By Adam Pagnucco.
Council Member Will Jawando, who is arguably MoCo’s foremost champion of rent control and is running for county executive, is pressuring the City of Rockville to adopt rent control. The city, along with the City of Gaithersburg, is not covered by the county’s rent control law which was passed two years ago.
It’s unusual for county council members to openly pressure municipal officials to pass legislation, but nothing stops Jawando from crusading for rent control. Here is a video he posted of his appearance at a rent control rally outside the Rockville City Hall along with a transcript.
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We passed in #RentStabilization in Montgomery County because it was the right thing to do — our friends in Rockville deserve the same protections. @Progressive_MD @CASAforAll @izola4progress @SEIU500 pic.twitter.com/xSzxPvEHuq
— Councilmember Will Jawando (@CMJawando) July 1, 2025
Narrator: About half of Rockville’s population rents their homes. Over half of city renters spend 30 percent or more of their income on rent. Bottom line: tens of thousands of Rockville renters are struggling to make ends meet.
Attendee: These monstrous rent hikes are not business as usual. They are an extraction from our community.
Attendee: I’m giving hope that over the last two and a half years we’ve had allies like Will Jawando in pushing for rent stabilization in Montgomery County.
Attendee: Do you believe housing is a human right?
Crowd: Yeah!
Jawando: I grew up as a low income renter here in Montgomery County. I know what’s it like to stand by the AC unit waiting for that time in May or June, whenever it came, for it to kick on so that we weren’t sweating in our house. I moved multiple times from Long Branch to Silver Spring and back again trying to find affordable housing. This is not theoretical for me and it’s not theoretical for the 50 percent of Rockville residents who rent. This is about providing a basic human right to every resident in Montgomery County.
It is unconscionable that people would have their rent raised 10, 20, 30, 40 percent or more in one year. Our Department of Housing and Community Affairs calls a raise of over 10 percent constructive eviction. That means it’s the same as sending an eviction notice. People cannot afford it. And all Council Members [Izola] Shaw and [David] Myles are trying to do, and the residents that have testified, the hundreds over the last several months, is say let’s have a full debate and discussion and vote. That’s all they want.
We did it in Montgomery County just right there, that building right across the street, and we came out with a bill that wasn’t perfect but that protects our 400,000 community members who are renting in Montgomery County – except it doesn’t protect the folks in Rockville. And don’t let anyone tell you that developers or owners of these properties can’t afford it – they absolutely can.
These are people’s homes. This is not a “nice to have.” It’s good for our community. It’s good for public safety. It’s good for education and it’s the right thing to do.
When folks are being laid off at the federal level when job insecurity is at its highest level, the last thing we need to do is to have more people at threat of eviction or being displaced from their homes.
A tool in the toolbox that needs to happen is rent stabilization. That’s what we need here in Rockville. That’s what we need in the county. And that’s why I’m here. Thank you so much.
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What is the actual record of rent control so far in Montgomery County?
Developers began canceling housing projects even before the law was passed in 2023.
Apartment building sale transactions sharply declined.
National real estate financing providers have redlined MoCo, cutting off money to fund multifamily housing projects.
MoCo’s multifamily housing permits have fallen from hundreds of units per quarter to eight units in 2024’s fourth quarter and seven units in 2025’s first quarter. (That excludes Rockville and Gaithersburg, which are not covered by rent control and have their own permitting processes). The rest of the state, including Anne Arundel, Frederick and Howard counties, has seen increases in multifamily building permits.
Let’s bear in mind that permanent rent control has only been in effect in MoCo since July of last year.
Jawando has reacted to the redlining discussed above by publicly telling developers “don’t come here.”
Will Rockville city officials obey Jawando and pass rent control? We will find out soon enough.