High Rents Put Area Apartments Beyond Reach of Many Residents
High rents and a shortage of apartments have combined to make rental housing expensive and difficult to find for many Washington area families and individuals, according to the Metropolitan Washington Council of Governments. The council based its conclusion on a recently completed survey of more than 238,000 rental units in the region.</br></br>A 4.7 percent rent increase in District of Columbia rent-controlled units, which is scheduled to take effect April 1, will make apartments in the city even more expensive. The automatic annual rent increase is based on the consumer price index for urban wage earners and clerical workers. Last year's rent increase was 1.6 percent.</br></br>The COG study, released last week, said the median rent for all rental housing in the area is $630 per month. When broken down by size, the medians ranged from $500 for an efficiency apartment to $917 for a unit with four or more bedrooms. The median is the point at which half of all apartments cost more and half cost less.</br></br>COG launched the survey after the Department of Housing and Urban Development set the level of federal rental subsidies so low that more than a third of the families in the metropolitan area were unable to find housing they could afford, even with government aid. The results "clearly demonstrate" that proposed subsidies published last August in the Federal Register "do not reflect the true rental market and justify" an increase in federal assistance, the report said.</br></br>On the basis of the findings, the Council of Governments asked for an increase of about 10 percent in the amount of federal housing subsidies for this area. HUD is expected to approve the increase soon, said David Robertson, COG housing planner and author of the report.