D.C. Elected Leaders Are Failing Unhoused Residents, But That Can Change With Your Help!

Posted on Jul 9, 2025 in Action Alert, DC Budget, DC Policies and Plans, Housing, Justice, Law, Shelter |

On Monday, July 14, the D.C. Council will take its first vote on our local budget and many legal changes that will impact the lives of D.C. residents. As we discussed here, the mayor’s budget proposal was regressive and harmful, hardly befitting a city where the vast majority of residents support progressive and humane economic and social policies. The Council has already reversed some of these harmful proposals, but when it comes to responding...

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2025 Funding and Reform Priorities: D.C. Must Choose to Support Its People

Posted on Apr 29, 2025 in DC Budget, DC Policies and Plans, Homelessness, Housing, Law, People, Poverty, Uncategorized |

2025 Funding and Reform Priorities: D.C. Must Choose to Support Its People   Over the years, we have seen two categories of harmful responses when D.C. elected leaders claim, rightfully or not, that there are not enough resources to meet the pressing needs in the community: 1) cuts or underfunding of housing and human services programs, and 2) tightening of eligibility or reduction in legal rights of participants in those programs. Both of...

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Press Release: Emergency Class Action Lawsuit Challenges Hundreds of Housing Assistance Terminations

Posted on Oct 25, 2024 in Action Alert, DC Policies and Plans, Homelessness, Housing, Law |

Children’s Law Center, The Washington Legal Clinic for the Homeless, and three prominent D.C. law firms filed a class action lawsuit this week with the D.C. Office of Administrative Hearings, requesting emergency relief for over 800 D.C. families facing an inevitable loss of housing due to the District’s unlawful mass terminations in the rapid re-housing program.

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DC Council’s Proposed “Fix” Will Increase Rent Arrears and Evictions

Posted on Sep 27, 2024 in Action Alert, DC Policies and Plans, Homelessness, Housing, Law |

We urge DC Council to vote no on the Emergency Rental Assistance Reform Emergency Act of 2024 to be voted on Tuesday, October 1. The bill is bad for tenants and landlords. If passed, it will increase evictions and housing insecurity and make it harder for tenants to pay, and landlords to collect, rent. The Emergency Rental Assistance Reform Emergency Act of 2024 does not: 1. Help tenants pay rent. 2. Help landlords pay their mortgages or...

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Action Alert: Oppose Emergency Bill that Narrows Access to ERAP and Increases Evictions, Harming Both DC Tenants and Landlords

Posted on Sep 26, 2024 in Action Alert, DC Policies and Plans, Housing, Law, Poverty, Uncategorized |

Chairman Mendelson circulated an emergency bill, to be voted on on Tuesday, October 1, that will do nothing to address the affordability crisis that both landlords and tenants are asking for assistance with. Instead, the bill will narrow eligibility for emergency rental assistance (ERAP), lengthen the amount of time it takes to process ERAP applications, and allow evictions to happen even when the landlord or the government agency is at fault...

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Open Letter to Mayor Bowser: Keep Families Housed Until They Transfer to Permanent Housing Programs

Posted on Jul 29, 2024 in Action Alert, Budget Cuts, DC Budget, DC Policies and Plans, Homelessness, Housing, Poverty | 23 comments

We are writing to ask you to halt the exits of families in rapid re-housing until the Department of Human Services (DHS) and the D.C. Housing Authority (DCHA) can complete the housing voucher eligibility and lease-up process for the significant number of vouchers that are available now or by October 1.

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