Amber W. Harding: DC efforts to end homelessness come to a screeching halt

It’s fair to say that few DC elected officials or residents are happy with Mayor Muriel Bowser’s proposed budget for next year. DC Council Chair Phil Mendelson characterized the mayor’s proposal as containing “budget choices that set back recovery for low and middle income residents.” But things look particularly dire for DC residents without stable, affordable housing. The mayor’s proposed budget slashes funding for eviction prevention and domestic violence services and fails to devote even one new dollar toward ending homelessness. 

This is by far the worst budget we have seen on ending homelessness since Mayor Bowser took office in 2015. That year, during a speech at a National Alliance to End Homelessness event, Bowser said: “We have a long road ahead, but we’re committed. And we set some big goals. We joined the first lady and President Obama in their call to end Veteran homelessness this year, and to end chronic homelessness in 2017. And we committed to ending family homelessness in 2018: two years ahead of the federal goal.” Despite repeated commitments to end homelessness, those words mean nothing if she fails to put her money where her mouth is, so to speak.

It is revealing, yet unsurprising, that the moment fiscal fortune-tellers proclaim that the future looks a little less bright, some elected officials respond with disproportionate cuts to human needs programs — which are generally the last to be funded and the first to be cut. Yet DC’s failure to invest in its low-income residents is not only cruel — because the impact will be felt quickly and deeply — but also penny-wise and pound-foolish. When communities fail to support all of their residents, when communities fail to even attempt to remedy huge racial wealth and property gaps, when communities rely on trickle-down economics or development to provide basic needs, we all suffer.

I may not be a fiscal fortune-teller, but I can see what DC’s future will look like unless the DC Council radically redistributes resources into permanent affordable housing during its budget deliberations over the next few weeks. More people will be living in tents or encampments, particularly in the downtown area. More people will be staying in emergency shelters, at a time when DC already does not have enough shelter beds to meet the need, and when the government is about to close down the pandemic-era temporary housing in hotels. More families will be terminated from Rapid Rehousing for reaching the program’s time limit and will cycle back into homelessness after experiencing the trauma and long-term consequences of eviction. More people will be released from hospitals and the criminal justice system to homelessness, reducing their opportunity to recover and achieve stability. More children will miss school, will struggle to learn, and will see their futures irrevocably damaged by homelessness. More people will see their mental and physical health worsen and their life span decrease directly as a result of their prolonged homelessness.

Just because Mayor Bowser seems to have broken her promise to end homelessness in DC doesn’t mean the DC Council has to follow her lead. We urge council members to move forward on the path toward ending homelessness by prioritizing funding for permanent affordable housing programs, like vouchers. The future is in their hands. 

Amber W. Harding is executive director of the Washington Legal Clinic for the Homeless.

---

About commentaries

The DC Line welcomes commentaries representing various viewpoints on local issues of concern, but the opinions expressed do not represent those of The DC Line. Submissions of up to 850 words may be sent to editor Chris Kain at chriskain@thedcline.org.