Tenants Under Siege! A Chronicle:
TENAC CHRONICLES TENANTS UNDER SIEGE...
Bright Spot for Tenants: OTA Marches On!
Written by Jim McGrath Thursday, 10 September 2009 20:47
LAUDS CONFIRMATION OF TENANT ADVOCATE JOHANNA SHREVE
While there seems to be little for D.C. tenants to rejoice in, during this era of landlord encroachment on tenants' rights, the depletion of affordable housing and increasing developer intrigue circumventing tenants' rights in all forms, there is a bright spot that TENAC hopes is a harbinger of better days, the confirmation of Johanna Shreve as Chief Tenant Advocate for the District of Columbia. We laud the DC Council's approval of Ms. Shreve as Chief Tenant Advocate on May 14th by unanimous vote.
Indeed, the inception and practical day-to-day functioning of a Chief Tenant Advocate and the Office of Tenant Advocate (OTA), we hope, marked a new day for tenants. The creation of such an office itself tells much about the great need for tenants to protect their rights, and that they must be protected in fact as well as in theory, enshrined in practice as well as in the statute books.
With a mandate for 17 positions, yet operating with only six staffers, and on a shoestring budget, the first thing to be done is to treat OTA with the respect it deserves, and that means funding it and staffing it adequately. An annual budget of just under $2 million is not serious. That kind of money is chicken feed. Prominent landlord lawyers earn more than that in a year. Considering OTA's long list of mission obligations and its constituency - - two-thirds of the city's population live in rental housing, OTA needs and deserves a lot more.
Lastly, TENAC commends Councilmember Mary Cheh for her hearing on the nomination, which was fair and expeditious
...See Endless Landlord Efforts Around Rent Control....
Written by Jim McGrath Thursday, 10 September 2009 20:37
LANDLORDS NEVER MET A METER
THEY DIDN'T LIKE!
We thought electricity metering in apartment buildings for tenants (individual and submetering) was a dead letter. We thought that Chairman Mary Cheh's bill killed all forms of metering period, once and for all. Now we understand that individual metering is permitted, with an offset provision, to evade becoming a de facto reduction in services. TENAC believes that authorizing meter installation of any kind, sooner or later, is going to impose unauthorized utility costs on tenants. By definition, that will become a backdoor rent increase. We understand that management at the Dorchester House is installing meters, even as we write. That needs to be corrected. "Individual metering" sounds like submetering's baby brother, and the $2 "offset" Dorchester is offering its tenants is enough to power a 40-watt bulb for 40 minutes.
TENAC believes individual or submetering are unauthorized rent increases waiting to happen. They are a Trojan horse waiting to trample rent increase caps recently enacted and a device that no matter how you camouflage it, ultimately becomes a "reduction in services."
Dorchester House has suffered a lot of hardship over the years, including probably one of the longest running litigations in the city's history, reminding one of Jarndyce v. Jarndyce in Dickens's Bleak House. Dorchester House isn't Bleak House, however; it is a beautiful building, filled with outstanding tenants, two of whom sit on the TENAC Board. We urge Dorchester House management to get with it, get with the tenants, and get rid of the meters.
Landlord Submetering Efforts Begin In Earnest
Written by Jim McGrath Thursday, 10 September 2009 20:30
ENERGY CONSERVATION - YES! SUBMETERING - NO!
Yes, we are in an energy crisis. If there were ever any doubt about it, remember the spectacle of our maximum leader going to the Saudis, hat in hand, oil can in the other, and coming back without a drop. Now come District landlords with an epic plan to solve the energy crisis: submeters to put energy cost increases on the backs of tenants.
There are many things to be said about this subterfuge. The first is that it is nothing more than a flagrant end-run around rent control to disguise an illegal rent increase. The second is that it flies in the face of the vast majority of tenant leases which specify that rents include all utilities. The third is that most tenants already pay an ever-increasing separate surcharge for air conditioning - a cost that has become annualized. Fourth, tenants are being hit with huge Capital Improvement (CI) costs for building repairs and belated conservation measures, i.e., energy saving windows that should have been completed and amortized over the last forty years. Witness the huge $15 million CI, the largest in District history, tenants are battling at 4000 Massachusetts Avenue, NW.
Wisely, submetering has been eliminated from a recently proposed bill and it needs to stay out. In fact, it needs to have a stake driven through its heart. Let the fat cat K Street crowd and business community be submetered. That is where energy waste is profligate. Tenants have borne far too much of the epic increase in rental housing costs. Remember most District apartments now command market-rate costs. Market rate means windfall profits for landlords, since the "market" has become a casino and the landlords are breaking the bank at Monte Carlo.
...See Seniors Whacked Again...
Written by Jim McGrath Thursday, 10 September 2009 20:13
Round 1. Hit with 100% Rent Increases!
Round 2. DC Council Does Nothing!
Round 3. Tenants Face Poverty, Eviction, Life in Shelters or on the Streets!
Imagine yourself a District tenant, 80+ or 90+ years old, in declining health, on limited or low income, suddenly "whacked" with a 100% rent increase. Never mind that you have lived in that building 30, 40, or even 50 years, that you have been a model tenant, never missed a rent payment, and always paid on time. It gets worse!
Doubling their rent means allocating 70%, 80%, even 90% of their meager income just to keep the roof over their head, with a pittance left over to stay alive - for things like food, clothing, medicine, etc. Where does it leave you if you can't pay a 100% rent increase? It leaves you 20 days from an eviction notice. It leaves you 30 days from life in a shelter (if you can find one). It leaves you 30 days from life on the street.
Some elderly and disabled tenants are protected from rent gouging. Many others are not! It is for them that TENAC is working overtime to help. We know two tenants who have collectively paid rents to the same landlord for over 100 years, and who now cannot afford to live under their own roof. The elderly and disabled have paid their dues to society. They should not have to spend their declining years trying to survive rent gouging. The Council needs to remedy that situation NOW!
LONG LIVE AFFORDABLE HOUSING FOR ALL!
Page 1 of 3
Recent Videos
Condolences Condoleezza
Latest Dispatches
Latest From United for Peace & Justice
©2008–2010 Wrath of McGrath All rights reserved.