-Todd St Hill

June 10, 2025

“It’s not TOPA, rent is too high!”

Washington D.C.-Housing advocates and providers were back in front of the D.C. Council Committee on Housing yesterday, the second time in as many weeks, to discuss the impact of the Tenant Opportunity to Purchase Act (TOPA) on investor interest and affordable housing preservation.

Much of the discussion in the hearing, however, revolved around rights provided to renters through the Tenants Opportunity to Purchase Act (TOPA), and funding outlined in the Mayor’s fiscal year 2026 (FY 26) budget proposal. 

“We need to be out building buildings, but the housing ecosystem in D.C. has utterly collapsed,” said Jair Lynch, of Jair Lynch Real Estate Partners.

Lynch blamed provisions within TOPA for reducing housing production in the District. They said the Rebalancing Expectations for Neighbors, Tenants, and Landlords Act (RENTAL Act) will solve the District’s current housing crisis, and that the District doesn’t need a few 100 million dollar housing luxury housing development projects but housing production at a lower cost per development project. 

“I have to explain this to my 92 year old father, why? And I talked to him about the car that he bought in 1981 which is red Toyota Corolla, middle of the road car. Toyota still makes those cars. Toyota also makes a $10 million dollar f1 vehicle. We have pointed all our new construction codes, all our new construction goals, all our new construction hiring components to make f1 vehicles, but we need to make a lot more Toyota Coronavirus, and that's the problem, ” Lynch said.

We could not find any data that shows TOPA is correlated with the reduction in housing production the District has experienced over the last 2 years. 

If the RENTAL Act is passed in its current form it would amend TOPA exempting recently constructed/renovated with a majority of units at market-rate, ensuring developers and sellers have a better opportunity to turn a profit. The RENTAL Act would weaken renter’s TOPA rights, giving renters less time during the sale of their building to form a tenants association and decide whether they want to exercise their right to choose and negotiate with a new owner, or purchase the building for themselves. 

TOPA is sometimes used by tenants-where other government agencies fail-to force landlords to make outstanding repairs to residential buildings. Councilmember White, who chairs the committee on housing, expressed frustration at government when it fails tenants and forces them to use other resources outside of their intended purpose.  

“Why not focus on fixing the tools that are supposed to address this as opposed to taking tools that are for something else and make it fit that,” Councilmember White said. 

Housing advocates supported tenants' use of any tool at their disposal, and said TOPA should remain intact and furthermore, funding in the HPTF should be set aside for housing preservation. Mychal Cohen, Senior Policy Advisor at the D.C.  Policy Center said any building or landlord who receives financial support from the city to deal with their rental arrears should also be passing down some of those benefits to the people who actually live in the building.

“What I I'm suggesting is that in responding to this housing crisis right, the council should be looking for solutions that don't just support the landlords, but instead also help folks, whether it be through forgiveness of rent to be able to stay in their building to avoid, you know, what are really damaging costs of being evicted, both for individual households and, you know, for their community in general,” Cohen said. 

Five years ago D.C. ranked among the top 10 cities for new apartment construction, but housing production is at a two year low. Cohen acknowledged that the District needs more housing but said paying more attention to the longer trend and not a snapshot, illustrates the housing problem. 

Some D.C. residents who provided testimony virtually were frustrated as they described leaking roofs, pest infestations and mold that contaminates their food, vowing not to pay rent until repairs are made on their homes.

According to the Mayor’s budget for FY 26 $12 million out of the total $100 million set aside for the Housing Production Trust Fund  is allocated for preservation, $10 million to repair vacant and blighted housing, and $2 million for TOPA.

In past budgets the entire HPTF was available for housing preservation or development projects 

However, Colleen Green, Director of Department of Housing and Community Development, who supports the RENTAL Act, said that the full $100 million will be available for either housing development or preservation projects, in theory. 

The Committee on Housing is not scheduled to reconvene before the end of the month.