Category: Advocacy

The current manner in which the District is clearing encampments violates the Constitutional rights of encampment residents, which is the basis for a class action lawsuit recently filed against the District over its encampment clearing practices. Read more…

As much as this Administration may wish it to be otherwise, this program simply does not make sense for the majority of families experiencing homelessness in DC. Read more…

We continue to press for these changes because our clients need, want, and deserve better. Read more…

We all support closing DC General, but it must be done in a way that centers and respects the health, safety, and stability of families who are homeless. Read more…

In the midst of DC’s affordable housing crisis, the majority of the DC Council chose to limit access to emergency shelter. Read more…

The DC Council now has an opportunity to reform rapid re-housing legislatively to ensure that the more than 1,300 families in program are not set up to fail. Read more…

“Ending homelessness just takes political will.” – Mayor Muriel Bowser This simple, and in our view, correct, statement came from Mayor Bowser at the March 18th affordable housing rally organized by The Way Home Campaign and the Coalition for Nonprofit Housing and Economic Development (CNHED). Mayor Bowser uttered these words before hundreds of rally attendees, many of whom have faced or are facing homelessness and housing insecurity. Only a few weeks later, her words ring hollow. On April 4th Mayor Bowser unveiled her Fiscal Year 2018 (FY18) budget proposal (“DC values in action, a road to inclusive prosperity”) which leads… Read more…

Last Tuesday, the DC Council made changes to the Mayor’s proposed legislation to close the DC General family shelter and voted unanimously in favor of the bill. (It requires two votes to become law). We strongly support the changes to the bill and urge the Mayor and Council to work out any remaining kinks and expeditiously finalize and pass this important legislation. The new version of the bill maintains the overall approach proposed by Mayor Bowser—that DC General be replaced with smaller shelters dispersed throughout the District. It also keeps more than half of the sites that the Mayor recommended (Wards… Read more…

On October 28th, the DC Council’s Committee on Business, Consumer, and Regulatory Affairs held an eleven hour hearing on raising DC’s minimum wage and expanding the District’s paid sick days law. The Legal Clinic testified in strong support of these measures at last week’s hearing and you can read our testimony below. Tomorrow at 9:00am, DC workers and advocates will hold a rally at Freedom Plaza to voice support for the passage of legislation that would strengthen DC’s paid sick leave law and raise the minimum wage. Workers will also read testimony they were unable to deliver at the hearing… Read more…

Today, Councilmember Jim Graham, Chair of the Committee on Human Services, is holding a public oversight roundtable on “The Winter Plan: Protecting the Lives of Homeless People in the Winter of 2013-2014.” You can tune in to the roundtable here.  Amber Harding and Scott McNeilly of the Legal Clinic testified before the Committee earlier this morning. The following is testimony delivered by Amber Harding and we will post Scott McNeilly’s testimony later today. On January 7th 2013, a hypothermia alert was called at about 3PM. About an hour later, a seven month pregnant 23 year old woman completed her interview for family… Read more…