Today, the Council has taken an important step toward addressing the District’s housing crisis with the passage of the Rebalancing Expectations for Neighbors, Tenants, and Landlords (RENTAL) Act. This legislation is the product of significant consultation with many local stakeholders, including tenants, advocates, housing providers, and developers, who engaged in this process with seriousness and good faith. The bill makes it easier for housing providers to remove tenants who violate their lease by failing to pay rent or engaging in serious criminal conduct. At the same time, it raises important questions about how we balance landlord needs with tenant protections, including special protections for victims of domestic violence. Evictions can have lasting and destabilizing impacts on families and communities, which is why these changes must always be viewed alongside our broader responsibility to preserve tenant rights and ensure long-term housing stability. In this debate, I worked to strengthen the ability of tenants to negotiate with prospective investors as part of the Tenant Opportunity to Purchase Act (TOPA). TOPA is a District law that gives tenants…
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