As we look ahead at 2022, envision with us a year that holds promise for being the year when a great number of our unhoused neighbors are able, at long last, to go home.

This victory was made possible by a group of residents who refused to be marginalized and pushed out. Not only did they stay and fight, but they won. The Legal Clinic is honored to represent the Coalition and proud of our staff’s passionate and committed lawyering.

When people receive truly safe and permanent housing, there will be no need for our unhoused neighbors to seek safety and stability through encampments. Access to safe permanent housing should be the priority, not forced displacement.

On July 20, the DC Council took its first vote on DC’s Fiscal Year (FY) 2022 budget, and we are looking ahead to the final vote on August 3. With the end of the FY22 budget season on the horizon, here is how our housing and homelessness priorities have fared in the budget process thus far.

Tomorrow, the DC Council will vote on an emergency bill that will begin phasing in evictions again in DC. Since March of 2020, an eviction moratorium has been in place that is tied to the COVID-19 Public Health Emergency. Mayor Bowser has told the DC Council that she does not intend to extend the Public Health Emergency past July 25. The bill before the Council has some good parts, and some parts that could stand to be improved.

Welcome to our first assessment of the proposed FY22 budget! We will try to explain how much money Mayor Bowser has committed to meet our demands for ending and preventing homelessness and creating deeply affordable housing. It is up to the Council now to shift this budget into one that does more to shake up the status quo, and more to provide housing justice to District residents.