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D.C. pushes single-stair apartments higher with added safety rules | Housing Wire

April 09, 2026
  • D.C. Policy Center

On April 2, 2026, Executive Director Yesim Sayin was quoted in Housing Wire:

“Allowing single-stair buildings at modest heights does not create a new class of high-risk construction,” Yesim Sayin, D.C. Policy Center’s executive director, said in testimony at a January hearing on the ordinance. “It enables small walk-ups and adaptive reuse projects to be built more efficiently—projects that sit squarely between single-family homes and high-rise towers. These are precisely the housing types that many neighborhoods say they want and that the District chronically underproduces.”

Read more: D.C. pushes single-stair apartments higher with added safety rules

Additional reading: Reducing regulatory barriers to housing production in the District of Columbia

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D.C. Policy Center


Established in 2016, the D.C. Policy Center is a non-partisan research and policy organization committed to advancing policies for a strong and vibrant economy in the District of Columbia. Through rigorous research and collaboration, the D.C. Policy Center develops and tests policy ideas, disseminates its findings, and engages in constructive dialogue and debate.

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