’s the root problem. We have about a hundred million dollars, as this slide shows, in unpaid rent to affordable housing providers. And if things don’t change, that number will skyrocket to $150 million by next year.”

Council Chair Phil Mendelson proposed removing the COVID-era law that protects tenants from eviction.

“The crisis is especially hurting affordable housing providers, which affects both the maintenance of current affordable projects as well as the prospect of creating more affordable housing units. We are seeing arrearages that are taken to court for eviction in the tens of thousands of dollars. I think these may be outliers, but cases of $70,000 or more being owed in rent, and I find that mind-boggling,” he said.