The Politics Hour: D.C. Councilmembers Christina Henderson and Montgomery County Councilmember Natali Fani-González

The Politics Hour with Kojo Nnamdi

The D.C. Council approved emergency legislation this week tightening rules around its emergency rental assistance program that also rolls back some pandemic-era renter protections and making it easier to evict people who aren’t paying their rent. Councilmembers say they did it to prevent catastrophe.It's a move tenant advocates are criticizing. At-Large D.C. Councilmember Christina Henderson sat down with Kojo and Tom to discussed why the council gave the green light to the measure.

Under the new rules, residents will no longer be able to self-certify their eligibility for the city’s Emergency Rental Protection Program. She said hundreds of millions of dollars in unpaid rent are leaving landlords who provide affordable housing unable to pay their building’s underlying mortgages. T

"We would have a bigger housing crisis on our hands if we saw a number of our housing providers go out of business," Henderson said.

Plus, she provided insight into what the city is doing to help laid-off Circulator employees, as well as the latest with the council's investigation into Ward 8 Councilmember Trayon White.

Like other local jurisdictions, Montgomery County is also weighing controversial zoning changes in an effort to ease the housing crisis. District 6 Montgomery County Councilmember Natali Fani-González weighed in on a proposal the county executive is calling "misleading."

She said the county executive's concerns such a plan would just add more market-rate units rather than affordable homes are valid, but also premature. There's currently no legislation on the table for the Council to consider, only a series of options recommended by the Planning Board.

Fani-González did say the Council will have a role if and when any zoning changes do get approved.

“If we are talking about duplexes, triplexes, fourplexes, the government is going to have to step in to make sure some of those units are affordable for people," the councilmember said.

Plus, Fani-González addressed what the county is doing to protect schools and houses of worship as the number of antisemitic incidents continues to rise.

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