The Van Ness South Tenants Association today sent a letter to the Mayor’s Office of Legal Counsel, asking it to overturn a decision by the DC Housing Authority to deny VNSTA’s request for information about the use of housing vouchers at 3003 Van Ness. The tenant association seeks to find out how Equity Residential’s reliance on high profits from the voucher programs affects rents and services at the property.
Here is an excerpt from the letter:
“The FOIA requests both the number of units rented using vouchers and the rents actually paid, because this combination of data is critical to understanding the effect of the voucher programs. It appears that Equity may be charging voucher recipients more than it would for non-voucher recipients. If so, this would partly explain why the company has treated its long-time tenants so poorly – it can make higher profits by preferentially leasing to voucher recipients, discriminating against non-voucher recipients. It also would explain why Equity refuses to provide adequate maintenance and neglects building security.”