Pandemic-era policies that offered low-income Washington, D.C., renters assistance may soon end as affordable housing providers face mounting bills.
The D.C. Council unanimously approved a temporary emergency measure this week to reverse rules established during the pandemic meant to aid financially struggling residents at risk of eviction amid unforeseen challenges.
After review by Mayor Muriel Bowser, who has voiced support for the bill, those who apply to the city’s Emergency Rental Assistance Program, or ERAP, would largely no longer be allowed to self-attest their eligibility. An amendment to the bill introduced by Council member Robert White Jr. was also passed by the city's legislative body to help some residents in "dire circumstances," White said in a post on the social platform X.
Additionally, the bill would give courts greater discretion as to whether to apply a pause in an eviction case for nonpayment to those with a pending ERAP application, changing a system of automatic protection that leaders said was being abused. It limits the number of those stays a tenant can receive to one. D.C. Council Chairman Phil Mendelson, who introduced the legislation, said during the meeting that evictions for nonpayment of rent that used to take three to five months now can take over a year.
While affordable housing providers in the District face a financial crisis connected to unpaid rent, according to Washington leaders, advocates contend the recent legislative move will add greater difficulties to the problem it seeks to address.
“These affordable housing providers are carrying tens of millions of dollars of uncollected rent, and that is not sustainable for their operations,” Mendelson said during the meeting. He added that if those providers can’t pay their mortgages, their properties would be foreclosed, further adding stress to the affordable housing market.
He and other city leaders met a day earlier to discuss the measure that would be in effect for 90 days unless more permanent legislation is approved.
“We were in unprecedented times and rose to those challenges, but those policies were never intended to be long-term, and by keeping them in place we have upended the whole system,” Bowser said Monday at a press conference at the John A. Wilson Building.
Bowser said during the press conference that in the short term, tenants face a decline in services when providers do not have enough money coming in to handle operations, maintenance and security. In the long term, she said landlords could lose the ability to offer affordable housing.
Affordable housing market
About 13.9% of D.C. residents live in city-supported affordable housing, according to a presentation shared during the Monday press conference. The District has invested more than $1.5 billion in affordable housing over the past decade.
But there is about $100 million outstanding in unpaid rent to affordable housing providers. That is up from about $11 million in 2020, and the figure is projected to jump to $147 million by next year if not addressed, according to officials.
When asked if this legislation will lead to challenges with programs that assist people experiencing homelessness, Bowser said the goal is not for more evictions, but to increase the number of people paying their rent.
Other cities across the country also face challenges in managing affordable housing. The United States has five "impossibly unaffordable" markets, four of which are located in California, according to a report from the Frontier Centre for Public Policy and the Chapman University Center for Demographics and Policy that looked at housing affordability ratings in 94 major markets across eight countries.
Funding
The Emergency Rental Assistance Program provides funds for overdue rent, including late fees and court costs, if eligible tenants face eviction. The amount paid on behalf of qualified households depends on that household's income, as well as available resources, and is subject to certain limitations.
ERAP assists D.C. residents who earn less than 40% of the area's median income and are facing housing emergencies, according to the program’s webpage.
Although the D.C. Department of Human Services originally planned to reopen the ERAP application portal Tuesday, it remained closed as of Wednesday morning. It is not yet accepting new applications for fiscal year 2025.
Bowser did not provide an exact timeline during the press conference on reopening the portal but said it could be “a matter of weeks” to make the administrative changes needed.
The Apartment & Office Building Association of Metropolitan Washington said the legislation is “a significant first step in helping to avert the catastrophic loss of critical affordable housing.”
But a number of legal services organizations that represent tenants facing eviction, and applicants for rental assistance, opposed the legislation.
“The bill does little to address the problems the Council has identified regarding delays in eviction cases and rental assistance processing,” the groups, including the Washington Legal Clinic for the Homeless, said in a Sept. 26 letter to the D.C. Council.
“Indeed, the bill may well exacerbate delays by creating burdensome administrative requirements and novel legal proceedings, all while displacing tenants who have a pathway to pay the rent they owe,” the letter said.