The D.C. City Council voted to permanently adopt relaxed eligibility rules for local housing vouchers despite opposition from Mayor Muriel Bowser. The rules allow people experiencing homelessness to move into permanent housing faster.
In late October, the council passed legislation allowing applicants to the city’s housing voucher programs to self-certify, or vouch for, their information if they have trouble obtaining necessary documents. The legislation also prohibits the D.C. Housing Authority (DCHA), which administers the District’s voucher programs, from asking about applicants’ immigration status or criminal history during the application process — until recently, the housing authority could deny someone a voucher because of arrest records.
The bill, titled “the Local Rent Supplement Program Eligibility Amendment Act of 2024,” is a permanent version of pandemic-era emergency legislation that has been in place since 2022.
The self-certification rules apply to the District’s Permanent Supportive Housing voucher program, which provides vouchers to people experiencing chronic homelessness, defined by the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development as people who have experienced homelessness for over a year or multiple times over three years, and have a disabling condition that makes it difficult to work full-time. It also applies to the Local Rent Subsidy Program, which provides rental assistance subsidies to low-income households.
The District’s local voucher programs have had problems with large case backlogs, which can cause long delays for voucher applicants. Self-certification, lawmakers said, is intended to help undocumented applicants and people experiencing homelessness — who sometimes can’t produce required documents like a photo ID or birth certificate — be matched with housing more quickly.
“The fundamental purpose of this bill was to make sure that people can access our local voucher programs more easily, even if they don’t initially have all of the paperwork together,” At-Large Councilmember Robert White said ahead of the council’s final vote on the bill on Oct. 29.
Under the new rules, applicants can only self-certify when they first enroll in a voucher program. Applicants have to show any documents they initially self-certified when they recertify their eligibility for the voucher program, typically after two years.
And while the bill prohibits DCHA from blocking applicants with a criminal record from entering voucher programs, the final version contains an amendment allowing the housing authority to use a voucher recipient’s criminal record to evaluate whether they pose a safety threat — but only once the person is already in the local voucher program. If a voucher holder breaks the law once they move in, the government can consider past arrest records when deciding whether to remove them from the program.
At the Oct. 29 meeting, White said the amendment creates a “safety valve for the public safety concerns that we’ve heard, which we’ve tried to address in this bill.”
The council’s proposal now awaits approval by Bowser. Bowser vetoed emergency legislation renewing self-certification earlier this year— the council subsequently overrode the veto — arguing the laxer eligibility rules posed a threat to public safety.
In a letter to the council last month, Bowser reiterated her opposition to the proposal, writing that it “dilutes the authority of the District of Columbia Housing Authority from performing the public safety background checks that are crucial for creating a safe living space for all families and individuals, as well as continuing COVID-era self-attestation processes, including for identification, that are no longer necessary.”
If Bowser vetoes the new self-certification rules, the council, which passed the measure with an 11-2 margin, could override the veto. The mayor has until Nov. 25 to act on pending legislation.
