Connecticut House apartments, at 4500 Connecticut Avenue (Google Street View image)
It’s budget season at the DC Council, and Council committees are holding performance oversight hearings on DC government agencies through March 7th. What the Council members learn in these hearings will prepare them to respond to the mayor’s fiscal year 2026 budget with their own recommendations, which are then incorporated into the Council’s budget legislation.
The hearings also give us the chance to comment on agency performance and the District’s spending priorities.
For example, the public is invited to testify at the Human Services Committee hearing on Wednesday, March 5th on the Department of Human Services (DHS) and the Interagency Council on Homelessness. Ward 3 Council member Matt Frumin is the committee chair.
DHS services include rent vouchers and caseworkers under its locally-funded Permanent Supportive Housing program, which is also its largest voucher program. We’ve reported on the growth of DHS vouchers since 2016.
The programs have helped thousands of formerly homeless people into stable housing, many in rent-stabilized buildings across the District. But some cases, things have gone terribly wrong.
Tenant leaders have told everyone who will listen about large increases in police calls for suspected drug dealing, prostitution, and assaults on building managers, workers and other residents. They’ve spoken of absent social workers. And they have been told that voucher renters can refuse behavioral health and other supportive services, if they’re provided in the first place. The problems persist to this day. Three young children have died in the past three months.
What needs to happen at the Department of Human Services to address these issues? Do the laws need to change to make intensive services mandatory? These questions could be raised and explored at the March 5th oversight hearing.
If you would like to testify in person, virtually or in writing, here’s more information about the hearing. The hearing is a hybrid format, so witnesses can register to testify either in person or via video. Or, you can submit written testimony.
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Green Eyeshades says
The director of the DC Department of Human Services (DHS) resigned at the end of last year (2024) and departed some time in early January 2025. The Post says DHS has an “interim director” but the Mayor has not nominated a permanent DHS director:
https://www.washingtonpost.com/dc-md-va/2025/01/26/dc-homelessness-laura-zeilinger/
In my opinion, the Mayor does not care whether DHS is complying with the laws and regulations governing housing vouchers. The Mayor seems to be paying more attention to a possible new professional football stadium in the District:
https://www.washingtonpost.com/dc-md-va/2025/02/14/bowser-rfk-stadium-forum-nfl-commanders/
At the same time, the Mayor is trying to roll back protections for tenants put in place during the pandemic, including undermining or killing the Tenants Opportunity to Purchase Act (TOPA):
https://www.washingtonpost.com/dc-md-va/2025/02/12/dc-mayor-bowser-housing-bill-evictions/
Last September (2024), City Paper reported on the Mayor’s diligent efforts to wreck one of the major programs providing housing vouchers:
https://washingtoncitypaper.com/article/749000/bowsers-bait-and-switch-on-a-key-homelessness-program-leaves-advocates-councilmembers-fuming/
Green Eyeshades says
More details about the Mayor’s campaign for a new football stadium in the District from Thursday a week ago, Feb. 20, in the replacement for the former “DCist” which is called “The 51st”; the story mentions events of “last week,” which would be the same week the Washington Post story appeared on Feb. 14.
https://51st.news/wilson-building-bulletin-bowser-stadium-tour/
“If she hadn’t already been clear on what she wants to see built at the old RFK stadium site, last week Mayor Muriel Bowser drove the point home. ‘The site needs an anchor to kickstart the development, and our vision is that anchor would be an NFL stadium,’ she said. And yes, she wants taxpayer funding for it.
“Bowser spoke at a public meeting at Eastern High School’s auditorium last Thursday [Feb. 13?] about the 174-acre site a mere two blocks away, which D.C. recently gained more control over after Congress signed off on a new and more flexible lease with the city for the site. It was the first time she spoke at length to the public about the stadium and site since a public meeting in Kingman Park some 18 months ago.” [snip]
“… she’d like to see new housing, retail, entertainment, and parks emerge from what is now a rusty stadium surrounded by acres of parking.
“But doing it all will have to start with something, and Bowser said that something would be the new stadium for the Commanders — a team that is finally stoking local excitement.” [snip]
“Bowser also made clear she’s thinking big about what a possible new stadium, which would occupy 20 to 25 acres of the site, would look like. It wouldn’t only be used for football, and she would want an iconic design. ‘The stadium will be on the monumental axis in the nation’s capital, so it has to be big, not in terms of size, but the vision of it,’ she said.
“That monumental design, though, could have a monumental price tag. New NFL stadiums often top $1 billion, and Bowser told the crowd she wants some public funding for a new Commanders stadium, but didn’t specify how much or whether it would be used merely to prep the site or to actually build the stadium….” [snip]