Blog / Affordable Housing

We, the undersigned 33 organizations are writing to ask you to use reserves, underspending from government agencies, and/or other funds not dedicated to help DC residents living on low incomes meet basic needs (including but not limited to affordable housing efforts) to provide eviction prevention funding. The stakes are too high to shut down our eviction prevention efforts now. We estimate the unmet need for rental arrears is approximately $74.9 million, and we ask you to identify at least this much funding to meet this need as well as the need for utility arrears which we are not able to estimate.

Bread for the City joins fellow non-profit leaders in DC in requesting that the DC government halt the CARE Pilot Program and stop the creation of “no camping zones,” which are reminiscent of other types of zoning that, throughout our history, have disenfranchised, displaced, disrupted, and destroyed Black neighborhoods and communities. Housing ends homelessness. Bread for the City is opposed to the creation of “no camping zones” and the systematic clearing of encampments.

Join us for a previously recorded Breaking Bread conversation series on housing justice in DC, including dialogue on protecting tenants’ rights, affordable housing development and preservation, public housing redevelopment, and more.

Many people in Washington D.C. are still struggling to find a consistent income to pay their rent and people still need assistance because of the pandemic. Last month, Bread for the City attorney, Jack Meaney  the Festival of Tenants, a community event held by the Cancel Rent Coalition in D.C., where there were informational booths, community activities, and resources for tenants. The event was held in Ward 5 to target Councilmember Kenyan R. McDuffie, who has not yet pledged his support for the coalition’s demands.

Housing literally saves lives—and the combination of COVID-19 and DC’s underinvestment in deeply affordable housing will undoubtedly further racial inequity.

Bread for the City strongly encourages the DC Council to vote “no” on Chairman Mendelson’s proposed amendment to the eviction moratorium, the Coronavirus Public Health Extension Emergency Act of 2021.  Landlords are currently prohibited from serving eviction notices and filing new eviction cases against tenants for the nonpayment of rent.

To qualify for STAY DC, you must be a renter or housing provider in the District who is at risk, or has a tenant at risk, of not paying rent or utilities on a residential dwelling.

Did you miss the COVID-19 Community Informational? Don’t worry, you can watch the video here!