RENTAL Act Speeds Up Evictions, Weakens Renter Safeguards, and Is Pushing More Households Toward Homelessness
Homelessness driven by eviction has long been a problem in DC.
In 2020, Invisible People reporters met up with Helimah, a woman enduring vehicular homelessness with a story as tragic as it was familiar. Helimah ended up living outside because her landlord unexpectedly doubled the rent shortly after her mother died. Two front-running causes of homelessness are death in a family and unaffordable rental rates. Helimah was struck by both.
Her only redemption at the time was the pandemic-era financial aid package she used to purchase her RV. While she was still homeless, having an RV meant she didn’t have to sleep directly on the street or sidewalk, and for that, she expressed gratitude.
During the hardships of COVID-19, some government programs were helpful to DC residents, particularly people like Helimah, who could not afford the astronomical rental rates and were already homeless or teetering on the edge of losing stable housing.
Gradually, as the world recovered from the health scare, the US economy flailed, and even the makeshift protections ushered in during 2020 were stripped away. The wealth gap grew astoundingly wide, and as a result, eviction rates in DC soared beyond pre-pandemic levels.
In the aftermath we’re witnessing in real-time right now, renter protections have fallen by the wayside, and evictions are widespread.
The RENTAL Act: A 2025 Bill That Stripped Pandemic-Era Tenant Protections from DC Renters
By late 2024, DC renters were already being evicted at escalated rates. Evictions climbed 18% higher than the five-year pre-pandemic average and kept going, forcing almost 2,000 new renter households into the eviction process, a traumatizing event that often ends in homelessness. 2024 marks the year that evictions in the region reached a ten-year record high.
According to the Urban Institute, for every 100 renter households that need an affordable home in DC, there exist only 33 viable rental units. This illustrates an affordable housing deficit of 67 out of 100, leaving approximately 58,800 low-income households scrambling, unable to afford the rent.
Crippling rent burden has shocked this region, with low wages and inflation exacerbating the issue. The year this crisis was revealed, local legislators began compiling a plan that would punish the very renters already struggling.
The bill became known as the RENTAL Act, an acronym that stands for Rebalancing Expectations for Neighbors, Tenants, and Landlords. Essentially, the expectation it seeks to “rebalance” is the one where tenants have pandemic-era protections. In place of those 2020 safety nets, this bill instills strict regulations that make the eviction process easier and faster for landlords, and the proof exists in the current rates of subsequent homelessness.
Among other things, the RENTAL Act does all of the following:
- Speeds up the eviction process. Under the legislation, landlords can file for an eviction after 10 days of delinquency instead of the previous 30-day timeframe. The overall timeline for eviction proceedings has also been shortened to around two weeks. The swift legal process favors landlords and makes it easier to evict than it has been in decades, not to mention faster.
- Rolls back protections previously provided by the Emergency Rental Assistance Program(ERAP), creating barriers to assistance for tenants in need by forcing them to prove financial hardship, as the odds are stacked against them.
- Establishes a “One Strike” Law for tenants who are arrested. Under this law, tenants who are arrested may be subject to immediate eviction, even before a trial can prove their guilt or innocence. Some legal representatives have dubbed this the “one strike” law.
- Allows landlords to force their tenants to pay money while an eviction case is pending by letting them file a protective order before the tenant’s side of the story is heard. This means tacking on fees and sanctions even if the tenant is in the right.
To quote Amanda Korber, Supervising Attorney at Legal Aid DC, “The RENTAL Act attempts to upend decades-old housing law that permits tenants to tell their story before a protective order is entered.”
Experts Say It’s Important to Organize at Times Like This
Pablo Estupiñan, the director of Strategic Actions for a Just Economy (SAJE), spoke with Invisible People about the importance of organizing around, advocating for, and understanding tenant rights.
Estupiñan began his advocacy by organizing tenants in buildings in the Bronx where landlords were not getting repairs done, which caused tenants to face harassment and evictions. He then moved on to coalition and campaign work and was instrumental in pushing the Right to Counsel Campaign that passed in 2017, making New York City the first city in the nation with the tenant’s right to counsel.
“As COVID protections lifted, we saw a surge of evictions in New York, so I can see the same thing happening right now in DC, and then beyond, as new legislation makes it easier to evict,” said Estupiñan, noting that this coincides with the increasing affordability crisis. “People are already rent-burdened and struggling, and now landlords are exploiting them.”
Bills Like the RENTAL Act Make Tenants Easy to Exploit, and Some Might Self-Evict
Estupiñan believes there are too many self-evictions taking place because renters are uninformed and disunited. They grow increasingly intimidated as the laws are less in their favor.
“I think the big issue is that tenants might not know when they aren’t getting served proper notices,” Estupiñan explained. “That means that sometimes tenants don’t end up fighting their case in court, and they must understand that Washington, DC has the right to counsel ordinance.”
“Tenants can get support, including potentially getting a free lawyer to represent them,” he continued. “Much of this centers on people knowing their rights, understanding the rules about receiving proper notices, and ensuring that landlords serve them correctly, via court papers. Unfortunately, sometimes renters choose to self-evict and not fight their case when there are free resources out there for them to get representation.”
Organizing, Estupiñan argued, is part of knowing your rights and the only way to fight against the current imbalance of power.
“Ultimately, people should know their rights,” he said. “People should know they have the right to organize. I advise renters to just talk to their neighbors and organize together, because once the people come together, they have collective power, and that is a proven strategy in making sure that your landlord is maintaining the building, not harassing you, and not evicting you.”
Exercise Your Collective Power by Adding Your Voice to the Conversation
Renters make up a sizable and increasing portion of the population. There are currently 102.7 million people in rental homes. Stripping their already fragile protections isn’t just callous; it’s calculated, creating a huge imbalance of power that leads to mass evictions.
The good news is that as a collective, we still have the might to fight back. Tell your local legislators to increase tenant protections and draft laws that reduce evictions by making housing a human right.