Evening star., 1948-10-13
Uncle Sam as q Landlord

Uncle Sam is just another landlord as
far as the Districts rent control law is
concerned. If sustained, that finding by
the Court of Appeals could play hob with
bne of the pet theories under which the
National Capital Housing Authority has
run its public housing properties in Wash
tngton.
, The issue is whether Congress intended
to make public housing subject to the same
rent control that applies to private housing.
in enacting the local law it did not say SO
specifically. But it did say that the law
applies to "any landlord" And about two
months after enacting the local law, Con-
gress approved National Rent Act in
which public housing was included. The
Court of Appeals thinks the purpose of the
act applied to public as we'll as private
housing and that the National Capital
Housing Authority-which up to this time
has blissfully ignored local rent control
has no business boosting rents without
approval of the Rent Administrator.
, John Ihlder, executive officer of the
NCHA, wants the Department of Justice
to take the case to the Supreme Court.
His desire, in this respect, Is understand
able Under his system the tenant Is
charged a rental represented as cost, with
out profit. But if the tenants income
increases to the point that justif1es a
higher rent, the rent goes up. And when
the tenants income is so high that he
should be able to provide himself with
private housing in the open market, he Is
"graduated"-and in theory goes out into
the cold world to rent from private
owner.
The theory contains practical imperfec-
tons. One is that the highest rent
tenant Is charged for public housing may
still be substantially lower than the rate
for comparable private housing, even If
any is available If none is available the
graduation" of the tenant may have to
be postponed, unless he is to be evicted
arbitrarily. II he remains we find the
curious inequity under which one tenant,
with a relatively high income, is living in
public housing designed for persons OF the
lowest income, while the lowest income
tenant shifts for himself. -
Now the Court of Appeals finds that rent
increases cannot be made by the NCHA
without approval of the Rent Administra-
tor, The Rent Administrator can authorize
higher rents only on showing OF specific
increases in costs of operation, taxes, etc.
The graded system followed in public
housing schemes for graduation of tenants
is outside the Rent Administrators baili-
wick. The fact that public housing rents
may be lower than comparable rents in
private housing has no bearing on the case.
Congress froze all rents at the 1941 level
high and low Subsequent adjustments
were made from that level, or levels based
on cost of construction after 1941.
The Government seemed to inject the
argument in court that Uncle Sam was a
benefcent landlord, and therefore not
subject to rent control. But the Court OF
Appeals threw that aside. Purpose OF the
rent law was not to regulate landlord
tenant relations or fix fair rentals. The
purpose was to prevent increases in the
cost of living for tenants. Such increases
are affected by rent boosts in public as
well as private housing, said the court.
That makes sense. The surprising thing
is that since 1s41 the National Capital
Housing Authority has been able, as
landlord, to use its own judgment in raising
rents while every other landlord in town
had to depend on the Judgment of the
Rent Commission.