Page images
PDF
EPUB

Senator CAIN. I think I would like to have it in the record because it nearly covers your operating expense, your operating figures for 1943 through some time in 1948, through your estimated 1948. (The document referred to is as follows:)

[blocks in formation]

*The $5,850 listed for 1948 salary increase should properly be included in the 1947

[blocks in formation]

This office began operations January 2, 1942 in the middle of a fiscal year. The annual appropriation was estimated to be $51,440. However, due to the fact that the office was in operation only part of the period and that considerable delay was experienced in filling new positions the office operated on a budget of $27,970 for the period January 2, 1942, to June 30, 1942.

Mr. COGSWELL. If you care to have it, I might give you a brief summary of the operations of the office.

Senator CAIN. I wish you would, sir.

Mr. COGSWELL. As I said, the staff-maybe, Senator, I might give you the history of the act.

The District of Columbia Emergency Rent Act was approved December 2, 1941. Under its terms it was to have terminated on the 31st of December, 1945. It has since been extended twice so that it now terminates as of December 31, 1947. It provides for the rental control of all housing accommodations in the District of Columbia rented during the year 1940 or in January 1941, and that became effective as of January 1, 1942.

There is an administrator, a deputy administrator, a general counsel, four examiners, one of whom devotes considerable of his time as assistant general counsel due to the great amount of legal work required of the legal general counsel, not only in the office but in court as well.

The examiners are experienced trial lawyers, all members of the bar of the District of Columbia. In cases falling within section 4. of the act, and that is the one which relates to the adjustment of rent and minimum service standards either up or down, as the case may be, the act requires that the examiners make written findings together with their recommendation, their recommended order as to rental and service standards of the housing accommodations in question.

Under this section either party, dissatisfied with the ruling of the examiner, may file a petition with the administrator to review the action of the examiner. From the decision of the Administrator either party may appeal under section 9, to the Municipal Court of the District of Columbia which, under the act, is given exclusive jurisdiction of all cases arising under section 4.

Since the organization of this office, to and including March 14, 1937, 32,981 cases have been filed under section 4 of the act.

However, between January 2, 1947, and March 14, 1947, 2,234 cases were filed from which it will be seen that the work of the office, instead of decreasing, is materially increasing. The great majority of these petitions are seeking increases in rentals. On a per annum basis, the above totals are distributed as follows:

1942 that was our first year, 12,276 cases; 1943, 4,635 cases; 1944. 3,602 cases; 1945, 5,200 cases; 1946, 4,493 cases; the first 3 months of this year, 2,234.

In addition to these cases, there is an average of 8 or 10 cases per day filed with the office seeking the determination of what is described as the first rental. That is a rental for housing accommodations which were not rented during the year 1940 or in January 1941, but subsequent thereto for the first time.

On March 25, 1946, the United States Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia, reversing a decision of the Municipal Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia, held that where housing accommodations had been rented during the year 1940 or on January 1, 1941, and there had been subsequent material changes in structure, facilities or services, they were not to be treated as frozen at the 1941 ceiling but were to be considered as new housing accommodations not theretofore rented.

Following this decision, the necessary procedural changes were made in this office, and cases coming under this category are now filed separately. Generally speaking, they cover cases coming in where material repairs and alterations have been made and where housing accommodations are changed from unfurnished to furnished. Between March 25, 1946, and March 14, 1947, 814 cases have been filed with this office. All told, therefore, 32,981 formal petitions have been filed with this office since January 1, 1942. Of this total, 31.731 cases have been disposed of. There are now 1,250 cases on the calendar. There are none uncalendared. Since January 1, 1947, 1,885 cases have been disposed of by the examiners.

From a total of 30,917 cases disposed of since January 1, 1942, and susceptible to court review, 82 petitions for such review have been filed in the Municipal Court of the District of Columbia.

Between July 1, 1946, and March 14, 1947, 10 cases were filed: no pending cases were decided by the court; 2 pending cases were dismissed by the parties, and 3 pending cases, after notice by the administrator, were recalled from the municipal court and remanded by the administrator to the examining division for further proceedings leaving now pending before the court 11 petitions on appeal.

The general counsel participates in all cases, filing briefs and presenting oral arguments. In addition, he, or the assistant general counsel are frequently called to court in connection with landlord and tenant cases, not originating in this office, but in which the allegation is made that the Rent Act is applicable.

Also under the jurisdiction of this office are approximately 9,000 rooming and boarding houses. This type of housing accommodation is frequently the subject of dispute in this office as the "business,” as distinguished from the premises, is not infrequently sold and the new owners do not always report the transaction to this office, and in addition undertake to adjust room rentals without first receiving the

I wish to state that under the act, a rooming or boarding house is defined as one in which living quarters are rented by the householder to more than four persons. When that act was written it was more than two, and then it was extended to four.

The examining division maintains a premise-card file covering the rental of housing accommodations in this city. It can be conservatively stated that there are 55,000 such cards in this file. It is impossible, however, to estimate the number of units involved as one card may cover only the rental of a private dwelling, whereas another card may cover an apartment house containing as many as 300 or more housing units. These premise-cards are kept current at all times.

The public relations division handles telephone complaints and interviews persons calling at this office in relation to violation of rent ceilings and minimum service standards as provided for by the said act.

This is always a very busy division of this office. In addition to other duties, the deputy administrator devotes a great deal of his time to this division and there is a legal assistant to handle problems of a purely legal nature, many of which arise daily.

The following is a break-down of the number of persons interviewed in the public-relations division during the operation of this office:

For the year 1942, 23,677; for the year 1943, 22,700; for the year 1944, 15,457; for the year 1945, 10,674; for the year 1946, 9,949; or a total of 82,002. Between January 2, 1947, and March 14, 1947, 1,666 persons were interviewed. During the years 1942, 1943, and 1944, the number of persons visiting the office was so great that the administrator often assisted the public relations division in addition to his other duties. In those centers we had so many people calling up there and coming up there and they were crowded in the halls that the office was not big enough to accommodate them.

Telephone inquiries and complaints handled by this division are as follows:

For the year 1942, 25,633; for 1943, 28,040; for 1944, 24,893; for 1945, 25,024; for 1946, 18.388; or a total of 121,978. Between January 2, 1947, and March 14, 1947, 3,404 telephone inquiries and complaints were handled.

In reference to eviction notices filed with this office under the provisions of the said act, there were for the year 1942, 968; for 1943, 1,300; for 1944, 2,531; for 1945, 2,422; for 1946, 3,092; or a total of 10,313.

Between January 2, and March 14, 1947, 429 eviction notices were received. In part, the large number of eviction notices received for the year 1946 cover the return from the armed services of residents of the District of Columbia who, during the war, had rented or sublet their housing accommodations.

As of March 14, 1947, there were pending before the Administrator 80 petitions to review the action of the examiners in cases handled under section 4 of the Rent Act.

I think, Senator, that might be described as the highlights of the report.

Senator CAIN. I think from your office, Mr. Cogswell, that it is about all we need. It is a very interesting document historically.

Senator CAIN. For people who like to look at it from hindsight a good many years from now and wonder what sort of a world it was in which people lived during the years in the 1940's.

We understand and take for granted that you operate a temporary agency?

Mr. CoGSWELL. Yes, sir.

Senator CAIN. We hope that the time soon comes when your agency will be folded up in its entirety.

Mr. COGSWELL. Yes, sir.

Senator CAIN. I thank you very much for coming, Mr. Cogswell. Do you have any questions, Mr. Jackson?

Mr. COGSWELL. Thank you very much.

Senator CAIN. We shall now hear, if she is present, from Miss Clara W. Herbert, Librarian of the Public Library of the District of Columbia.

We are delighted to have you with us, and if you would merely provide the reporter with your official title, we will be privileged to hear what you have in mind to say.

(Statement later received for the record from Administration of Rent Control for the District of Columbia.)

Office of Administrator of Rent Control for the District of Columbia

[merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][ocr errors][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small]

1942: The Office of Administrator of Rent Control began operations January 2, 1942. Due to the fact that it operated only part of the fiscal year and that considerable delay was experienced in filling new positions the office operated on a budget of $27,970 for the period January 2, 1942, to June 30, 1942.

1943: Increase due to fact that 1943 was the first full year of operation and 11 additional positions were requested.

1944: Increase due to request for $1,500 additional for "Other obligations" and approximately $11,500 for 3 additional positions, payment of overtime and bonus under Public Law 49, Seventy-eighth Congress, and legislative changes in salary ranges due to Public Law 694, Seventy-ninth Congress.

1945: Increase due to cost of within-grade promotions.

1946: Decrease due adjustment in request for "Other obligations."

1947: Increase due to request for funds to meet cost of salary increases provided by Public Law 390, Seventy-ninth Congress, and within-grade promotions. 1948: Funds for only 6 months of operation are requested for the fiscal year 1948, because the law under which this office operates expires December 31, 1947. Increases over 1947 included in this amount due to request for 1 additional position and payment of within-grade promotions.

STATEMENT OF CLARA W. HERBERT, LIBRARIAN, PUBLIC LIBRARY OF THE DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA, WASHINGTON, D. C.

Miss HERBERT. It is Clara W. Herbert, Librarian of the Public Library, District of Columbia.

Senator CAIN. All right.

Miss HERBERT. I do not know, Senator, whether you would care to have this summary.

« PreviousContinue »