Reply to Chevy Chase Community Center Redevelopment

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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]There is a difference between the voucher apartments like at Tilden and CT and what is being proposed at the Chevy Chase core area. Please don't make false inferences.[/quote]

Every rental property is a potential voucher property, because it’s illegal for any rental property to turn down a housing voucher applicant. Don’t believe me? Here’s our attorney general: “It is illegal for landlords to discriminate against tenants for using housing vouchers. It is also illegal to discriminate against a voucher holder based on rental payment history prior to receiving the voucher. “

https://oag.dc.gov/release/ag-schwalb-files-first-lawsuit-enforcing-new-anti

D.C. gives the vouchers to people. The people pick the property they want to rent, and it’s illegal for any apartment complex to turn them down.[/quote]

This is all true.  Every rental property is a potential voucher property (well, below a certain rental level - so I guess every "normally" constructed rental property is - the penthouse apt in Georgetown isn't gonna get knocked down enough for a voucher holder to afford).  So the solution is either to build way more expensive apartments (no studios, all 2 bedrooms with fancy finishings and a high rent) - or, perhaps, we could fix the voucher program.

It's not that voucher holders are bad people.  It's not that the voucher program only produces bad results.  I mean, we hardly ever hear about the voucher holder who lives quietly in a well-heeled Ward 3 building and whose kids are going to one of the local schools and they are doing well for themselves compared to where they would be if that didn't happen.  But that is actually the rule.  What we hear about instead is the exception - the small number of voucher holders who are trouble makers and who act in ways that are provocative or who engage in crime.  Those are the exceptions.

We shouldn't throw out the whole program - which does do a lot of good for a lot of people - just because of some small proportion of bad actors.  We should try to and push for reforms that address the bad actors.  Some type of penalty to suspend or remove the voucher if something bad occurs because of their behavior.[/quote]

Can’t DC then focus on the bad troublemakers among the voucher holders and evict them? Perhaps there’s free DC-provided housing for them that is more appropriate:  it’s called prison![/quote]

You mean like... calling for courts to actually process people who are voucher holders and present a threat?  Oh wait.. Frumin is doing that! 
[url]https://x.com/CMFrumin/status/1727355427019686017?s=20[/url][/quote]

In Forest Hills and CP, evicted voucher holders have simply moved to nearby buildings. The city does not seem to remove vouchers even for violent crimes, etc. committed on the premises, This was covered in a recent WP story as well as an older one re: Sedgewick Gardens. In that case, a voucher holder stabbed someone and created a SWAT standoff. While he was in DC Jail the other residents got a stay away order for the building. The property management company simply transferred his voucher up the street to The Brandywine for when he was released. This story is more recent.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/dc-md-va/2023/08/08/dc-paid-housing-chronic-homelessness/

[quote]Even when tenants are arrested, they’re quickly released and able to return to the building, Derosa said during the meeting, because neither the Housing Authority nor the District’s Department of Human Services will revoke their vouchers or otherwise hold them accountable.[/quote][/quote]

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