The DC Rental Housing Commission has announced the CPI (1.1%) and the Social Security Cost of Living Adjustment or SS COLA (0.3%) for “rent control year 2017,” which starts on May 1, 2017 and ends on April 30, 2018.  

This means that the maximum standard annual rent increase will be 0.3% (SS COLA) for tenants living in a rent control unit who have registered their elderly or disability status with the Rent Administrator’s Office. For all other rent control tenants, the maximum will be 3.1% (or CPI + 2%).  

Please note the SS COLA cap is in place for the first time this year thanks to legislation sponsored by Housing Committee Chairperson Anita Bonds and Councilmember Brianne Nadeau. For the elderly and disability tenants, living in a rent control unit, this legislation makes the standard rent increase one of the following:

• the CPI 
• 5% of rent charged 
• SS COLA, 
• whichever is least 

Previously the cap was the lesser of just the CPI or 5%.  

The current caps (CPI + 2%) – 0% percent and 2% respectively -- will continue to apply to standard rent increases that become effective prior to May 1, 2017.