Dear TENAC Activist:
 
 Please take a few minutes this week to e-mail City
 Councilmembers who are members of the Consumer and
 Regulatory Affairs Committee to save and improve the
 right of DC tenants to have the first chance to purchase their 
 buildings when for sale! Last month this committee held a 
 hearing concerning legislation to close a loophole inserted by
 former Councilmember John Ray ten years ago. Instead of 
 focusing on ways to close this loophole, which allows building
 owners to be exempt from offering their building for sale to
 their tenants if they are selling less than 100% of
 the building, several Councilmembers echoed calls
 from the real estate industry to weaken the entire law.
 If this law is weakened-rent control will be next to be
 targeted.
 
 For over 23 years, the Rental Housing Conversion and
 Sales Act has helped thousands of DC tenants avoid
 displacement and become first time homebuyers by
 establishing tenant cooperatives and condominiums.
 Many of these cooperatives are limited equity coops
 where the sales price only increases with inflation
 in order to preserve low-income housing opportunities.
 However in the past two years, with encouragement
 from Mayor Williams, numerous developers have utilized
 the loophole and have not offered their buildings for
 sale to tenants. Instead they have pretended that they
 are only selling 95% of their building.
 -------------------------------------------------
 This hearing focused on legislation offered by
 Councilmember Phil Mendelson(At-Large) who is a
 Committee member. Please send a short e-mail to
 Councilmember Mendelson today:
 pmendelson@dccouncil.us. 
 
 Draft Message:
 
 Dear Councilmember Mendelson:
 
 I am a registered DC voter and a tenant. A majority
 of DC residents are tenants. I am writing to urge you
 to strengthen the Housing Conversion and Sales Act.
 This Act allowed you to become a homeowner at McLean
 Gardens. You offered a bill recently in attempt to
 close a loophole in this law inserted by former
 Councilmember John Ray. However there are problems
 with your bill. Lowering the threshold from 100% to
 50% would not close the loophole. All building sales
 need to be covered by this law as they were before
 Council adopted the Ray loophole. I strongly object
 to the provision in your bill that would exempt tenants
 in federally insured buildings. Most of these
 buildings are subsidized and their residents are
 some of the lowest income residents in the city. We need
 a stronger law, not a weaker law. We need to restore
 the law that helped you become a homeowner.I look
 forward to your response.
 

-----------------------------------------------------
 At this hearing Councilmember David
 Catania(At-Large) who is also a member of the Committee,
 shocked tenant representatives by publicly urging the real estate
 industry to sue the city and have this first right
 of refusal provision struck down by the court as
 unconstitutional. He also urged that the law be
 weakened by adopting calls by real estate
 representatives to force tenants to match timetables
 used by developers to purchase buildings. Such a
 change would gut the law. Currently the law gives
 tenants sufficient time to get organized and obtain
 financing.
 
 Please send a message to Councilmember Catania:
 dccatania@dccouncil.us:
 
 Dear Councilmember Catania:
 
 I am a registered voter and a tenant. A majority of
 the city's residents are tenants. I was shocked at
 the statements you made last month at the hearing
 concerning the need to strengthen the Housing
 Conversion and Sales Act. You urged real estate
 industry representatives to sue the city to strike
 down the law as unconstitutional. Such statements
 conflict with your responsibilities as an elected
 official and a attorney to protect the city's
 financial, legal and welfare interests. This law is
 not unconstitutional. You claim that you are a
 proponent of homeownership. Yet why did you
 encouragea weakening of this homeownership law, which has
 allowed thousands of DC tenants to become first time
 homebuyers, by supporting industry proposals to
 shorten the timetable for tenants to purchase? Such
 a change would gut the law. Please use your legal
 abilities to strengthen the law by closing the
 loophole which has denied many tenants the right to
 purchase in the past two years. I look forward to
 your response.
 
 ---------------------------------------------------
 Committee Chair Sharon Ambrose(Ward 6)should be sent
 an e-mail similar to the one above. Ask her to
 include your message in the hearing record which closes on
 November 30. She vocalized support for industry
 proposals to weaken the law.She represents many
 tenants who live in her ward. As Chair of this
 Committee she has done little to help tenants.
 Her e-mail address is : sambrose@dccouncil.us.
 
 Finally please contact the remaining two members of
 the Committee: Councilmembers Harold Brazil(At-Large):
 hbrazil@dccouncil.us and Sandy Allen(Ward 8)
 cmallen@dccouncil.us. Ask them to strengthen the law
 by closing the loophole, opposing efforts to exempt
 federally insured buildings and opposing weakening
 of purchase timetables for tenants.
 
 Please send this e-mail to several friends who are
 tenants.
 
 Thank you for your support and activism!
 Happy Thanksgiving!
 
 Mark Looney for TENAC(DC Tenants Advocacy Coalition)
 mwl99@yahoo.com
 www.tenac.org