The D.C. Board of Elections persuaded a local court to dismiss a lawsuit challenging a proposed voter ballot initiative that would freeze rents in the District for two years.
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The D.C. Superior Court on Wednesday dismissed three claims in the lawsuit and granted judgment in the board’s favor, according to the court’s website.
The order paves the way for the initiative to appear on a future D.C. ballot. It comes amid a housing crisis that has put rent control policies in the spotlight nationwide. Presumptive D.C. mayor-elect Janeese Lewis George has pledged to devise policies to stabilize rent but has yet to offer specifics.
D.C. has an existing rent control law for buildings constructed before 1975 that caps increases at the region's consumer price index plus 2 percentage points.
Counsel for the plaintiffs didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment.
The lawsuit was brought by two property owners and sought to prevent the inclusion of the Rent Control and Housing Eligibility Adjustment Act of 2026, or Initiative No. 88, on the D.C. ballot. The initiative would also freeze rents in future periods of high inflation as well as revise some affordable housing requirements.
The plaintiffs, D.C. residents James Douglass and Anthony Alexis Lucadamo, sued the board in May, alleging that the initiative is “not a proper subject for inclusion” because it would exceed the District’s police power by regulating “all privately owned residential property in the city under an arbitrary rule.”
They also claimed that the proposed rent freezes and changes “collectively create material conflicts with federal housing programs.”
More Affordable D.C., the campaign committee behind Initiative 88, said in June the lawsuit had delayed the launch of the proposed measure. More Affordable D.C. didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment.
The National Association of Realtors, which in August said it was joining a coalition of real estate organizations in seeking to file an amicus brief in the case, said in an email it didn't have a public statement on the news.
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