jonetta rose barras: The aging homeless among us
I saw her multiple times from the window of the Number 33 bus as we drove past Tenley Circle NW: an older white…
After monthslong fight between mayor and council, emergency rental assistance gets more funding
Thousands more District residents who are behind on rent will get help this year than previously expected.
DC will put an extra $20.6 million into the Emergency Rental Assistance Program (ERAP) in 2024, the Department of Human…
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Council looks to Europe’s social housing as a new solution to DC’s affordability crisis
It’s no secret that it’s expensive to rent in DC, especially for people who make below the city’s median income of $152,000 for a family of four. Despite DC investing hundreds of thousands of dollars each year in building and preserving…
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Community pantries step in with solutions to more than just hunger
By Winnie Chan, Michelle Collins, Shane Gomez and Emily Hawkins
On a brisk spring morning, more than a hundred people snake their way around a group of semitrailers in the shabby parking lot at Lakeforest Mall in Gaithersburg, Maryland.…
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Within days, DC’s rental assistance program maxes out during first application window
The need for rental assistance in the city is high. DC's Emergency Rental Assistance Program (ERAP) reopened on Oct. 1 after closing in March due to the volume of applications. But by Oct. 10, the program closed again, due to high demand,…
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Recent reforms are helping DC distribute unused vouchers for foster youth
After years of letting federally funded housing vouchers for people leaving foster care and facing homelessness go to waste, DC is implementing a new law to ensure every young person who needs a voucher gets one.
The federal…
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District Links
District Links: AG sues road construction firm for allegedly polluting waterways; Bowser set to present Darrell Green with Key to the City; and more
Attorney General Brian Schwalb is suing Fort Myer Construction Co. — a major DC contractor with highly visible road-paving projects across the city — for allegedly flouting the District's environmental laws and polluting local waterways by…
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District Links: AG reaches settlement with owner of troubled Shaw apartment building; council revises pay scale for child care workers; and more
Attorney General Brian Schwalb today announced a settlement with the owners of a Shaw apartment building that will mean at least $1.65 million in penalties and restitution as well as preservation of at least 76 affordable apartments for 30…
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District Links: Two new giant pandas arrive at National Zoo; fired contracting official wins $3.7M judgment against DC government; and more
Giant pandas are once again living in the District of Columbia, with a public debut slated for January.
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Still Broken: DC's Child Welfare System
Still Broken: DC’s Child Welfare System
Over the summer, the DC government announced it had reached a settlement in the 32-year class-action lawsuit that…
Children at risk: 32 years and billions of dollars later, DC fails to protect thousands from abuse and neglect
Outside the three-story, red brick apartment building at 935 Division Ave. NE, it must have seemed like an ordinary…
Children at risk: Abuse and neglect investigations are opened too late and closed too soon
One day in April 2020, a person renting a room from Diamond Taylor and Tyvez Jackson in their apartment at 2812…
Children at risk: City’s child fatality reviews don’t prevent future deaths as intended
Gabriel Eason’s name appeared in broadcast media and newspapers for a few weeks following his death in April 2020…
Children at risk: Foster care in DC is no safe haven
The child who arrived at the home of Magdalena and Gabriel Acevedo entered the city’s foster care system, managed…
Children at risk: As DC’s child welfare system trends toward destruction and death, will city leaders embrace transformational change?
“I'm going to make you two promises in this trial,” DC defense attorney Jonathan Zucker told the jury in his…
jonetta rose barras: The aging homeless among us
I saw her multiple times from the window of the Number 33 bus as we drove past Tenley Circle NW: an older white woman seated on the bench fronted by stacks of black containers, her luggage inside a large cart. It didn’t matter the weather…
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jonetta rose barras: DC Councilmember Christina Henderson digging deep and legislating widely — with feeling
On April 3, members of the DC Council took turns questioning Mayor Muriel Bowser about her proposed fiscal year 2025 budget, which she contextualized as an exercise in shared sacrifice. Most of the legislators dismissed that…
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Jamila Hodge: A proven approach to public safety rests on community, not prosecutors
Washington, DC, has a violence problem.
Earlier this year, federal crime statistics published by the FBI revealed that the nation’s big cities saw murder and violence plummet in 2023. Nationwide decreases were 13% and 6%,…
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jonetta rose barras: Don’t you love a farce?
Ward 8 Councilmember Trayon White Sr., who was recently indicted and arraigned on a federal felony charge that includes a claim that he accepted a $20,000 bribe in 2020 from the head of a nonprofit organization that had held a government…
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For Mosaic’s ‘Lady Day,’ Roz White transforms into Billie Holiday in a captivating performance
She riffed about parole officers, sang to white audiences about racial injustice, and used cuss words as adjectives — that’s Billie Holiday, compellingly reincarnated with fresh depth and dynamism in Mosaic Theater Company’s production of…
Artomatic transforms abandoned building into a free artistic oasis
In its latest incarnation, Artomatic once again serves as a beacon of creativity, transforming a vacant building into an artistic hub. From sculptures fashioned from trash in the Potomac to a time-lapse video capturing the Rosslyn skyline,…
Arena Stage world premiere unveils the tumultuous journey of a Black woman principal in DC
Some called her an elitist; others said she coddled her students too much. But her biggest flaw? A fiery passion for inclusive education.
In the early 1900s, Anna Julia Cooper, a respected Black academic and activist, fought to…
Quicksilver resumes some in-person arts activities for seniors after months of physical isolation
At a time when the world has been preoccupied with the health of seniors, dancer and choreographer Nancy Havlik has continued teaching an unlikely approach to the physical and mental well-being of people over the age of 65 — dance.
…
Teenage spirit: High school sophomore’s desire to help people in need starts close to home
Local Templeton Academy sophomore Miguel Coppedge started a fundraiser last year to benefit children in foster care and families experiencing homelessness. His charity donations are destined for St. Ann’s Center for Youth, Children and…
For one little girl, sexual assaults changed her life until she took control. Now she’s a successful public defender.
“On the day my grandmother caught him fondling me, I was wearing my favorite pink cotton dress. Now pink is a trigger for me.”Roz Overstreet-Gonzalez
Growing up, Roz Overstreet-Gonzalez lived a typical life in San Bernardino,…
What We're Reading: DC Headlines
Washington Post: Two in five D.C. students were chronically absent last year, data show
High schools suffered the most, with 60 percent of older students missing weeks of school
DCist: Chronic Absenteeism Remains Stubbornly High In D.C. Schools
Chronic absenteeism and truancy rates improved slightly in D.C. schools, but is still significantly higher than pre-pandemic levels, according to new data on the 2022-2023 school year.
Washington Post: First-time home buyers banked on D.C. aid. Then the city changed the rules.
Six years ago, as Alfred Swailes was entering retirement, he started to think: Would he ever be able to own a home in the city where he spent his whole life?
DCist: Capital One Arena Forever Changed Chinatown. Can It Reverse Downtown’s Post-Pandemic Slump?
On December 2, 1997, 26 years ago this week, the MCI Center opened at the corner of F and 6th Streets Northwest in the District’s Chinatown neighborhood. City officials celebrated, hoping the arena…
Axios: D.C. traffic deaths hit 16-year high
D.C. traffic deaths are up more than 60% this year from the same time in 2022, reaching the highest total in 16 years.
DCist: D.C. Attorney General Warns Retailers Not To Discriminate Against Residents Who Use SNAP Benefits
D.C.’s Office of the Attorney General is warning retailers such as grocery stores and convenience stores to not discriminate against residents who are paying for food with Supplemental Nutrition…
Washington Post: D.C. residents weigh in on Bowser’s bill to address crime trends
Dozens of D.C. residents, business owners and activists on Wednesday sounded off at a hearing on a crime and policing bill introduced last month by Mayor Muriel E. Bowser (D), offering mixed opinions…
Washington Post: In downtown D.C., a long-vacant historic building could pose opportunity
In its past life, the Webster School in downtown Washington had been many things: a segregated school for White children built in 1882, an “Americanization” school for assimilating immigrants after…
DCist: New Bill Would Reduce Responsibilities Of D.C.’s Embattled 911 Agency
A new D.C. Council bill would transfer some 911 dispatching responsibilities away from the troubled Office of Unified Communications and back to the D.C. fire department. The bill, which Ward 1…
City Paper: Litigious Dupont Lawyer Ed Hanlon Claims Brooke Pinto Repeatedly Violated Campaign Finance Law
Hanlon believes Pinto improperly mixed Council and campaign business, filing complaints just as her reelection bid heats up.