The $200 million they were asking lawmakers to include in the FY 2022 budget is less than half of what excluded workers would need in order to achieve parity with folks receiving unemployment benefits, according to a report by the DC Fiscal Policy Institute.
“We have federal money to allow for some childhood stabilization grants, but we’ve not made investments in raising childcare worker wages,” says Erica Williams, the executive director of the D.C. Fiscal Policy Institute.
Last month, the DC Fiscal Policy Institute and DC Action commissioned a poll that found that 80% of District voters support asking residents making above $250,000 a year to pay more in taxes to fund greater investments in child care and housing.
She [Councilmember Nadeau] proposes to raise funds for this effort by taxing residents making more than $250,000 a year at a higher level — an idea opposed by Mendelson but urged by advocates such as the DC Fiscal Policy Institute and DC Action.
A June study from the DC Fiscal Policy Institute, a left-leaning think tank, found excluded workers were denied more than $500 million in unemployment insurance, roughly $40,000 per worker.
A 2018 D.C. Fiscal Policy Institute report found that it would take $2.6 billion over 10 years in construction costs alone to meet the District’s affordable housing goals — more than double the mayor’s annual investment.
“We’re now behind on our strategies [to end homelessness]” laid out in the initial plan, says Kate Coventry, a senior policy analyst at the D.C. Fiscal Policy Institute.
Research conducted in June by the DCFPI found that the $200 million request is less than half of what’s needed for excluded workers to match the average unemployment benefits received by other workers through the first year of the pandemic.
Eliana Golding, a policy analyst at DCFPI focused on inclusive economies, says presenting trackable metrics in an easily digestible or visual way allows activists & organizers to add quantitative data to their lived experiences when advocating to lawmakers.
Still, advocates for affordable housing and homeless services believe the mayor’s budget does not do enough to meet residents’ needs given the times.
