Housing
I support:
- Permanent citywide rent control and a permanent moratorium on evictions
- A ‘social housing’ model based on at-large candidate Will Merrifield’s proposal
- Enabling tenants to buy their homes from their landlords at reasonable prices
- Increasing funding for the Local Rent Supplement Program and the Housing Production Trust Fund
- Tax relief for housing-cost-stressed owners and renters
- Restrictions on foreign investment into the city’s property market
- Bringing abandoned properties into municipal city ownership and converting unused or underutilized office space into affordable housing units
I am a strong believer in investment in affordable public housing as an option for low- to middle-income residents. I also believe that it’s well overdue that the Council launches a campaign against the buy-to-let landlord profiteering and parasitism that for so long has blighted our communities and ruined countless lives along the way. In addition to supporting an increase for programs such as the Local Rent Supplement Program and the Housing Production Trust Fund, I would also introduce a law that would provide an option for tenants to buy their homes from their landlords at reasonable prices.
Of course, no discussion about housing in DC would be complete without mention of the nefarious effect that gentrification has had on our city’s urban fabric. Gentrifiers’ pretentious obsession with so-called “urban chic” has come at the expense of the poor and middle and working class communities across the city. These communities, some of which have been in the city for generations and are disproportionately made up of people of color, have faced protracted displacement as ever rising rents and taxes price them out of their own neighborhoods.
Therefore, in addition to lifting the property tax threshold to $500,000, I also support citywide rent control and a permanent moratorium on evictions. On all three counts, this would help halt the steady onward march of gentrification that has so harmed our city and forced countless numbers of people to relocate to neighboring jurisdictions. I believe that the Council should also consider offering tax relief for housing-cost-stressed owners and renters, imposing restrictions on foreign investment into the city’s property market, bringing abandoned properties into municipal city ownership and converting unused or underutilized office space into affordable housing units