Evening star., 1941-07-12
The Rent Survey

It Is difficult to understand how
the establishment of a rent control
commission in the District of Co.
lumbia, as proposed in bills pending
before the House District Committee,
would solve the two principal hous-
ing problems" cited by the Depart
ment of Labor'S Bureau of Labor
Statistics in its special survey of
rental conditions among 10000 Fed
eral employees in Washington. These
chief problems, according to the
bureaus report to the committee, are
"the high level of rents in the
Washington area and the scarcity of
sood loW-rent housing" That the
average level of rents is higher here
than in many other parts of the
country is not surprising, in view of
the fact that living standards in
general are higher in the Capital
than in many communities But the
bureaus survey fails to subStantiate
the oft-repeated charges that rents
are "skyrocketing' in the Capital as
q result of wave of profteering in
dulged in by landlords bent on TAX
ing unfair advantage of the defense
crisis.
The adminiStrationfavo rent
control bill which Federal Price
Control Administrator Leon Hender-
son recommended to the committee
yesterday states in its preamble that
such drastic legislation is necessary
because the national emergency and
the defense program have led or
will lead to profiteering and other
oppressive practices by some owners
of rental properties" Yet the re-
port of the Bureau of Labor Sta
tiStics shows that "a comparatively
small number of Federal workers
who were living in Washington be-
fore April l, 1910, are paying more
rent now than last year." that avail
able reports show that less than
nine per cent of Federal employees
who have lived within the Washing
ton area for more than thirteen
months are paying more rent for the
same quarters or for quarters which
they do not consider more Satisfac-
tory" that Landlords renting houses
or apartments in the Washington
area, as in other parts of the coun-
try, have, as a rule, not raised rents
for established tenants who have
been there more than a year." that
rents were raised for only 35 per
cent of the tenants" who had been
in one place for more than a year
and were lowered for 1.6 per cent"
Within the District proper, the bu-
reau found, only 2 per cent of the
established house or apartment ten
ants had rent increases, the average
increase in the Northwest section
being six dollars month.
These findings, far from support
Ing sensational statements about
widespread rent raises and profteer-
ing, seem to reveal an extraordinarily
small number of rent increases for a
city suffering from an acute shortage
of dwelling units, especially of the
compact types demanded by many
Government workers. Undoubtedly,
there have been isolated instances
of rental abuses, but to enact sweep
ing legislation which would have the
effect of penalizing and stigmatizing
all owners of rental property because
of the misdeeds of a few is essen
TALLY unfair.
Mr.. Henderson himself declared
recently that there can be no effec-
tive control of prices without parallel
control of cost factors entering into
the formulation of prices. If this is
so-and it is based on elemental
logic-it would be unreasonable to
apply ceiling to rents in Washing
ton unless ceilings also are applied
to wages of help, to utility costs, to
taxes and to the sundry other items
Of expense that 60 into the rental
structure.