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Council hearing exposes sharp division over Rental Act changes to TOPA
Summary
Supporters told the Committee on Housing that changes in the proposed Rental Act would restore investor confidence and boost tax revenue; opponents and tenant advocates said the same changes would reduce tenant rights and raise displacement risk. The committee did not vote on the measure.
Council Member Robert White opened a budget oversight hearing of the Committee on Housing on June 9 by saying the city faces a budget shortfall and housing crisis and the council must be “mission focused” when it decides what problems a budget is meant to solve. Testimony on a separate but related item — the Rental Act, which would alter the District’s Tenant Opportunity to Purchase Act (TOPA) — dominated much of the hearing.
Developers and commercial brokers who backed changes spoke first. Liz De Barros, CEO of the District of Columbia Building Industry Association, told the committee she “strongly support[s] Subtitle two-five of the Rental Act,” and urged the council to keep a 25‑year threshold for the market-rate exemption and to restrict what tenant assignees…
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