And that’s not going to help rents. At all. What with over 5,000 non-colonial guardsmen occupying D.C., the Trump administration has decided, as a cost-saving measure, to move them from hotels to rental apartments:

Officials say the contract allows for a “long-term housing solution” for the deployed personnel and the deal, facilitated through the online rental platform Placemakr, will secure 2,000 “apartment-style lodging units” for the service members….

The contract is set to cover the housing fees for troops through June 2027, according to the military news site Task and Purpose. It’s unclear how long the National Guard Bureau will rent the apartments.

These are not low-end apartments either: these are expensive apartments near Metro Stations in expensive neighborhoods. Essentially, Trump et alia are pulling 2,000 high-end apartments off the market, which will likely drive up prices, at least in some neighborhoods. And if you think renting hotel rooms long term is expensive, well, that’s certainly not an affordable option for city residents.

Obviously, this is not the worst problem stemming from the illegitimate National Guard occupation, but it’s just one more thing the residents of the mainland colony known as the District of Columbia have to deal with–and if we had statehood, we wouldn’t have to.

D.C. statehood now.