Public investments are critical for moving the District towards an inclusive economy, one in which Black and brown communities and residents with low incomes have their basic needs met and economic growth leads to shared prosperity. Despite DC Council’s approved fiscal year (FY) 2024 budget investments in key programs, including public housing repairs, child care affordability, and home buying assistance, it doesn’t go far enough to meaningfully address stark racial and economic inequities.
The mayor put forward an initial budget that cut vital lifelines for DC residents struggling to make ends meet and backtracked on existing commitments aimed at advancing racial justice DC Council was able to restore funding to some critical programs, including emergency rental assistance and “baby bonds.” But Council rejected the opportunity to raise additional resources, leaving key programs partially funded or unfunded as more people experience homelessness, DC’s Black residents are more than five times as likely to live in poverty than white, non-Hispanic residents, and the cost of basic needs remains high due to inflation.
At the same time, Council approved the mayor’s proposed expansion of a tax break for developers converting office buildings to residential, locking in a high level of future spending before the program has been fully designed, launched, or proven to work. While Council strengthened affordable housing requirements for the program and modestly dialed back unprecedented concessions around standard worker protections and tenant rights, it failed to add safeguards that ensure responsible use of public dollars. This costly giveaway—up to $900 million over the course of 20 years—comes at a time when the District has limited resources.
With expiring federal COVID-19 aid and slower than expected revenue growth, DC leaders will need to shift their priorities in next year’s budget if they are serious about protecting the most vulnerable and ending extreme, racialized inequities in the District.
The table below details how DCFPI’s budget asks fared in the mayor’s proposed budget and the subsequent budget that the Council approved. (The Council-approved budget is currently under the mayor’s review and then will go through a 30-day Congressional review period.)
Early Child & Pre-K3 to 12 Education
| DCFPI’s Asks | What the Mayor’s Budget Proposed | What’s in the Council-Approved Budget |
|---|---|---|
| Expand child care affordability to more District families by increasing the income eligibility level for the child care subsidy program to 300 percent of the federal poverty level. | The mayor adopted our ask. She reinvested savings from a lower child care subsidy caseload to fund this expansion. | The DC Council kept the mayor’s proposal, adopting our ask. |
| Expand the Early Educator Compensation Program to directors of early learning. Allocate $14.7 million to ensure that directors of early learning programs receive pay commensurate with new credentialing requirements. | The mayor rejected our ask. There is no funding in the budget for this expansion. | The DC Council rejected our ask. There is no funding in the budget for this expansion. |
| Preserve all existing funding for child care, particularly the Early Childhood Educator Pay Equity Fund (PEF). | The mayor rejected our ask and cut funding for the early education system. Her budget cut the PEF, sports wagering funding for child care, Temporary Assistance for Needy Families, funding for the child care subsidy program, and Back-to-Work child care grants. | The Council rejected our ask and cuts funding for the early education system. Their budget cuts the PEF, sports wagering funding for child care, Temporary Assistance for Needy Families, funding for the child care subsidy program, and Back-to-Work child care grants. |
| Advance educational equity. Ensure that DC Public Schools follow the law on dollars designated for students considered “at-risk of academic failure” and adequately and equitably fund neighborhood schools. | The mayor rejected our ask by failing to follow the Schools First in Budgeting Law, and cutting budgets for many schools serving large populations of at-risk students. | The DC Council approved our ask by following the Schools First in Budgeting Law and adding nearly $22 million for the “at-risk” school funding formula concentration for both public and public charter schools. |
| Proactively develop and adopt a plan to prevent schools from experiencing a fiscal cliff as one-time federal and local pandemic recovery funds expire. | The mayor rejected our ask. | The DC Council rejected our ask. |
| Sustain investments in student behavioral health by adding $3.45 million to maintain FY 2023 grant funding (adjusted for inflation) for behavioral health community-based organizations serving students through the District’s School-Based Behavioral Health program. | The mayor rejected our ask. | The DC Council rejected our ask and cut an additional $3.1 million from behavioral health provider payments – a cut that results in a more than $7 million loss in federal Medicaid matching dollars and destabilizes the already struggling behavioral health provider network. |
Affordable Housing & Ending Homelessness
| DCFPI’s Asks | What the Mayor’s Budget Proposed | What’s in the Council-Approved Budget |
|---|---|---|
| Commit to affordable housing preservation. Ensure that the Affordable Housing Preservation Fund has at least $20 million to meet demand given the ongoing Tenant Opportunity to Purchase Act (TOPA) backlog and increasing need for low-cost preservation financing. Set aside a portion of the Housing Production Trust Fund (HPTF) for preservation projects. | The mayor rejected our ask. | The DC Council rejected our ask. |
| Invest $30 million in a program to enable tenants to purchase their building through TOPA. Replace the inactive First Right to Purchase Program with a program that provides affordable financing to tenants who seek to purchase their building through the TOPA process in order to create stable homeownership opportunities for tenants and to build Black and brown wealth. | The mayor rejected our ask, failing to invest funding in this effort. | The DC Council rejected our ask, failing to invest funding in this effort. |
| Improve safety and effectiveness of DC’s deeply affordable housing stock. Invest at least $60 million in public housing repairs and implement increased transparency and oversight requirements to ensure that the Housing Authority (DCHA) meets improvement benchmarks. | The mayor invested $54.3 million in repairs and maintenance for public housing properties. | The DC Council met our ask by maintaining the mayor’s investment in public housing repairs and maintenance and including transparency and oversight requirements in the Budget Support Act (BSA). The language in the BSA requires DCHA to publish regular reports on their operating budget and vacancy rates, and updates on repairs. |
| Improve transparency and follow law for production of deeply affordable housing. Implement transparency and reporting requirements for the HPTF and ensure adequate Project and Sponsor based Local Rent Supplement (PS LRSP) vouchers to support the production of deeply affordable housing, as required by law. | The Department of Housing and Community Development, under direction of the mayor, published an annual report for the HPTF for the first time since FY 2015. However, the PS LRSP budget remains opaque and unpredictable. | The Council did not make any changes to the mayor’s proposed PS LRSP budget. Members of the Council did ask questions about the operations of the HPTF, in line with the additional transparency requirements that the Council passed last year. |
| Scale up funding for Home Purchase Assistance Program (HPAP), as needed. Last year’s changes to HPAP more than doubled the maximum allowable down payment assistance for eligible applicants but did not include a corresponding funding increase for the program. Funding for HPAP in FY 2024 should be sufficient to meet the need. | The mayor used money from the Black Homeownership Strikeforce Fund to add $8 million to HPAP. | The Council took $4 million of the increase for HPAP to use for other budget needs. As a result, the HPAP received a $4 million increase for FY 2024 |
| Fund 1,260 Permanent Supportive Housing (PSH) vouchers for individuals experiencing chronic homelessness and 480 PSH vouchers for families. Homeward DC 2.0, the District’s strategic plan to end homelessness, anticipates that 1,260 PSH vouchers are needed in FY 2024. And approximately 20 percent of the 3,100 families in Rapid Re-Housing (RRH) need the intensive services provided by PSH. | The mayor rejected our ask. Her budget provides no new money for these vouchers. | The Council funded 150 vouchers for individuals and 80 for families. |
| Fund an additional 100 RRH slots for individuals to eliminate the waiting list. Provide an additional $2.5 million to RRH, which is a voluntary program that combines short-term rental assistance, case management, and workforce development, to eliminate the wait list for those seeking support. | The mayor rejected our ask. Her budget did not include additional RRH funding. | The DC Council rejected our ask. Their budget did not include additional RRH funding. |
| Ensure prevention programs are adequately funded including allocating at least $117 million to the Emergency Rental Assistance Program (ERAP). | The mayor allocated only $8.2 million for the ERAP and cut $1.2 million from Project Reconnect, the prevention program for individuals newly experiencing homelessness that helps them identify alternatives to shelter | The Council restored $1.2 million to Project Reconnect and added $34.3 million to ERAP. |
| Restore funding to build four standalone public restrooms. Residents experiencing homelessness in particular stand to benefit from restroom expansions since they often do not have money to make purchases at establishments to gain access to the restroom. | The mayor removed funding after DC Council fully funded two standalone public restrooms in the FY 2023 budget. | The Council added $406,666 to fund at least five standalone restrooms. |
| Ensure that at least 150 medical respite beds are available for individuals. Medical respite beds offer a safe place for the unhoused to recover from surgery and illness or to learn to manage a chronic condition. | The mayor rejected our ask, providing no new funding for respite beds. | The Council added funding for a study to investigate whether beds can be funded through Medicaid. |
| Increase the number of psychiatric beds. There are not enough psychiatric beds for unhoused residents experiencing psychiatric problems who need intensive services, which often results in release before patients are ready. Adding beds can help clients stabilize while they wait to move into housing. | The mayor rejected our ask. There is no new funding to increase the number of psychiatric beds. | The DC Council rejected our ask. There is no new funding to increase the number of psychiatric beds. |
| Create a flexible funding program at DHS to cover one-time move-in expenses and create a program at DHS that provides storage space for unhoused individuals. This program would allow residents who are unhoused to keep their belongings in a safe place until they find housing. | The mayor rejected our asks. | The DC Council rejected our asks. |
| Increase Personal Needs Allowance (PNA). DC’s first assisted living facility for chronically unhoused people is undersubscribed in part because Medicaid recipients may only keep $100 per month of any income they earn as a PNA. | The mayor rejected our ask. | The Council increased the PNA by $30 per month. |
Inclusive Economy
| DCFPI’s Asks | What the Mayor’s Budget Proposed | What’s in the Council-Approved Budget |
|---|---|---|
| Ensure record relief for individuals with prior cannabis-related offenses. Allocate $10.5 million over the financial plan, including $3.3 million in FY 2024, to implement the automatic expungement of records for those with decriminalized offenses. | The mayor partially funded our ask. The mayor included $300,000 in FY 2025 funding but failed to include FY 2024 funding for the Second Chance Amendment Act, effectively delaying its implementation until FY 2025. | The DC Council kept the mayor’s proposal to delay implementation, partially funding our ask. |
| Ensure that residents with unpaid debt can renew their driver’s license. The FY 2023 budget includes a trigger whereby excess revenue above budgeted revenue in FYs 2023-2026 will be allocated to fund this legislation. | The mayor adopted our ask. | The DC Council kept the mayor’s proposal, adopting our ask. |
| Invest in Guaranteed Income Pilots. Allocate additional funding to continue investments in Guaranteed Income Pilots, including in Strong Families, Strong Futures. Fund a Hold Harmless Fund to support the individuals and families whose net benefits may be lowered due to participating in a guaranteed income program. | The mayor partially funded our ask. The mayor proposed additional funding for guaranteed income pilots but did not fund a separate Hold Harmless Fund. | The DC Council kept the mayor’s proposal, partially funding our ask. |
| Increase staff capacity at the Council’s Office of Racial Equity (CORE).New Council rules require CORE to produce Racial Equity Impact Assessments (REIA) at the time of a bill’s public hearing, with the option to also issue a supplemental REIA at mark-up. Additional staff capacity is needed for CORE to address its workload. | The mayor’s funded our ask, adding one full-time position to CORE. | The DC Council kept the mayor’s proposal, funding our ask. |
| Fully fund the Child Wealth Building Act, or “baby bonds,” at $54.3 million over the financial plan. Approved by the Council in FY 2022, the baby bonds program creates and seeds a trust fund for each new child born to an income-eligible family. Based on continuing eligibility, the program annually invests in the trust until the child reaches age 18. One of the first of its kind across the country, the baby bond program would help to close the racial wealth gap and reduce intergenerational poverty. | The mayor did not provide ongoing funding for baby bonds, effectively ending the program before it was able to launch. | The DC Council reversed the proposed cuts to baby bonds and fully restored funding to the program over the four-year financial plan. |
Tax Justice and Sound Revenue Policy
| DCFPI’s Asks | What the Mayor’s Budget Proposed | What’s in the Council-Approved Budget |
|---|---|---|
| Create a DC Child Tax Credit (CTC) for families with children. Build on the strategies to guarantee income via various pilots and an expanded DC Earned Income Tax Credit with a local Child Tax Credit of $500 per child at minimum. | The mayor rejected our ask. | The DC Council rejected our ask. A budget amendment would have created a CTC, but the sponsor withdrew the amendment because there was not enough support among Council. |
| Improve fine and fee revenue data transparency. Require the Office of the Chief Financial Officer to annually publish the total amount assessed in fine and fee revenues as well as the number and demographics of applicants denied a Certificate of Clean Hands. | The mayor rejected our ask. | The DC Council rejected our ask. |
| Reject revenue policies that fail to advance racial justice and are poorly designed. Avoid poorly targeted tax breaks—temporary or permanent—including ineffective economic development tax incentives. | The mayor rejected our ask by expanding the Housing in Downtown tax abatement, locking in a high level of future spending before the program has been fully designed, launched, or proven to work. The expansion could cost DC nearly $1 billion over the course of 20 years and creates a different set of rules for developers converting downtown commercial property to residential units by exempting them from worker protections and tenant rights. | The DC Council largely kept the mayor’s proposal, rejecting our ask. The Council amended the program to require that at least 18 percent of the affordable housing units developed are affordable to households earning 80 percent of the median family income, up from 15 percent of units. Council also modified the concessions on worker and tenant rights, maintaining first source in hiring for building operations and allowing developers to sell converted buildings once without going through the TOPA process, as long as that first sale happens within ten years of the residential conversion. |