The DC Council has enacted key COVID-19 credit report reforms. As part of a unanimous vote on a larger emergency and temporary legislative package, the Council on June 9, 2020, enacted protections for residents at risk of impaired credit reports arising from delayed or missed payments resulting from financial hardships due to the COVID-19 emergency.
The law continues the right, previously enacted earlier in 2020, for DC residents to file a personal statement with a credit report agency indicating that they have been financially impacted by the COVID-19 emergency and have that statement included in their credit report file. The new law adds the important protection prohibiting users of credit reports (including landlords), from considering adverse information from the public health emergency period (currently extended through July 24, 2020) for all residents who have filed such a statement. These statutory protections are expected to be in effect at least until March 2021 and may be further extended by the Council.
DC is the first jurisdiction in the country to enact such a right for residents facing credit report harms from the COVID-19 crisis, which has caused massive unemployment, wage loss, and financial upheaval for DC residents and Americans around the country. Credit report impairment is an issue of racial justice nationally and especially in DC, where even pre-pandemic, 43 percent of DC residents from communities of color have a debt in collections, more than quadruple the rate for white DC residents.
DC residents will need to affirmatively file the personal statement to protect their rights under this new law. Tzedek DC and community partners will be issuing guidance to assist DC residents in filing their COVID-19 personal statements with the credit reporting agencies. DC residents or service organizations with questions on the reforms should contact Tzedek DC Staff Attorney Linda Coe at lc@tzedekdc.org.
Councilmember Robert C. White, Jr., who introduced and championed the credit reforms in the DC Council, said: “I wanted to help residents whose credit could be negatively impacted by coronavirus emergency.... I’m thankful [to] Tzedek DC for bringing this issue to my attention.”
Tzedek DC Founding President and Director-Counsel Ariel Levinson-Waldman said:
We thank Councilmember Robert White for his leadership on these protections, as well as Chairman Phil Mendelson and fellow members of the Council for working on these issues and voting unanimously to support these vital consumer protections for vulnerable families experiencing debt-related problems. While much work remains to be done, these protections represent a significant step forward.
Along with our Strategic Partner, the Jewish Community Relations Council of Greater Washington, we appreciate the advocacy on these issues by our DC service provider partners at Amara Legal Center, Children’s Law Center, Legal Aid Society of the District of Columbia, National Consumer League, and Washington Legal Clinic for the Homeless. We are also grateful to national leaders on these issues at Color of Change and the National Consumer Law Center, which have provided critical support and input.
Background Documents
We Need Credit and Debt Protections in COVID-19 Relief (Color of Change, March 2020)
Credit Reports and the COVID-19 Crisis: What States Can Do (National Consumer Law Center, March 2020)
Tzedek DC And Allies’ Recommended Consumer Protection Provisions for the DC Council Emergency Bill (April 3, 2020)