MEDIA RELEASE
For Release: Immediately
Contact: (202) 288-1921
TENAC ENDORSEMENTS FOR NOVEMBER
Council At-large: Silverman, Marshall
Ward 3: Frumin
Ward 1: Nadeau
Mayor and Chair: NO ENDORSEMENT
ENDORSEMENT FACTORS
- Candidate recognition of the scandalous overpayment of vouchers to landlords, the gross mismanagement, secrecy and "misplacement" of millions by the Housing Authority as exposed by the recent HUD report;
- Candidate support for hearings and reforms on the reckless placement of voucher tenants in rent control buildings who need and deserve halfway houses, centrally-run mental health housing and other service-oriented housing with on-site wraparound services. This policy has destroyed stable, rent-stabilized communities for all tenants, both voucher and non-voucher. The high-cost vouchers should include placing these tenants in new units as justified by the voucher over-payment.
- Candidate support to halt the destruction of rent control by the mayor's policy of replacing rent control units with high paying vouchers leading to huge landlord profits, creating a DC only for the rich and poor.
- Candidate support for Rent Control Reform, including the expansion of rent control to buildings built after 1976.
- Candidate 's positions on development that prevents displacement, creates real affordable housing and does not favor unchecked development that has displaced thousands of Black residents.
***BE INFORMED OF THE VITAL ISSUES ON DEVELOPERS' INFLUENCE AFFECTING ALL RESIDENTS, ON AFFORDABLE HOUSING, AND
ON TENANT ISSUES, BY READING THE ISSUE QUESTIONNAIRES AND CANDIDATES' RESPONSES, IN THE LINKS AT BOTTOM.
WHILE NOT ALL HAVE RESPONDED, WE WILL
SEND RESPONSES AS WE RECEIVE THEM.***
MAYOR: NO ENDORSEMENT - TENAC cannot in good conscience endorse Mayor Bowser whose primary goal is enhancing developer profits at all costs. She is claiming she the authority to waive affordability requirements. This usurpation of authority needs a good court challenge. If not, the mayor will continue to break laws duly enacted by the legislature for developers, at will.
Residents East Of the River call her affordable housing plan the "black displacement plan;" and "a job plan for developers." While claiming to allot one billion dollars for affordable housing, she instead funds luxury housing, labeled 'affordable.' No one familiar with the issue is fooled.
Lastly, she has not returned our questionnaires nor attended our forums to defend her positions promote her policies or describe any of her positions on tenants' rights, rent control or affordable housing.
COUNCIL CHAIR: NO ENDORSEMENT. Council Chair Phil Mendelson is very capable and knowledgeable. We trust he will wisely consider the selection of committee chairs and officials from the ranks of new and returning officials in January. He has taken pro-tenant positions, notably against means testing for rent control, correctly noting that this would prevent workforce, elderly or middle income residents from living in DC and would be a disaster to administer. He also asked for studies of the firehouse/police station property on U Street NW before it was upzoned for development.
In the past, Mendelson has received our endorsement, when he was less pro-developer, but for some time now he has presided over unbridled "development" of our city at the peril of average citizens. He takes credit for affordable housing laws that look good but are full of loopholes, allowing "affordable housing" to include higher income and luxury units with large, unneeded subsidies and pork for developers. These developer billionaires and multi-millionaires don't need all these giveaways of public land, subsidies and gifts. Give us a break - from all this corporate welfare.
AT-LARGE (VOTE FOR TWO): ELISSA SILVERMAN & KARIM MARSHAL
--Elissa Silverman is a real progressive, supporting laws for the people and the public good, like paid family leave. She is tough on appointees and the agencies and is leading the reform of DC Housing Authority (DCHA). On the other hand, the incumbent chair of the housing committee, Anita Bonds, has been negligent in her oversight of DCHA, including the vast overpayment of voucher rents to landlords.
Silverman is currently under fire. In support of Silverman and to set the record straight, we point to the tweet just below from AG Karl Racine in support of Silverman. He is backing only one candidate for at-large, Elissa Silverman. He slams, rightfully so, Bonds and McDuffie. He notes Bond has failed working families, tenants, and most residents, as shown by her failures in the DCHA scandal; McDuffie, he notes, is backed by big corporate donors who want him in as At-large councilmember to get their way.
The Post is painting this all blacker than it is, to unseat Silverman. They hate her going up against corporate interests and developers. These big interests are WashPo's reason for being, which by now anyone who knows anything about the issues, is well aware of.
While Racine above is endorsing only one candidate, Silverman, we endorse both Silverman and Marshall as good choices for the two at-large seats up this year.
We agree with Racine's comments strongly opposing Bonds and McDuffie, showcasing them as the worst candidates in the at-large race. We strongly urge voters to choose Silverman and Marshall, against Bonds and McDuffie, the two incumbents who are perhaps the two most pro-big money and anti-average resident candidates in the at-large race.
KARIM MARSHALL has worked for DCHA, where he challenged its policies and procedures. He likes shaking things up, which DC vitally needs. He has the experience to reform DCHA and our affordable housing laws. We think he will be a breath of fresh air to clear the stale, stifling atmosphere of money, influence, power and corruption.
Neither Councilmember Bonds nor McDuffie attended our forums or returned our questionnaires.
DAVID SCHWARTZMAN, Honorable Mention for At-Large. TENAC has endorsed him in the past, and we cannot pass up giving him honorable mention. His positions are spot-on and ahead of their time. We look forward to seeing him speak out and we prize his ideas, contributions to debate, and overall knowledge on the issues, from housing and taxes to the environment.
WARD 1: BRIANNE NADEAU, endorsement with reservations. Councilmember Nadeau has grown in office. She has learned the need for rent control and tenants' rights not just among her constituents, but for the entire city, including sponsoring the pro-tenant, landmark rent control reform bill. However, she is pro-developer, extremely so, to enhance developer profits, most notably regarding the tenants displaced from Park Morton, in Park View, near 6th and Park Road NW, where her position was apparently "project over people." She told the long-term, low-income tenants there that their displacement and the demolition of their homes was "baked in," offering little help against displacement and enforcement of their right-to-return. The "promises" "exacted" from developers were worthless. TENAC will continue to watch closely and weigh her actions and listen to her constituents if she's reelected. Councilmember Nadeau did not return our questionnaire on Ward One problems and general tenant issues.
WARD 3: MATTHEW FRUMIN. Frumin is the best candidate to navigate the thorny issue facing many rent control buildings in Ward Three and which are bound to spread to every ward. As described above, rent control units for middle class renters paying rent-stabilized rates are being recklessly replaced by overpaying vouchers. Frumin seems to understand that placing tenants who need deep social services in rent control housing that lacks full-time, wrap-around services they vitally need is a disastrous policy. This policy has led to assaults, violence, disruption, and constant police and emergency responses in once serene buildings. Frumin supports hearings and reforms to enact the changes urgently needed by both regular tenants and social service-needing tenants.
WARD 5: ZACHARY PARKER. This Democratic nominee is the best candidate for Ward 5 voters. We believe he will stand up for renters rights, and help fix the problems at Brookland Manor so long ignored by the incumbent.
WARD 6: CHARLES ALLEN. Unopposed in the primary, TENAC endorsed him because he has favored renters on numerous issues. His opposition to allowing rent increases for the most affordable apartments during the pandemic rent freeze and his push to raise taxes on high earners to fund social service pay increase, stand out.
ATTORNEY GENERAL: BRIAN SCHWALB. We believe he will continue the tradition begun by AG Karl Racine, of prosecuting slumlords, and will fulfill the promise of Racine's initiative to maintain a public advocacy section apart from automatically representing the mayor's pro-developer position. These are good reforms that WE support and we encourage him to do so!
DELEGATE: ELEANOR HOLMES NORTON. TENAC endorses the longtime incumbent, Eleanor Norton, who has a long record of achievement in affordable housing. Her fix to remedy the deficiency in the CARES Act funding for pandemic aid where DC was shortchanged is particularly noteworthy. Her enthusiastic pledge to establish an office of tenant advocate on the federal level would be groundbreaking, and could introduce nationwide statutory rights for tenants. Whoever leads and staffs that office must be determined by tenants, not big interests.
SHADOW REPRESENTATIVE: OYE OLOLEWA. The Democratic nominee, has done an excellent job helping tenants organize and fight for their rights. He has also performed ably in making statehood a cause as an ambassador on statehood to the states and localities outside DC. We recommend him for a second term.
BE INFORMED - THE QUESTIONNAIRES IN LINKS BELOW WILL HELP INFORM YOU OF VITAL ISSUES FACING RENTERS, WORKING FAMILIES AND THE INFLUENCE OF DEVELOPERS AND EXCESSIVE DEVELOPMENT AFFECTING ALL RESIDENTS, AND INCLUDE CANDIDATES' RESPONSES. (Questionnaires were sent out recently. We will send any additional candidate responses as we receive them)
To view the issues and candidates' responses, click the links below:
