Cockroach photos in clear frames sat on the witness table as D.C. Council Housing Committee Chair Robert White heard hours of testimony Thursday, Oct. 1, from tenants and landlords about the state of the District's rental housing.

White, an at-large councilmember, signaled two policy moves at the roundtable: cutting city funding to developers with patterns of neglect and requiring buildings owned by limited liability companies to disclose the people behind them, WUSA9 reported.

"When you have an LLC to own a building, we want to know who the people are behind it … we can see that pattern," White said. He added that negligent developers should not receive city money for new construction.

The testimony split sharply.

Jan Baker, a NoMa renter and her building's tenant association president, brought framed photos showing piles of trash in common spaces and cockroaches. She described broken doors that have allowed an unhoused man to live in the stairwell, with reported sightings of the man exposing himself. Baker told the committee elevator repairs take weeks in her building.

"The quality of service has gone down, but the amount of rent that you're paying has not changed," Baker said.

No public response from Baker's building management was available.

Jeff Levin, a landlord who purchased a six-unit building in 2019, told the committee a tenant in his one occupied apartment has not allowed inspectors inside and has not paid rent since 2023. He alleged five rent-controlled units have been kept off the market as a result.

A survey by the Small Multifamily Owners Association of 621 landlords found 35% of tenants had not paid rent for more than two years. The same survey found 58% of landlords said they delayed or canceled maintenance because of unpaid rent. The association did not disclose the survey's methodology beyond the respondent count.

The D.C. Council approved the Rebalancing Expectations for Neighbors, Tenants, and Landlords Act, known as the RENTAL Act, in September 2025. Mayor Muriel Bowser had introduced the legislation in February 2025 to reform the emergency rental assistance program, modernize evictions and strengthen tenant safety protections. Key provisions took effect earlier in 2026, according to a Mayor's Office release in July.

White framed the RENTAL Act as the Council delivering on landlord demands and said his focus has shifted to what he called "bad landlords." The Small Multifamily Owners Association is pushing to accelerate evictions further, arguing owners have not yet felt the law's full effects.

White has not introduced formal legislation on LLC transparency or funding restrictions. No timeline for a bill has been announced.