On July 7, 2026, the Committee of the Whole of the Council of the District of Columbia, chaired by Phil Mendelson, held a public hearing on Bill 26-493, the Strengthening Tenant Receivership and Oversight for Neighborhood Growth (Strong Homes Amendment Act). The hearing began at 3:13 PM and concluded at 5:33 PM in Room 412 of the Johnny Wilson Building. The bill, introduced by Councilmember Robert White and co-introduced by several other councilmembers, aims to amend the Tenant Receivership Act, the construction codes, and the business organizations code to address chronic neglect by landlords, expedite the appointment of receivers, and provide stronger enforcement tools. The record will remain open until 5:00 PM on Tuesday, July 21, 2026.
I'm calling to order this hearing. This is a public hearing of the committee of the whole of the Council of the District of Columbia. I'm Phil Mendelssohn, Chair of the Council and Chair of the Committee of the Whole. Today is Tuesday, July 7, 2026. The time is 3.13 in the afternoon. We are in room 412 of the Johnny Wilson Building. The subject of this hearing is Bill 26-493 entitled Strengthening Tenant Receivership and Oversight for Neighborhood Growth. This legislation was introduced by Councilmember Robert White, co-interduced with Councilmembers Propinto, Matt Freuman, Brianna Doe, and Janice Lewis George. Introduced on November 19th last fall. The looking at the long title of the bill, the bill would amend the tenant receivership act to clarify grounds, notice, and procedures for receivership, expand tools available to the court and receiver, establish cost recovery and lien mechanisms, and authorize tenant protections. The bill also would amend the construction codes to strengthen injunctive relief and amend the business organizations code to permit disillusion and related remedies in case of fraud or abuse. The looking at the hearing notice to restate this a little differently, the stated purpose of Bill 26-493 is to amend the Tenant Receivership Act to include violations of the Air Quality Amendment Act of 2013 as grounds for the appointment of a receiver, and to clarify what constitutes a serious threat to the health, safety, and or security of the tenants to allow for the electronic mailing of violations and to require more frequent reporting of progress made by the receiver in abating conditions giving rise to the appointment. Bill 24-493 also amends the construction code approval and amendments to act 1986 to clarify provisions related to injunctive relief for illegal construction activity and amends Title 29 of the code to authorize the Superior Court to dissolve a limited liability company in a proceeding by the Attorney General if certain conditions are met. So today we are focused on building code and um uh decent tenant uh housing conditions. The record in this matter will be open for two weeks. That is, it will close at 5 p.m. on Tuesday, July 21st. What does that mean? As a political body, we will consider comments whenever they come in right up to the final vote. But we have to follow record on legislation, and for those purposes, anything that is given to us by 5 p.m. on Tuesday, July 21st will be included in the record. Before I call witnesses, I'm going to recognize uh colleague, Councilmember Robert White, who's the author of the legislation. In case you have an opening statement. Thank you, Chairman. Um, and uh thank you for scheduling this hearing at such a busy time. Last fall I introduced the strong homes amendment act, uh, with Attorney General Brian Schwab because of what I hear from tenants uh way too often, families heating their homes with the stove in January, parents putting buckets under a leaking roof, and children sleeping in rooms with mold on the walls. These are not rare stories in DC these days, and in nearly every one of them, landlords knew these issues existed, had been cited for violations, had been fined, and simply decided that waiting out the government was cheaper than doing repairs. Now I want to be clear. Uh this bill is not about every landlord. This bill is about the small number of landlords that are neglecting properties and mistreating residents. Um, this bill is about properties like Marbury Plaza, 2M, Benning Park, where residents look at me to say, why council member White, after years of telling you these issues exist, is the building not fixed? This is unacceptable. And I tell them I agree it is not acceptable. This the district already has a tool to hold the worst slum lords accountable. It's called receivership. A judge puts a neutral professional in charge of the building. The rent goes to repairs instead of in the owner's pocket, and the property gets brought back up to code. The tool works. Since we've had an independently elected attorney general, the district has won the appointment of a receiver in nine cases. And in every one, tenants recovered restitution. The district won penalties to deter the next bad actors, and repairs finally got made after years. In eight of those buildings, the property has already passed out of the hands of the neglectful owners and into new ownership. And the ninth looks headed the same way. The problem is how long the worst actors can stall before a building is brought under receivership. Owners propose repair plans that never that they never intend to follow. They miss deadline after deadline and dare the district to hold them in contempt. They try claiming they never got the notice, and when the court finally runs out of patience, they file for bankruptcy or say that they'll sell the building to start the clock over. At Marbury Plaza, tenants waited years between the first court order and a receiver taking charge. No one should have to litigate for years to have heat and hot water. This bill closes that loophole, those loopholes.