ERAP Reduces the Extremely Harmful Impact of DC Evictions

Chairman White and members of the committee, thank you for the opportunity to testify. My name is Kate Coventry, and I am the Deputy Director of Legislative Strategy at the DC Fiscal Policy Institute (DCFPI). DCFPI is a non-profit organization that shapes racially-just tax, budget, and policy decisions by centering Black and brown communities in our research and analysis, community partnerships, and advocacy efforts to advance an antiracist, equitable future.

I am here today to testify on B25-0994, the “Emergency Rental Assistance Reform Amendment Act of 2024.” Specifically, I will discuss:

• how evictions harm residents today and in the long term;
• how Black residents are disproportionately harmed by evictions; and,
• why the District should allow self-certification and use data to guide any changes to the Emergency Rental Assistance Program (ERAP).

ERAP Reduces the Extremely Harmful Impact of DC Evictions

Against the backdrop of a growing economy that is failing to raise poverty-level incomes in DC, ERAP helps residents struggling with rent and economic hardship avoid eviction by paying for overdue rent and related legal costs.^[1] ERAP plays a critical role in stabilizing housing for residents as rents rapidly rise and displacement to surrounding areas increases. The number of applications to ERAP demonstrate the high need for assistance. In fiscal year 2024, the portal opened quarterly and closed when it was estimated that the number of applicants would exceed the available funding. The portal closed in fewer than ten days each quarter.

Evictions are extremely harmful to those who experience them, often leading those impacted into a downward spiral and setting them back for years. As Matthew Desmond documented in his book Evicted, eviction often increases material hardship, decreases financial security, and brings about prolonged periods of homelessness. Families lose not only their home, but also possibly their school, neighborhood, and their possessions such as furniture, clothes, and books.^[2] Evicted residents may also lose identifying documents that are necessary for accessing benefits, enrolling in school, and applying for jobs—the steps that will help them move out of hardship.

Evictions also lead to court records that can hurt a resident’s ability to find a new home, as many landlords screen applicants who have an eviction on their record.^[3] Evictions can also lead to job losses and depression.^[4] And, “evidence strongly indicates that eviction is not just a condition of poverty, it is a cause of it,” explains Desmond.^[5]

Evictions Disproportionately Harm Black Residents

In the District, Black codes, Jim Crow segregation, racial housing covenants, eminent domain over Black neighborhoods, redlining, neglect and disinvestment in majority Black schools and communities East of the River, and other ongoing policies have all combined to concentrate poverty and disadvantage Black and brown communities.^[6] These forces explain why Black residents in the District are more likely to face housing instability and benefit from programs that prevent evictions and produce adequate affordable housing.

Despite some lawmakers’ claims that DC residents no longer face economic emergencies in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic, many households are struggling to make ends meet,  Many DC residents experience housing instability: nearly 40,000 households earn less than 30 percent of family median income, just $29,900 for an individual, and pay more than half of their income in rent.^[7],[8] These households are severely rent burdened and are one missed paycheck or illness away from losing their housing. These households also struggle to pay for other necessities like food, clothes, and health care, all of which have grown in cost due to inflation.^[9] In 2021, the median renter household with incomes under $30,000 had just $380 per month, respectively, after paying for housing to cover other necessities—the lowest residual incomes in 20 years.^[10]

Claims that rental assistance is no longer justified reflects the reality of white residents, who were the only racial and ethnic group to see income gains over the last year.^[11] They ignore how Black residents in the District are more than six times as likely to live in poverty and earn roughly three-tenths the income relative to white residents.^[12] And, while the overall unemployment rate in DC is low, it masks big disparities by race and ward. Nearly 10 percent of Black workers in DC were unemployed as of the 2^nd quarter of 2024.^[13] And as of December 2023, the unemployment rates in Wards 7 and 8—largely Black communities East of the River—remain on par with the high Districtwide recessionary monthly unemployment rates of much of 2020 and 2021.^[14]

As mentioned earlier, this is the result of the enduring legacies of structural and individualized racism that for years prohibited Black families from equitably accessing the housing and employment markets.

Proposed ERAP Changes Are Not Data Driven and Have the Potential to Cause Harm

Given the long-term and widespread harm of evictions, any changes that DC lawmakers make to ERAP should be carefully evaluated for disproportionate impact on Black and non-Black people of color and based on clear evidence. The “Emergency Rental Assistance Reform Amendment Act of 2024” proposes several changes that are not rooted in data. The bill eliminates the ability for clients to self-certify income and other eligibility criteria based on purported claims by the Department of Human Services that there is widespread fraud with self-certification. Yet, there is no proof of abuse because the Department of Human Services does not track whether applications are self-certified.^[15] This proposed change has the potential to cause harm as some households may not be able to provide the required documentation. The Council should allow households to self-certify.

The bill also removes a tenant’s right to an automatic stay in eviction proceedings if they have an open ERAP case. Under the proposal, a judge would have discretion on whether the tenant should receive a stay. The Apartment and Office Building Association of Metropolitan Washington reported to the Washington City Paper that stays of eviction due to ERAP are frequent but was unable to provide specific data to support this claim.^[16] The Council should instead grant one stay as a matter of right at the outset of an eviction case if the tenant has a pending ERAP application.