The DC Women’s Agenda is very concerned over the DC Housing Authority’s plan to purge the waiting list for the Housing Voucher Program. The DC Housing Authority (DCHA) is attempting to reach the 57,000 families by mail in a two-month period and if the family does not respond by March 11th, 2008, the family will be taken off the wait list.
Many of these very low-income families, the majority who were making less than $30,000 at the time of their application, are transient and/or homeless.
Some of them have been on the waiting list for over seven years.
DCHA is using the address placed on the application for the voucher to locate these families. In many cases, the address was a temporary shelter or that of a relative who has long since moved without a current forwarding address. DC shelters do not have the resources to make thousands of calls to track these families down and certainly cannot undertake this task on such a short timeline. And, in some instances, these families are fleeing domestic violence and are currently in a shelter with an undisclosed address.
The DC Women’s Agenda is recommending that the DCHA extend the timeline for one year and establish a plan in consultation with service providers to the homeless to include public service announcements, posters in the metro and buses and other methods of communication.
Debbie Billet-Roumell is Coordinator of the D.C. Women’s Agenda, a Grantee Partner of The Women’s Foundation. The DC Women’s Agenda is a local advocacy and policy coalition, comprised of a broad group of organizations and individuals, to promote the advancement of equality health and well-being of women and girls in Washington, D.C. The DC Women’s Agenda is chaired by the DC Employment Justice Center and Wider Opportunities for Women–both of which are also Grantee Partners of The Women’s Foundation