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D.C.'s housing crisis
40,000 residents await public aid
(Published August 23, 2004)

By ROBERT ARKELL
Staff Writer

Approximately 40,000 D.C. residents are on a waiting list for government housing assistance, according to a spokesman for the D.C. Housing Authority.

"This is a scandal. It’s terrible," said housing authority Vice Chairman Lynn Cunningham, who claims that the list of persons awaiting public housing units or Section 8 rent-assistance vouchers in the District is closer to 50,000.

Authority spokesman Zachary Smith said he could not provide an exact number of D.C. residents who are on the waiting list, but provided an estimate. He said Cunningham's higher number could be attributed to counting the same D.C. resident twice, because some people apply for a public housing unit and a Section 8 voucher.

"Lists like this change on a daily basis because people move out of town...it’s much too fluid for documentation," he told The Common Denominator.

Cunningham, a clinical law professor at George Washington University, pointed to declining federal funding for the housing authority's HOPE (Housing Opportunities for People Everywhere) VI projects as a contributing factor to the lack of available housing.

"The congressional cutback in Hope VI funding has been pretty dramatic. Across the country, there are $28 billion in backlog in housing needs. Congress has not come forward to meet that need," Cunningham said.

In response to declining funding from the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD), Smith said that the DCHA Board of Commissioners is looking for other means to renovate its housing stock.

"The solution for the waiting list has always been the federal government. But due to a lack of funding, DCHA has started looking into other alternatives," he said.

Among those alternatives, according to Cunningham, is possible use of government revenue bonds to help maintain its properties, which include 8,997 public housing units and 11,000 Section 8 eligible units. Smith said DCHA housing is currently at 99 percent capacity with approximately 50,000 residents.

"HUD wants to use bonds on Wall Street and pay the bonds back over 20 years on the grants we’ll receive," Cunningham said.

But Cunningham said he still isn’t sure if the bonds will cover all of the properties that DCHA owns.

"We’re not sure what the proceeds on the bonds will be, but it will cover half of our properties. Since we own 50 to 60 properties, we will also have to borrow money," he said.

Smith said DCHA had 11,800 public housing units when the authority was placed in receivership in 1995. He blamed "bad management" for keeping about 2,300 of those units vacant at the time.

DCHA Executive Director Michael Kelly said the agency plans to partner with the city government and the private sector.

"The agency is well respected by the city government and city industries. We’re clearly recognized as an innovator in this city," he said. "We will never fall back into the dark days again."

Other DCHA commissioners did not return calls for comment. Smith said that Kelly acts as the spokesman for the board. "We all like to speak in one voice in order to avoid conflicts," he said.

Even though tens of thousands remain without housing, Cunningham said he believes that DCHA and its HOPE VI grants provide some of the best public housing facilities in the country.

"I think this is the best housing authority in the country...We have full utilization of the Section 8 program, and all of our money is accounted for," Cunningham said proudly.

The District's housing authority has received six federal HOPE VI grants since the program began in 1993. Under the program, tenants are relocated while their rundown complexes are renovated or rebuilt, with the intent of allowing them to return when the project is completed. A portion of the program requires tenant involvement in the planning, as well as creation of job training and social programs to help the tenants better their lives.

Smith said that the District's HOPE VI projects are prospering. A $30.8 million federal grant is being used to create a 515 unit mixed-income community at the East Capitol Gateway Project near the Maryland border. A $29.9 million grant is helping fund the creation of 600 units at Henson Ridge, the former Frederick Douglass Dwellings and Stanton Dwellings site on Alabama Avenue SE. Arthur Capper/Carrollsburg, which received a $34.9 million grant, is currently under construction and will eventually yield 1,597 housing units after its completion in 2007 or 2008. The $20.3 million grant for the Wheeler Creek housing development helped build 314 units to replace the former Valley Green complex. The latest Hope VI grant won by DCHA is $20 million awarded this spring to rebuild Eastgate Gardens, which is slated to be a 269-unit mixed-income community off Benning Road NE. The District's first HOPE VI project, which replaced the Ellen Wilson Dwellings on Capitol Hill, has been completed.

Cunningham acknowledges that DCHA must face the mistakes it made in the past.

"This city has a terrible history of relocating people, and that memory lives on," he said.

"It is true that it’s not easy to find a rental unit (in the District), even with a Section 8 voucher. Every resident is supposed to be...assisted in finding another place to live (when displaced from public housing). But I don’t think we’re perfect. Someone will always fall through the cracks," Cunningham said.