Three-Quarters of D.C. Housing Vouchers Go Unused

Ten months after District of Columbia voters approved a tax increase to fund housing and supportive services for the district’s most vulnerable residents, only a fraction of people who received housing vouchers have moved into housing, reports Julie Zauzmer Weil in the Washington Post. “While the city gave out an unprecedented 2,400 permanent vouchers, just 555 people have managed to use them to move into apartments, locked out by a tight housing market and D.C. Housing Authority delays.”

The city has taken steps to speed up the process, such as passing emergency legislation allowing tenants to use vouchers without having to provide identification documents, which many people lose while homeless. “And the city agreed to address another complaint from case managers: that while their clients could pay rent using their housing vouchers, many large apartment buildings charge ‘amenity fees’ that vouchers wouldn’t cover.” The District will now pay move-in or other fees that previously prevented people from securing a lease.

Other kinks that slow down the process remain. For example, the Housing Authority must inspect units before voucher holders can move in, prompting some prospective tenants to lose housing to other renters who can move in—and pay—right away. To speed up this step, “DCHA is looking at inspecting certain units even before a voucher holder identifies the apartment as a place they want to rent.”