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February 22, 2023
Kevin Donahue
City Administrator
John A. Wilson Building
1350 Pennsylvania Avenue, NW, Suite 513
Washington, DC 20004
Dear City Administrator Donahue,
We write to request that you work with the Department of Human Services, the Interagency Council on Homelessness, the DC Housing Authority, and national and local housing and homelessness service organizations to develop an emergency plan to clear the backlogs in the housing voucher system. We are concerned that residents continue to live in encampments years after they are matched with housing vouchers that the Council fully funded because of backlogs in the housing voucher process. These backlogs lead to the proliferation of encampments and growing distrust from unhoused residents, which causes them to stop engaging with outreach workers.
As you know, hundreds of residents have been matched with housing vouchers but continue to sleep outside due to the delays in our system. It can take several months, and, in some cases, years between the time someone is matched with a voucher and when they move into their home. Even after being approved for a voucher, it can take many more months for residents to be paired with a case worker to take the voucher holder through the remaining steps in the housing process. The final steps, finding a unit and scheduling the required housing inspection, can take many more months.
According to DHS’s voucher utilization dashboard, 1,924 individual permanent supportive housing (PSH) vouchers were available in fiscal year 2022 (citation 1). As of January 17, 2023, 369 people were able to go through the entire voucher process through lease up, which means each of them went through intake, filled out the applications, was determined to be eligible, was matched with a voucher, found a unit and had it inspected, and was able to move in. For those 369 people who have moved into their homes, this is extraordinary and often life changing. But every unused voucher reflects a District resident whose life and well-being are at risk without stable housing.
We cannot afford to let housing vouchers sit unused while so many residents wait in shelter or encampments across the city. The Council shares your goal of connecting residents with housing. Together, we have worked to ensure that the District has services and programs that will provide safe housing and wrap-around support to residents experiencing homelessness. However, as long as the backlogs in the voucher process persist, residents who have been approved for housing vouchers will continue to live outside in encampments. That is why we are asking you to transmit to the Council by March 15, 2023, an emergency plan to clear the backlogs in the voucher process. This plan must identify the backlogs at each point in the process, identify proposed solutions for each backlog, including any staffing, funding, or other resource constraints, set a timeline for when the backlogs will be cleared, and establish monthly performance benchmarks that will be used to hold each District agency accountable as it implements the emergency plan. Once an emergency plan is in place, the Committee on Housing will conduct monthly calls with agencies and service organizations to track adherence to the plan.
The District has the resources to secure stable housing for District residents by eliminating the voucher backlog. Council and local and national experts are willing to help. We are committed to working together to eliminate these backlogs.
Sincerely,
Councilmember Robert White
Chairman Mendelson
Councilmember McDuffie
Councilmember Bonds
Councilmember Henderson
Councilmember Nadeau
Councilmember Pinto
Councilmember Lewis George
Councilmember Parker
Councilmember Allen
Councilmember Trayon White
Citation 1: District Department of Human Services. “A Path to Ending Chronic Homelessness in DC”. https://storymaps.arcgis.com/stories/993e532a43bd4af3a2bf1b69d54dc704. Accessed February 17, 2023.
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