In the hours leading up to the D.C. Council’s approved emergency legislation that narrows emergency rental assistance and eases evictions, Molly Catchen continued to implore council members to understand that tenants are, in fact, applying for emergency rental assistance in good faith.
Despite D.C. Mayor Muriel Bowser’s assertion that delinquent tenants are deliberately using the emergency rental assistance application process to delay evictions, Catchen told The Informer that it’s the landlords who are slowing up the process.
“We see situations regularly where tenants apply for the Emergency Rental Assistance Program [ERAP] and landlords don’t respond to requests for documentation and/or payment plans,” said Catchen, supervising attorney in the housing unit of Legal Aid DC. “We don’t want to see tenants losing rights because their landlords didn’t participate in the process.”
On Sept. 26, a coalition that includes Legal AID DC, Bread for the City, Washington Legal Clinic for the Homeless, D.C. Bar Pro Bono Center, and Legal Counsel for the Elderly sent a letter to D.C. council members in opposition to the emergency legislation.
In the letter, advocates said the bill, titled the Emergency Rental Assistance Reform Emergency Amendment Act, wouldn’t address D.C.’s housing crisis. They also argued that the bill didn’t focus on governmental and courtroom bureaucracy that delays eviction cases and processing of rental assistance.
Catchen echoed those sentiments, telling The Informer that Bowser’s assertions aboutERAP abuse are a nonfactor.
“I’ve heard allegations [of people gaming the system] but I haven’t seen any evidence,” she said. “We shouldn’t be legislating based on that.”
The D.C. Council Collaboratively Approves Emergency Legislation
In September, the D.C. Department of Human Services closed the ERAP application portal for Fiscal Year 2025 to explore reforms in collaboration with the D.C. Council.
Those reforms appear in the Emergency Rental Assistance Reform Emergency Amendment Act, which had set out to give judges discretion in determining whether ERAP applicants can delay eviction proceedings. The legislation, which would last for 90 days after Bowser signs it into law, also included a provision prohibiting affordable housing tenants from self-certifying their income while applying for emergency rental assistance.
Against Bowser’s wishes and that of affordable housing developers, the D.C. Council unanimously approved the Emergency Rental Assistance Reform Emergency Amendment Act with amendments introduced by D.C. Councilmembers Robert White (D-At-Large).
One of White’s amendments maintained the elimination of self-certification while creating a narrow category of emergency situations — domestic violence, for example — where ERAP applicants don’t need to provide documentation.
Another amendment provided judges leeway in allowing another for more than one stay of eviction in the event of ERAP application processing delays. Both passed unanimously with D.C. Councilmember Christina Henderson (I-At large) voting “present.”
While White acknowledged the Emergency Rental Assistance Reform Emergency Amendment Act as a necessity, he emphasized the need to holistically address the District’s affordable housing crisis, as evidenced in the lack of construction permits that are currently in the queue for the Downtown sector that the Bowser administration wants to revitalize.
“The reforms are about making sure that programs help those who need it the most,” At-Large Councilmember White said. “At the same time, giving judges [the power] to extend stay reflects the reality that best intention efforts take time. The program is one part of the solution and wasn’t meant to carry the entire weight of our housing crisis. We need a movement to build more affordable housing.”
At Least One Council Member Criticizes Bowser’s Assertion
Earlier this year, the Urban Institute predicted that evictions would reach pre-pandemic levels of 1,500 by the end of the 2024 fiscal year. By June, at the report’s release, evictions had been nearing the 1,000 mark, close to what the District experienced during the previous fiscal year when schools, business, and venues were reopening.
Even so, Bowser continues to maintain her position that a sizable number of District tenants are avoiding eviction via submission of ERAP applications that trigger repeated stays by judges. She told reporters that their negligence, as she describes it, places landlords at risk of foreclosure, and the District’s affordable housing ecosystem in danger of collapse.
“Before COVID, it took about six months to resolve a rent dispute. Now it takes 1.5 to two years,” Bowser said on Sept. 30. “One of the drivers has been the change to [the emergency rental assistance program], which was designed to support low-income residents facing unforeseen emergencies, not perpetually prevent landlords from taking action for rent nonpayment.”
As reported in a previous Informer story, Bowser didn’t provide any empirical evidence of tenants “gaming the system” due to the current emergency rental assistance laws that don’t require them to prove their income.
However, Mendelson, who introduced the Emergency Rental Assistance Reform Emergency Amendment Act, told his colleagues at the Oct. 1 council breakfast that the D.C. Department of Human Services counted more than 100 instances of false self-certifications.
D.C. Councilmember Janeese Lewis George (D-Ward 4) would later acknowledge that reality, though as something that doesn’t represent the majority of ERAP applicants. On the dais, she cautioned her colleagues from making blanket accusations against legions of District residents struggling to keep their head above water.
“The framing that there’s evidence that fraud is more prevalent within that conversation will not result in solutions if we focus on the outlier cases,” Lewis George said. “We owe it to District residents to address the affordable housing crisis and I expect us to do it as the permanent legislation moves forward.”
Great Day, let’s not just point fingers at the residents, how about the program itself? why put money in the hands of a person facing financial hardship? funds should always go directly to the landlord/management. All these management companies are not doing re-certs on time due to the high turnover rate with new employees every few months and not getting things done. some landlords do this on purpose they depend on EWRAP ASWELL no way this happens to me and other resident each year when I know I am doing the right thing. Please don’t take the program away there are going to be too many homeless families in DC. which creates another problem.