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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
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
Friendship Place
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
Mother’s Outreach Network
NAACP DC
National Coalition for the Homeless
National Homelessness Law Center
Pathways to Housing DC
The Platform of Hope
The Person Center
Positive Force DC
Rising for Justice
Keeshea Turner Roberts, Adjunct Clinical Law Professor
Save Us Now Inc
SchoolHouse Connection
Spaces in Action
Sunrise DC
Tzedek DC
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
Woodner Tenants’ Union
Yachad