What’s at stake…
Our city’s historic rent stabilization law, which helps keep rents affordable, is now being reviewed by City Council. Unfortunately, the review process opens the door to weakening the law for renters.
Please sign our PETITION to urge the Council to continue to prioritize tenant rights, and continue to limit allowable annual rent increases to no more than the rate of inflation.
- Nearly half of Takoma Park households are renters. About half of these benefit from rent stabilization. (The other half live in units that are exempt from the law.)
- Our law caps annual increases for rent-stabilized units at the rate of inflation (Consumer Price Index) – 2.4% this year. The County’s cap for the year is more than double at 5.7%.
- Forty-seven percent of our renters are either “housing cost burdened”, spending over 30% of their income on housing, or “severely burdened”, spending 50% or more on housing.
- Our law keeps rents affordable for many residents with low incomes. That creates stability and sustains the diversity and wellbeing of our whole community.
- The Council’s review and possible revision of our law could either increase or reduce tenant rights and the availability of affordable rental housing for those with few options.
- Weakening our rent stabilization law would be especially cruel while anti-immigrant violence and economic forces threaten Takoma Park renters, who are mainly people of color.
PLEASE SIGN THE PETITION HERE.