For 14 years, Dalila Bounou and her 9-year-old daughter have rented a one-bedroom apartment in Silver Spring that Bounou describes as cramped but safe. But when her monthly rent jumped to $865 in August -- a 7 percent increase -- the payment combined with her electricity bill of up to $300 a month began to feel like too much.
"I like Montgomery, but Montgomery now is very expensive," said Bounou, 40, who works at an in-home child-care center. "Maybe only rich people can stay in this area."
It is a sentiment that Montgomery County tenants' advocates say is becoming more common in a costly housing market where rent increases often soar beyond growth in personal income, according to a report released Friday by the county's first "tenants work group," which held four public meetings and commissioned a survey of Montgomery renters conducted by Salisbury University. Montgomery Executive Isiah Leggett (D) appointed the group, made up of tenants and government officials, in 2008.
The group's report concludes that Montgomery residents living in about 95,000 apartments, townhouses and rental houses are often priced out of their homes, lose security deposits with little explanation and face eviction for no reason.
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