The Van Ness South Tenants Association sent a letter today to the Mayor’s Office of Legal Counsel (MOLC), appealing the decision by the DC Department of Housing and Community Development’s to deny VNSTA’s FOIA of the long-awaited, legally mandated rents database.

It appears that the database being prepared for release does not include historical data, meaning that it would be practically useless as a tool for researching rents prior to the publication of the database. This would prevent DC residents from investigating past efforts by some rental housing providers to overcharge residents by circumventing the city’s rent stabilization laws, which limit annual rent increases to 2% plus a measure of inflation (inflation only for those aged 62 or older.)

Moreover, the letter from VNSTA to MOLC argues that past efforts by DHCD to make some rental housing data online have been substantially flawed and not an operational database.

For these reason, VNSTA requests that MOLC overturn DHCD’s decision to withhold the data requested via FOIA, so that the database in progress can be reviewed before it is released later this year.