Public Housing

Sondra Mills

Testimony for the record on behalf of the Committee of 100 regarding the performance of the District of Columbia Housing Authority (DCHA).

Sondra L. Mills

In oversight testimony on the DC Housing Authority, C100 urged the Council to take steps to ensure that DCHA fully resolves the deficiencies identified in a 2022 HUD report and a DC Council Roundtable in October 2024 in order to make housing available to more DC residents who are otherwise unable to secure it.

Sondra Mills

C100 Housing Subcommittee testimony before the Council Committee on Housing, April 11, 2024, concerning the proposed budget for the D.C. Housing Authority in the FY25 budget.

Sondra Mills

We urge greater transparency by OAG regarding its efforts to secure DCHA’s compliance with the law. The public needs to know whether OAG’s cases have achieved any real change in DCHA’s practices.

Andrea Rosen, Nancy MacWood

C100 urges the Council to rescind emergency legislation to restructure the DCHA board and to instead hold hearings on failures of the DC Housing Authority Board of Commissioners as outlined by HUD in its September 30 assessment, and on ways to improve public housing delivery. The bill's retention of a core of current appointed members while the eliminating a majority of the positions for elected public housing residents fails to address the administrative infractions cited by HUD while muffling the voices of affected residents.

Andrea Rosen

Testimony at Performance Oversight Hearing on DC Housing Authority asserts that the Mayor-heavy membership of the Board of Commissioners, lacking not-for-profit and seasoned tenant advocacy representatives, has allowed the agency to drift away from its stated mission of providing affordable housing to the population earning zero to less than 80% MFI and fostering sustainable communities. Passing responsibility for housing to the private market results in no net gain in affordable units.

Meg Maguire

Covid 19 must count for some higher purpose.  Our city must make a far greater commitment to housing for those at or under 30% of AMI with a new mindset that puts tenants and preservation of public housing first.  Only then can we transform equity rhetoric into equity reality.

Andrea Rosen

The Committee of 100 on the Federal City (C100), the District’s oldest planning advocacy organization, testified on October 30, 2019 before the DC City Council in support of Councilmember Anita Bonds’ bill to add two Council-appointed members to the Board of Commissioners (Bill 23-0121, the Housing Authority Board of Commissioners Qualification and Expansion Amendment Act of 2019).

Kirby Vining

As we know all too well, the DCHA has done an abysmal job of maintaining its housing stock.  By any standard, the deterioration of some 2,500 of the DCHA units to the point that they are currently described as “uninhabitable” is disgraceful.  While the subject of how this happened over several years is important to understand going forward, the greater priority is to adopt a multi-faceted approach to expanding and stabilizing public housing in partnership with families that are threatened with displacement.