Good afternoon.

It's 1 30 on October 5th.

We have a few items today on our agenda.

We are going to start with the first item on our agenda, which is Bill 826, landlord tenant relations, prohibition against price coordination and rent setting algorithms.

We have Councilmember Juwondo, who is here with us virtually, as well as the council president here in person.

And happy to turn it over to you for any brief comments.

If you'd like, Councilmember Juwanda, and then I'll turn it over to Council staff, and we can walk through the packet and the issues.

There's a couple of amendments for us to consider, and we can uh make our way through the uh decision points.

But with that, let me turn it over to

you.

Thank you.

Thank you, Chair Friedson.

Uh good afternoon.

And want to thank uh the folks that I know are there in person and those tuning in online and everyone who's shown support for this uh this bill.

Really glad we're taking it up at an important time.

Uh there's some context since I introduced this bill uh uh the city of Rockville uh supported when we introduced this bill, which we were appreciative of, uh recently passed its own uh ban of algorithmic devices in uh multifamily housing, and that'll go into effect on January 1st of next year.

Um as they explained, there are eight multifamily properties in the city that are managed by companies who have been named as defendants in litigation on this issue.

Which are our attorney general is in the state of Maryland as a party to um and there are there are obviously others in the county that are not in the municipal city of Rockville.

Um DHCA, which uh has shared with the committee and with me that there are 86 multifamily properties, um, 86, just to be clear, um in Montgomery County that are uh where the management is alleged to have used algorithmic software, uh which is the subject of significant litigation.

Um so this is many thousands of residents impacted in those uh potentially impacted in those 86 properties that could be paying higher rents and have uh less fair rent terms.

So this is really timely.

Um and I think in Montgomery County we've been very clear that we want to need people playing field and we want people to have access to high quality affordable housing.

Um, and this is a part of that uh discussion.

Um so at the public hearing we heard from the city of Rockville and we heard overwhelming support from residents for this bill uh because it's directly related to affordability, which is a huge challenge in our housing market in general, but particularly our rental housing market.

Um I'm hoping that we can uh pass this bill, and I'm happy to go through with the amendments.

I appreciate the co-sponsors uh that have uh joined on and look forward to uh talking through the uh amendment with staff and colleagues today.

Thank you.

Great.

Well, thank you very much.

Uh really appreciate it.

Uh

thank you to those who have joined

us.

We have

some

uh advocates of uh the community members experiencing homelessness and tenant advocates uh as well who have joined

us

uh today with the director of the Department of Housing Community Affairs, and we have our council attorney.

Uh so with that, let me turn it over to

Ms.

Wellens.

Uh we can walk through uh what the bill does.

Uh we can walk through some of the amendments before us.

I think colleagues should

have

uh copies of uh the amendments up for consideration and uh can speak to those uh when we get to them, but just wanted to turn it over to our uh council attorney and thank everybody for

their

participation and engagement on this.

Great.

Thank you, Mr.

Chair.

Uh thank you.

Good afternoon, council members.

Uh Bill 826, um, as was mentioned, it would amend chapter 29 of the county code.

It would define and prohibit using or subscribing to our algorithmic devices or engaging in price coordination when setting rents occupancy levels or other rental terms in the county.

Um algorithmic device would be um, as the bill is originally introduced, it would be defined as a product or service that uses one or more algorithms to perform calculations, uses data concerning historical or contemporaneous rents, rent changes, supply levels, occupancy rates, early surrent contract termination, and renewal dates from two or more landlords, public databases, or a combination of the public databases and two more or more landlords.

And that also recommends rents uh fees, rental terms, or occupancy levels for a rental unit.

Price coordination uh would be collecting from two or more landlords or from public databases, with or without the exchange of money, historical or contemporary contemporary contemporaneous data concerning rents, rent changes, fees, supply levels, occupancy rates, or lease or rental contract terms, and renewal dates, and recommending rents, fees, rental terms, or occupancy levels based on the analysis or processing of the data using an algorithmic device.

There are a few exclusions from the definitions of price coordination and algorithmic devices.

What would be excluded and thus permissible would be generating or using report published not more than once a month of existing rental data in an aggregated and anonymous manner without going on to recommend rents, fees, rental terms, or occupancy levels for future leases.