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Dear Angela,
My team and I are continuing to focus on public safety, introducing a bill to prevent gun violence and three bills to leverage job training/vocational education, mentoring, and scaled up truancy reporting to make DC safer and keep it that way. We're also gearing up for an incredibly challenging budget season. My priority is to fight back against cuts that could lead to greater harm for residents (displacement, hunger, homelessness) and increased costs for taxpayers in the long run.
In this newsletter you'll also find: good news on financial literacy in DC public schools, office building to housing conversions downtown, an ERAP reminder, signup link to testify in Housing Committee budget hearings, constituent resources, and a save the date for my next community office hours.
Sincerely,
Robert
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Your Public Safety Update | |
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Though Metro PD reports crime is trending down, safety remains at the top of everyone's mind. Many of us are still on edge moving around the city. I am focused on public safety and will continue pushing to make the District safer for everyone.
My vote for Secure DC
Earlier this month I joined my colleagues on the Council to pass the Secure DC public safety bill. For months, I worked with my fellow Councilmembers to refine this bill based on the community’s feedback and make it as proactive as possible. Secure DC includes provisions to enhance data collection and accountability measures, such as bi-monthly shooting reviews and monthly data reviews of the Office of Unified Communications and its 911 system. Secure DC also includes comprehensive approaches from my Whole Government Response to Crime Act – including steering young adults toward job opportunities and behavioral health care, raising awareness of available victim services so that people are not re-victimized, and tracing guns to their source to stop the flow of firearms into DC. I remain committed to holding people accountable for their actions, and those who harm others in our city.
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Introducing "Safer Today, Safer Tomorrow" youth crime prevention bills
Solving DC’s crime crisis will take accountability and consistent consequences as well as prevention. Last month I introduced Safer Today, Safer Tomorrow, a package of three bills focused on youth crime prevention:
DC has to start being proactive so we’re not always playing catch up and spending more money responding to crime on the back end. Job training and mentorship are effective crime prevention measures, and this is what young people have told me they need time and time again. On truancy: DC currently reports attendance 3 times a year--this is too infrequent to have data we can use to get support to struggling students sooner. Truancy is a major risk factor for involvement in the criminal justice system, while strong school attendance is associated with student success.
I'm grateful to all of the community organizations and champions for youth who have thrown their support behind these bills: Advocate and author Tony Lewis Jr.; community leader Jo Patterson; Black Swan Academy; AFSCME DC; Local 197 Eastern Atlantic States Regional Council of Carpenters; Friends of the Children long-term professional mentoring program; Justice Policy Institute; DC PAVE parent advocates; EmpowerED; the Open Goal Project; the Festival Center; DC Girls Coalition; and DC Action.
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Introducing the Firearm Injury Prevention Act
Continuing my push to use all available resources to make the District safer, I introduced the Firearm Injury Prevention Act. This bill incorporates training into healthcare professionals' regular continuing education requirements focused on gun violence risk factors (e.g. domestic violence, history of addiction, previous criminal history) and prevention resources like 'red flag' laws, safe gun storage, and more. Guns are the leading cause of death among young people in the District, with homicide causing 96% of the child and teen fatalities. That's unacceptable. Healthcare workers are on the frontlines treating gunshot victims, and they're asking to help end gun violence. This bill will save lives by empowering medical professionals to help patients lower their risk of experiencing or committing gun violence. I'm grateful to have the support of the Brady Campaign's Chief Medical Officer, Moms Demand Action, and the DC Coalition Against Domestic Violence for this bill. Now, we push for it to get a hearing!
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Hosting Youth Violence Prevention Town Hall with the OAG
Attorney General Brian Schwalb and I partnered to host a youth town hall at the RISE Center in Ward 8 last month to hear directly from young people and their parents about the violence they're seeing and solutions they want to see. It was moving to hear from so many young people who are aspiring leaders and dreamers. Their experiences and ideas, and their parents', helped shape my Safer Today, Safer Tomorrow bills.
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What I Expect This Budget Season | |
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Each spring, the Council works with the mayor to develop DC's budget for the coming year. This year we are staring down the barrel of an incredibly dire budget: federal pandemic funding has dried up, DC will contribute hundreds of millions of dollars to help fill WMATA's budget gap, DC's Chief Financial Officer is requiring the District to pay back rainy-day funds more quickly than anticipated, and so there is little funding to spare for even crucial programs and services.
The Council expects to receive the Mayor's budget on April 3. In my annual budget priorities letter to the Mayor, I emphasize that we must avoid cuts that could lead to greater harm for residents (displacement, hunger, homelessness) and increased costs for taxpayers in the long run. Too often, the DC government is not functioning effectively for residents. I want to see us preventing problems upstream, rather than responding to them once a crisis has occurred. This is the most effective thing we can do and the best use of taxpayer dollars. I will do everything I can to fight against harmful cuts to housing and DC's safety net programs. As budget season continues, I will keep you updated on how the budget is looking, and how residents will be impacted by these funding decisions.
DC’s budgeting process can be confusing, but your voice is crucial in making sure our budget reflects the District’s needs and aspirations. See graphics below for a step-by-step explainer of the process to make it more understandable. Make sure your voice is heard! Sign up to testify at budget oversight hearings for any agency here.
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Step-by-step guide to our DC budget process. Click each photo to expand. | |
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Financial Literacy Coming to DCPS Fall 2024 | |
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🎉🎉News I'm celebrating: last week, DC's State Board of Education voted to approve financial literacy standards for DCPS high schoolers! I've introduced a bill to get financial literacy taught in DC schools three times since I joined the Council in 2016 because I'm so passionate about it. None of us instinctively know how to budget, invest, use credit, and prepare financially for college, the workforce, or retirement. Financial literacy levels the playing field for students who may not have trusted adults sharing financial tools with them, but equally deserve the opportunity to save and plan for their future. Thank you to the Office of the State Superintendent of Education (OSSE) for developing these standards, focused on earned income, saving and investing, spending, credit, and managing risk to make financial literacy an option for our students!
Check out the new financial literacy standards here.
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Moving Ahead with Downtown Office to Housing Conversion | |
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I've pushed for office building to housing conversions downtown since passing legislation to form the Office to Affordable Housing Task Force in 2017. Downtown DC can be a neighborhood for people of all incomes with parks, amenities and its own unique identity. I'm so glad to see that the DMPED Housing in Downtown tax abatement program is now live!
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Your perspective is important in helping to shape our laws. Below are upcoming budget oversight hearings in my Committee on Housing and I encourage you to sign up to testify and share your experiences with the agencies my committee oversees. You can view all upcoming Council hearings here. To register to testify, click on the hearing link and click the "Register to Testify" button. If you'd rather submit written testimony, click the "Submit Testimony" button.
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Friday, April 5th at 9:00 AM
- Department of Human Services
- Interagency Council on Homelessness
Tuesday, April 9th at 12:00 PM
- Office of Advisory Neighborhood Commissions
- Office of Returning Citizen Affairs
Note: With the Mayor's budget delay this year, the Council rescheduled several budget hearings, so there will be others in addition to the two above. Check the Council's Hearing Management System here to sign up to testify at additional Housing Committee budget hearings as they get confirmed (you can sort by committee: select 'Housing' from the dropdown menu that says 'All Committees').
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Upcoming Community Events | |
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I'm committed to making myself and my team available and accessible for community members like you. I'll continue spending time in all 8 wards to meet with you in your neighborhood and hear about the concerns on your mind.
My Next Community Office Hours will be in Ward 3
Thursday, May 2nd, 1-3pm
Cleveland Park Library
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Below are various resources that I hope will help solve issues you or your family may be facing. And if you have a specific need, my Constituent Services Director, Andre Strickland, is available to support you.
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On April 1st, the Emergency Rental Assistance Portal (ERAP) will re-open. If you plan to apply you can start pulling your application materials together now. Here's a link to the DC Department of Human Services (DHS) Frequently Asked ERAP Questions for more info on how and what to prepare.
- Get income tax help at a DC Public Library near you! Eight library locations will host meetings until April 15th. Assistance is by appointment only. View schedule with library locations and sign up for an appointment here.
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Find out about summer programs, jobs and internships, learning experiences, and fun activities available for DC young people this summer. Check out Summer in the City 2024: Engagement for All at Raymond Elementary 915 Spring Road NW on Saturday, April 6 from 11am-2pm.
- Are you in a rent-controlled unit and you want to calculate your upcoming 2024 rent increase? For those who have increases taking effect in May or June, it's a little complicated. The Office of the Tenant Advocate created a rent calculator to help.
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Did you know that DC Public Libraries has a tool library? See which tools they have and sign up to check them out for projects here.
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Property taxes are due on March 31. Check out this newsletter from the Department of Buildings with information on how to ensure your occupancy status is correct.
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Need to reach me or a member of my team? | |
My office is available to you. Connect with me and my staff via phone or email. Please call my personal office at (202) 724-8174, or my committee office at (202) 727-8270, or email any of my team members. If you have a moment, please take my 3-question constituent survey here. | |
Robert C. White, Jr. Councilmember, At-Large | Council of the District of Columbia
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