Rockville this week became the first jurisdiction in Maryland to bar residential landlords from using algorithmic devices to set rents — but it remains to be seen whether Montgomery County will follow suit.

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Grant Samms, president of the Reed Tenant Association and the head of Rockville Renters United… told Bethesda Today he and other tenant advocates are hopeful that Rockville’s ban on algorithmic rent pricing will make a “meaningful difference in how high average we see average rents climb” across entire buildings.

However, he said, tenants still need more protection from retaliation, eviction without good cause and the double-digit rent increases that led his organization to push for a rent stabilization law in Rockville.

 Read more at bethesdamagazine.com

Your rent could be determined by an algorithm that compares your building to similar properties — and your landlord doesn’t have to tell you.

But a new bill in the Montgomery County Council aims to change that. Sponsored by at-large council member Will Jawando, the legislation would prohibit landlords from using these algorithms to set rates — which Jawando called “collusion.”

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Grant Samms, a community organizer with Rockville Renters United, said he’s seen his neighbors driven from their homes after unexpected rent increases, and worries that algorithmic pricing is to blame.

“This is not how markets are supposed to work,” Samms said during the public hearing. “It’s doing damage to the most vulnerable people in our community.”

Read more at thebanner.com

Tenant rights groups joined councilmembers from the city and county level on the steps of Rockville City Hall Monday to demand more protections for renters.

One of those renters was Jamie, who was born and raised in Montgomery County, and has been renting in Rockville for the past two years. She said once she saw rent increases force some of her community members onto the street, she knew she had to help.

“I saw someone being evicted from an apartment building,” she recalled. “Seeing all of their stuff, all of their memories, all of their possessions in an 8x8ft square outside in the weather with strangers picking through that? I don’t know how anyone can see that and feel like that’s a dignified way to treat people.”

Read more at WUSA9.com

Two Rockville City councilmembers will introduce a motion at an upcoming meeting to discuss rent stabilization.

Councilmembers Izola Shaw and David Myles said they planned to revisit rent stabilization after listening to about 30 people who urged council members to enact rent stabilization during their meeting June 16.

The topic was discussed last summer but not adopted last summer.

Read more at MyMCMedia.org