By Adam Pagnucco.
The Montgomery County Renters Alliance, a 501(c)(3) nonprofit financed in part by county government, has sent out an email blasting the Rockville City Council for refusing to adopt rent control at a meeting last week. In its aftermath, we reprinted remarks by Council Member Barry Jackson, who was one of 5 elected officials voting no. (Two others voted yes.)
As a 501(c)(3), the Renters Alliance is supposed to be a charitable organization which according to the IRS “may not attempt to influence legislation as a substantial part of its activities and it may not participate in any campaign activity for or against political candidates.” The group has been funded in part by non-competitive county government contracts for many years. Its latest non-competitive contract for FY26 is in the amount of $259,194 and is intended to “Provide for tenant education services about their rights under current laws, regulations, and available avenues of assistance.”
Renters Alliance Executive Director Matt Losak told Bethesda Magazine this about the Rockville City Council: “These things don’t happen overnight… People who are operating in good faith take time to be educated. People who are not operating in good faith … we can take time to remove them and replace them with people who are.” If Losak was making these remarks on behalf of his nonprofit, he should remember the IRS statement that “all section 501(c)(3) organizations are absolutely prohibited from directly or indirectly participating in, or intervening in, any political campaign on behalf of (or in opposition to) any candidate for elective public office.”
The portion of the Renters Alliance’s email discussing Rockville is reprinted below. I may address the specific policy arguments the group makes in the email at a later time. But for now, the email makes clear that whether they know it or not, and whether they want to or not, county taxpayers are subsidizing an advocate for rent control. The email even goes into specific details of the group’s meetings with elected officials, which would qualify under the IRS’s definition of lobbying.
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Subject Line: Rockville Renters Undeterred by Landlord Lobby Talking Points, Info, News
Mon. 7/28/2025
Rockville Renters Undeterred as Landlord Lobby and Council Allies Shut Down Rent Stabilization Discussion
In an impressive display of lockstep coordination, the Apartment and Office Builders Association (AOBA- the landlord lobbying organization) and their allies on the Rockville City Council organized a noteworthy showing of anti-rent stabilization testimony at the Mayor and City Council public hearing last Monday night. But to many informed observers, the performance appeared to backfire as representatives from nearly 15 landlord/developer companies, parroted mostly the same debunked talking points, perhaps believing that repetition makes false information true. See Bethesda Today story.
Despite efforts by the majority of Rockville City Councilmembers, led by Councilemember Adam Van Grack, to block discussion of rent stabilization, Councilmembers Izola Shaw and David Myles were able to reintroduce the item for discussion ahead of the July 21st meeting. Over a year ago, a growing movement of frustrated Rockville residents began to organize as “Rockville Renters United” and to testify regularly demanding protection from rent gouging. Soon after, Van Grack attempted to shut down the movement via a motion forbidding any discussion of even a modest rent stabilization program. Mayor Monique Ashton and Councilmembers Kate Fulton, Barry Jackson and Marissa Valeri joined him, pointing to long-debunked landlord/developer talking points hyperbolically threatening the “evaporation” of multi-family housing construction as justification for ignoring the direct evidence of displacement due to rent gouging from scores of Rockville renters’ testimony week after week. Both Rockville and Gaithersburg are independent municipalities excluded from Montgomery County’s rent stabilization law.
Grant Sams, President of the Reed Apartments Tenants Association and a leaders in Rockville Renters United expressed his frustration with Councilmember Van Grack making statements in support of a good faith discussion based on facts and evidence, while declining to request such data from Rockville city staff. “The data and studies are out there that show that cities can and have chosen to protect renters without interfering with housing development or quality and without interfering with good faith developers,” said Sams.
Hugo Cantu, AOBA’s representative said that renters claiming excessive rent increases, many in the double digits, were simply not telling the truth. “Proponents of rent stabilization often claim that tenants have received exorbitant double digit increases,” he said. “Annual increases in the city have not lived up those claims.” Cantu went on to say that if there were any excessive increases, it was because the tenant had been granted a one-month-free or some other type of concession. Rockville residents weren’t buying it. Over the past year, hundreds of Rockville residents testified that rent increases have been excessive, some in the double digits, and that many working families are being priced out of their long term homes.
The anti-rent stabilization councilmembers continued to infuriate their renter residents by rehashing long debunked examples of how rent stabilization supposedly destroys housing construction, and by extension, will eliminate affordable housing. They pointed to Takoma Park’s low construction rate, while ignoring that land availability and cost is not what it was during the Takoma Park building boom decades ago. They stated that St. Paul Minnesota is “walking back” its rent stabilization program. The Renters Alliance reached out to St. Paul officials who report that their rent stabilization program is going strong and is not being “walked back.” The anti-rent-stabilization councilmembers falsely repeated that rent stabilization programs make it impossible for new investors to make a profit, while ignoring that most, if not all programs, including Montgomery County’s, include exemptions for new construction with the precise intention of ensuring new investment is profitable and that all landlords are guaranteed a fair return.
Adding to the disingenuous comments, Councilmember Marissa Valeri complained that she had not been consulted by advocates on the issue citing CASA and the Renters Alliance. The Renters Alliance has had numerous conversations with Rockville City Councilmembers. Individual meetings were held with the rent stabilization opposition councilmembers, except Kate Fulton who was unavailable at the proposed times. Renters Alliance staff met individually with Mayor Monique Ashton, Adam Van Grack, Barry Jackson, and Ms. Valeri months in advance of the July 21st hearing for robust discussions at which each expressed a desire for good faith discussions.