More than 40,000 DC residents could face eviction at the same time that DC has a surplus of more than $500 million dollars. The Mayor can use her power to stop evictions now with the city’s growing resources.

The pandemic isn’t over, and it continues to hit Black and brown residents hardest. Unemployment rates for the city’s Black residents remain several times higher than that of white residents, and tens of thousands of DC residents are at risk of eviction for non-payment of rent, including 350 families who will have their subsidies terminated from DC's Rapid ReHousing Program (RRH). In November 2021, Mayor Bowser requested an additional $238 million from the federal government to support eviction prevention, but funds the city received fell short. DC needs at least an additional $187 million to prevent an eviction and utility cut off crisis for at least four months.

DC has the money on hand to prevent thousands of evictions and utility shut-offs and extend expiring Rapid ReHousing subsidies. If we don’t use our resources wisely, we will only see DC’s racial and economic disparities worsen. We need the Mayor to act now and strategically use surplus funds to pay for eviction prevention and utility assistance in order to ensure that DC residents can stay in their homes.

Where you come in: Tell the Mayor that we need her to use DC’s growing resources to prevent evictions and keep DC residents in their homes! Our city is stronger and more resilient when all residents can stay and thrive in their communities.