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[quote=Anonymous][quote]

Anonymous wrote:

But aren't all rent controlled units owned by companies? Or at least by people who are running a buisiness for profit? You need to own more than 4 units to be subject to rent control.

The only reason to be a landlord is for profit. It's not fun.
[/quote]

It isn't just rent control that discourages small landlords.  DC law prohibits landlords from refusing to accept housing vouchers, because under DC law it is illegal to discriminate on the basis of how someone gets their income.   That puts smaller landlords into a regulatory system that they might otherwise prefer not to participate in.  It is extremely difficult under DC landlord tenant law to evict tenants for any reasons OTHER than non-payment of rent.  So, for example, let's take the "housing first" type approach so beloved by our progressive council members---where housing vouchers get handed out to the mentally ill/substance abusers currently encamping in tents around the city.  I'm a small business person who has invested most of my life savings into a 4 unit building.  I have three stable rent-paying tenants who take care of the property and get along with each other.  When I advertise the 4th unit, I get a voucher applicant who moves in and starts wrecking the place.  Their drug dealing friends come to hang out and disturb the other tenants.  My other tenants move out (who can blame them?).  I now don't have enough rental income to pay the mortgage and the operating costs of the building and I have to pay an attorney to try to evict the voucher tenant but--- because they can pay the rent (and Georgetown Law School provides a free legal clinic to help tenants), I am going to have a lengthy and costly fight to remove them.  At this point, selling the building to a condo developer starts to look like a preferable alternative. [/quote]

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