{"id":17139,"date":"2015-10-08T09:00:19","date_gmt":"2015-10-08T13:00:19","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.foresthillsconnection.com\/?p=17139"},"modified":"2015-10-15T22:16:24","modified_gmt":"2015-10-16T02:16:24","slug":"how-one-senior-found-a-way-to-make-dc-more-affordable","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.foresthillsconnection.com\/home-front\/high-rise-life\/how-one-senior-found-a-way-to-make-dc-more-affordable\/","title":{"rendered":"How one senior found a way to make DC more affordable"},"content":{"rendered":"

by Barbara Cline<\/em><\/p>\n

Kris Laurenti has lived and worked in Washington, DC, her entire adult life. But like many of the District\u2019s 100,000-plus seniors, she wondered how she would be able to \u201cage in place\u201d in an increasingly unaffordable city.<\/p>\n

Fortunately, Laurenti found her answer – and she hopes her story will make DC more affordable for you.<\/p>\n

Meet Kris Laurenti<\/strong><\/p>\n

\"Kris<\/a>

Kris Laurenti<\/p><\/div>\n

Laurenti, a licensed clinical social worker, is the special assistant to the senior deputy director of the Community Health Administration\/DC Department of Health. In 2001, she moved her ailing mother into her rent-controlled apartment. For the next seven and a half years she served as her mother\u2019s caretaker with help from Ward 3\u2019s Iona Senior Services.<\/p>\n

This past spring, through a link on Iona’s website<\/a>, Laurenti found my Forest Hills Connection column on 2015 rent increases under rent control<\/a>. In DC, rent-controlled apartments like hers, which were built before 1976, must limit their annual rent increases to the federal government\u2019s annual inflation index for urban areas (CPI-W) plus 2%.<\/p>\n

But seniors like Laurenti, age 62 or older, are eligible for an even lower annual rent increase. The \u201celderly provision\u201d of DC\u2019s rent control law gives Laurenti the right to register for a permanently-reduced annual rent increase based on CPI-W alone. She registered her eligibility with the free RAD Form 6<\/a> from the DC Department of Housing and Community Development (202-442-9505).<\/p>\n

The result? Her rent this year went up by the 2015 CPI-W\u2019s 1.5% increase instead of by CPI-W plus 2% (3.5%). This means Laurenti pays $22 less per month in rent. Her total savings for this year will be $264. Doesn\u2019t sound like much? To the contrary – this is just the start of HUGE savings.<\/strong><\/p>\n

Let\u2019s see what happens to Laurenti\u2019s rent payments, using the actual rent increases from 2010 through 2015. Here, we assume she starts with a $1,500 monthly rent in 2009. In her rent-controlled building, her neighbors will see their rents go up for the next six years by CPI-W plus 2%. Laurenti\u2019s rent will increase by CPI-W alone.<\/p>\n

\"Click<\/a>

Click here<\/a> to download a more detailed table.<\/p><\/div>\n

By 2015, Laurenti’s neighbors will pay $1,879 per month in rent. Laurenti will pay $1,672. Her total rent payment savings in those six years? More than $8,000.<\/strong><\/p>\n

You might be eligible for reduced annual rent increases<\/strong><\/p>\n

There are about 79,000 remaining DC rent-controlled units, with 50,000 located in Wards 1, 2, 3 and 8. (Data from A Rent Control Report for the District of Columbia<\/a><\/em>, 2011 (page 13), from NeighborhoodInfo DC.) Housing advocates estimate that 10%, or 7,900 of these rent-controlled units, may be occupied by seniors like Laurenti who are eligible but unaware that they have the legal right<\/strong> to apply for a reduced annual rent increase.<\/p>\n

You are eligible if:<\/p>\n