Public housing is one of our community’s most valuable affordable housing assets because it “provide[s] decent and safe rental housing for eligible low-income families, seniors, and persons with disabilities.” In the District, 20,000 residents live in approximately 7,000 public housing apartments and townhomes, and there are approximately 26,500 applicants on the public housing waitlist.
DCHA’s Transformation Plan to make long overdue repairs to public housing will relinquish federal and local control of public housing that will put public housing tenants at risk of displacement and likely further entrench segregation in the District. The plan will use Rental Assistance Demonstration (RAD) program conversions and demolitions and dispositions to redevelop public housing without including sufficient protections to safeguard the rights of tenants nor assessing whether the relocation vehicles DCHA intends to use—mostly, vouchers—will effectively allow tenants to find comparable housing within reasonable timeframes. The plan additionally fails to analyze whether RAD conversions and demolition and redevelopment of at least 10 properties, coupled with the heavily relied upon voucher relocation tool, will further entrench residential segregation.
To guard against these outcomes, the Committee asked the Council to (1) pass the Public Housing Preservation and Tenant Protection Amendment Act of 2020, which provides tenants substantive and procedural protections, (2) require DCHA to develop “build first” plans for any property slated for extensive repairs or demolition to avoid requiring tenants to relocate, and (3) require DCHA to apply a nuanced approach to the process of making repairs that is tailored to the needs of the particular site at issue and that minimizes disruption to tenants.