Category: Advocacy

Despite a promise to end homelessness in D.C., the mayor’s proposed FY24 budget funds ZERO new housing vouchers. As you know, tenant vouchers are a crucial support for thousands of D.C. residents. The impact of no funding next year will be devastating for those who are unhoused/housing insecure. With such a well-resourced D.C. budget, D.C.’s lowest-income residents should not have to continue to struggle for basic resources each year. Tell D.C. Council to end homelessness now by funding new housing vouchers in the FY24 budget! Click here to take action and send an e-mail to D.C. Council! Read more…

Mayor Bowser’s proposed FY24 budget isn’t just tight, it is deeply and fundamentally out of balance– particularly when it comes to the needs of District residents experiencing housing instability and homelessness. Where the government has failed to follow the law or implement its programs, there is no consequence levied on the government-only on District residents. When cuts are made to critical programs, they are accompanied by deliberate policy choices that deepen the cuts. Make no mistake—the investments in ending and preventing homelessness are not anywhere near what they need to be. This has serious consequences for District residents. Below, we… Read more…

It’s budget season again, and the Legal Clinic continues to advocate for budgets and laws that further housing justice for D.C. residents.  Along with our Fair Budget Coalition and Way Home Campaign partners*, we implore D.C. to “Meet the Needs” of all D.C. residents—particularly those who struggle the most to maintain their lives in the city. Recent housing investments and legislation during the height of the pandemic were crucial to minimize the harm experienced by D.C.’s extremely low-income communities. Now, many of those programs and funding sources have ended, but residents still face significant difficulties. Homelessness, housing instability, lack of… Read more…

Today, the Legal Clinic joins our legal services and tenant advocacy colleagues in urging the D.C. Council to vote no on the District of Columbia Housing Authority Stabilization and Reform Emergency Amendment Act of 2022. See below for the letter we sent to the Council today. Take action to urge your elected representatives to pursue real reform instead of this bill, which is harmful at worst, performative at best. Send an email with Empower DC’s email action. Sign up to make a phone call with Jews United for Justice for Monday or Tuesday.   December 19, 2022 The Hon. Phil… Read more…

We have long advocated for substantial reform for the rapid re-housing program in DC. The urgency of that advocacy intensified last winter, when the Department of Human Services announced it intended to start terminating almost 1000 families for reaching a time limit in rapid re-housing, even though the agency knew that nearly all of those families would be thrown into crisis as a result. In the spring of 2022, 66 organizations and experts and almost 400 individuals asked the DC Council to “reform rapid re-housing legislatively so that DC residents cannot be terminated for a time limit until they can… Read more…

On Tuesday, September 20, 2022, the DC Council passed The Migrant Services and Supports Emergency Act of 2022 without making any of the significant changes that we advocated for. Councilmember Pinto tried to amend the bill to remove many of the harmful provisions and to add in legal and safety protections for migrants. Councilmember Nadeau and Mayor Bowser strongly opposed the amendment, and managed to convince their colleagues to follow their lead. Councilmembers Silverman, Lewis George, and Gray voted for Pinto’s amendment, but it failed 9-4. The result is that recent migrants have no legal, health or safety protections, no… Read more…

The following letter was submitted to the DC Council on behalf of 69 organizations and experts. Don’t forget to send an email and sign up for a call-in day echoing these asks to your elected leaders! DC Council members, We, the undersigned organizations, join together to ask you to stop Mayor Bowser from terminating DC residents from the rapid re-housing program for hitting an arbitrary time limit. This year, as many as 913 families are facing time limit terminations. The Bowser Administration estimates that 90% of these families would not be able to afford rent on their own if their… Read more…