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 subsidy was terminated.

The lack of affordable housing in the District of Columbia is a structural, systemic problem with deep roots that demands comprehensive and sustained solutions. Cutting DC residents from rental assistance for hitting a time limit when they cannot afford market rent on their own is unfair, unjust, and will lead to increased evictions and homelessness–disproportionately harming Black residents and other communities of color.

We ask you to:

  • Demand that the Mayor immediately withdraw all time-limit termination notices that have been issued by the Department of Human Services (DHS),
  • Devote surplus funds to maintain rapid re-housing rental support until every participant has the resources they need to afford housing,
  • Increase permanent affordable housing vouchers in next year’s budget so that rapid re-housing participants can transition into a program that better maintains housing stability, including Targeted Affordable Housing for families and Local Rent Supplement Program tenant vouchers, and
  • Reform rapid re-housing legislatively so that DC residents cannot be terminated for a time limit until they can afford rent without further assistance.

Sincerely,

 

Amara Legal Center

Asian Pacific American Legal Resource Center

Asian/Pacific Islander Domestic Violence Resource Project

Black Swan Academy

Nia Bodrick, Pediatrician

Bread for the City

Cancel Rent DC

Capital Pride Alliance

Dr. Ana Caskin, Assistant Professor of Pediatrics, Georgetown University School of Medicine

Children’s Law Center

Coalition for Smarter Growth

DC Action

DC Asthma Coalition

DC Coalition Against Domestic Violence

DC for Democracy

DC Fiscal Policy Institute

DC KinCare Alliance

DC Tenants’ Rights Center

DC Statehood Green Party

District Alliance for Safe Housing, Inc

Empower DC

Equal Rights Center

Fair Budget Coalition

Valerie Schneider, Director, Fair Housing Clinic, Howard University School of Law

Fay Law Group, P.A.

Eduardo Fox, Pediatrician

Family and Youth Initiative

Friendship Place

Georgia Avenue Family Support Collaborative (GAFSC)

GLAA

Yael Cannon, Associate Professor and Director; Marta Beresin, Visiting Professor; Ashley Nyce, Supervising Attorney/Clinical Teaching Fellow; Lillian Kang, Supervising Attorney/Clinical Teaching Fellow (Health Justice Alliance Law Clinic, Georgetown University Law Center)

Homeless Children’s Playtime Project

Housing Is a Human Right

Institute for Public Health Innovation

Jews United for Justice

Latino Economic Development Center

Legal Aid Society of the District of Columbia

Legal Counsel for the Elderly

Lincoln Temple United Church of Christ

Mother’s Outreach Network

NAACP DC

National Coalition for the Homeless

National Homelessness Law Center

Pathways to Housing DC

The Person Center

The Platform of Hope

Positive Force DC

Plymouth Congregational UCC Board of Social Action

RHP Inc

Rising for Justice

Keeshea Turner Roberts, Adjunct Clinical Law Professor

Save Us Now Inc

SchoolHouse Connection

Serve Your City

Spaces in Action

Sunrise DC

Tzedek DC

United Neighbors Ward 5

Washington AIDS Partnership

Washington Lawyers’ Committee for Civil Rights and Urban Affairs

The Washington Legal Clinic for the Homeless

We Are Family Senior Outreach Network

Caroline Wick, Practitioner-In-Residence, American University Washington College of Law

Ward 6 Mutual Aid

Woodner Tenants’ Union

Yachad