Evening star., 1935-04-17
HIGH RENT PLANTS
STIR COMMITTEES
TO DISCUSS ACTION
Joint Conference Authorized
to Decide on Remedy
for Situation.
REAL ESTATE COUNSEL
DENIES EX0RBITANCE
Survey by Employees Group
Claims Emergency Conditions
Exist in Washington.
BY JAMES E. CHINN.


Aroused by continued complaints
over alleged rent gouging," the House
District Committee today made prep
arations for a Joint conference with
the Senate District Committee to de-
termine what remedial steps should
be taken.
The committee discussed the rent
situation in executive session and as
a result, Chairman Norton was au-
thorized to seek an immediate con-
ference with Chairman King OF the
Senate District Committee to make
arrangements for a joint meeting OF
the two committees to map out a
course of action.
Mrs. Norton said an investigation
of the rent situation by the joint
Senate and House District Commit
tees, or legislation creating a rent
commission to control rentals similar
to the one existing in Washington
during the war period had been sug-
gested.
The two committees have not met
together since joint hearings on the
District liquor control bill more than
q year ago.
Complaints Pour In.
Members Of the House committee,
according to Mrs. Norton, have been
swamped with lever mounting COM
plants" about rent gouging" from
members of Congress as well as Gov
. ernment employees. Some of these
oiv,fc cI oh
tain apartment house owners are
planning to raise rentals as soon as
Congress adjourns.
In the meantime. committee men,
bers received from Roger j. White
ford, counsel for the Real Estate Leg
islative Committee, letter containing
an offer to submit the results of its
survey of the rental situation here
Whiteford explained the committee
was organized in January, when there
was an indication an effort would be
made to enact rental legislation, for
the purpose of ascertaining facts con-
corning the rental situation in the
District.
Claims Increase Slight.
The Real Estate Committee, White
ford declared, found that no emer-
gency exists and that rents generally
have increased barely one-f1fth of /
per cent between January l, 1884, and
January l, 1885, compared with a
rise throughout the country during
the same period of almost per cent.
Returns on apartment properties,
Whiteford also said, cannot be con-
sidered unreasonable unless an av-
erage net income OF less than 5 per
cent on the assessed value of prop
critics be deemed unreasonable.
Whiteford added:
II respectfully request, therefore,
as counsel for this committee, rep
reSenting, as it does, upward of $50
owners controlling over S42,000,000
in assessed value of apartment prop
critics having some 1000 tenants
and paying over 100000 in taxes,
the opportunity to be heard before
time, effort and money are wasted
In an endeavor to prove charges and
statements which we can show are
not based upon the actual facts"
Report Finds Emergency.
Meantime, a report on a recent
survey Of housing conditions in WASH
tngton by the District of Columbia
Federation of Federal Employees Un-
ions, described conditions here as an
emergency, unprecedented in its Sc
verify and resulting in unusual hard
ships"
Some of the facts revealed in the
survey, which was conducted through
questionnaires sent to Federal en-
ployes, included:
Housing conditions here are now
more critical than at any time in the
history of the city.
"A definite shortage exists in vir-
tually all forms of housing.
"Rents are exorbitant."
Crowded Situation Cited.
The report also points out that
tenement" conditions exist, with as
many as four or more persons occupy
ing one-room apartment or single
furnished room. The high rentals for
these living quarters place them be-
yond the means of the family with
but one wage-earner, the report con-
tinues.
Rentals for suburban property here
are mounting rapidly because of the
exodus of Government workers to
nearby cities, the report states, and
occupancy Of unfit quarters in anti
quated rooming houses has been in
creased because many workers cannot
afford the high rentals of homes and
apartments.