Anonymous wrote:

The caseworkers essential to the city’s housing-first approach work for service providers contracted by the District. They are supposed to help program participants like Watts with tasks that include creating household budgets, building community support networks and connecting with mental health and substance abuse services. For this, city contracts show, the Department of Human Services pays $755 per tenant per month. The contracts allow caseloads of up to 25 clients per caseworker.

Under the agreement, caseworkers must make at least two contacts with participants a month, one of which must be in person — down from a minimum of four contacts a month required until last year.

Yikes, that is not much and it's my understanding that participants do not need to even open the door if a caseworker knocks, never mind be compliant with MH treatment, addiction treatment, etc. Housing First does not allow requirements re: job training or education or moving toward self-sufficiency, in fact DC seems to have recently converted what used to be 1 year vouchers into PSH, not sure how that will be financially sustainable or if the end is built in when the buildings will be emptied, tenants who could exercise TOPA rights gone years before, and flipped to condos? No idea if audits are done to substantiate even these extremely minimal contacts, we know from WMATA how often records are faked.

If this is true then Housing First is Bull* in terms of benefiting ANY constituents, and I will no longer listen to a word they say. Is it?

Anonymous wrote:Amazing.

All of the fine DC progressives start paying attention once the bullets start flying.

Fools.

Where do you get that from? People on this thread are continuing to deny and minimize.

Anonymous wrote:

Turnage, who as deputy mayor oversees the DHS, said the District doesn’t limit how many supportive housing participants are moved into a particular building. “That is dependent on the unit that the resident chooses and then the willingness of the landlord … to take more,” he said

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

But a landlord isn’t allowed to limit the number of voucher holders.

Amazing.

All of the fine DC progressives start paying attention once the bullets start flying.

Fools.

Crazy lefties.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Frumin is a disaster. At least Trayon White shows up when there are shootings. You know what’s up with vouchers? A real estate scam. Step 1: Drive old people and young families out of Connecticut Avenue buildings by putting in voucher holders who make life uncomfortable with crime and untreated mental illness. Step 2: Screw the poor voucher holders by sunsetting the program. Step 3: Real estate companies redo the empty buildings as Luxury Condo$ and make a lot more $$$$. Tell me I am wrong in 10 years!

Everyone is saying this now, but he's the one that the majority of people in Ward 3 voted for. And this board completely eviscerated candidates like Goulet and Monte.

Monte would have been great. Hope she runs again!

Me too!

Not sure if this was already posted:



https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/us/a-shaken-washington-copes-with-surging-violence-this-is-not-normal/ar-AA1gxQJ9


"The spike in felonies — homicides and robberies are up 29 and 67 percent from the same time period last year, police statistics show — is not the only data that is causing alarm. The number of juveniles arrested for carjacking has increased slightly since last year, with 41 of the 64 charged between the ages of 12 and 15. As of Aug. 31, a total of 81 minors had been shot in the city this year, compared with 66 over the same span last year and 37 in 2021.

While a preponderance of violence occurs where it often has — in poor neighborhoods on D.C.’s eastern edge — statistics show that the geography of crime has become more diffuse, with prosperous areas less immune than before.

For example, a total of 98 auto thefts were reported by Aug. 31 in Ward 3, an area that includes Cleveland Park and Chevy Chase, an increase of 81 percent from the same period last year, data shows. In Ward 2, including Georgetown and downtown, there have been 285 robberies, an 84 percent jump. The 20 homicides this year in Ward 1, which stretches from Columbia Heights to Adams Morgan and along the U Street corridor, represent a 150 percent increase.

In Ward 8, a historically crime-plagued area encompassing Anacostia and Congress Heights, the number of homicides — 71 by the end of August, a 39 percent jump — prompted Council member Trayon White Sr. (D-Ward 8) last month to describe the city as a “war zone” and call for the National Guard. Bowser, when asked at the time about White’s demand, demurred, saying she shared his concerns about crime and that she was focused on the deployment of resources."

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Are tenants convicted of a crime allowed to participate in the voucher program? Like, including dependents? I know in Charleston SC, when they lifted that restriction after the Floyd protests, the formerly safe public housing devolved really quickly into an absolute sh*tshow, and they have now backtracked.

Yes. In the WP series re: Sedgewick Gardens, a tenant who stabbed another tenant and triggered a SWAT incident, had his voucher transferred to another Daro building, The Brandywine, (next to the Sat shooting but at the time still quiet area) while he was incarcerated. The residents of Sedgewick Gardens had gotten a stay away order.

Per this article, people almost never lose vouchers and yes, it leads to the situation you describe.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/dc-md-va/2023/08/08/dc-paid-housing-chronic-homelessness/

And administration of the program has triggered HUD sanctions, yet it rolls on.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/investigations/2023/02/15/dc-housing-authority-overpays-landlords/
The overpayments probably provide for lots of kickbacks to lots of hands...

If people were to lose their housing voucher, then that means they have nothing left to lose. Advocating for such a stupid policy will result in higher crimes and you risk becoming a bigger target and victim. Housing is a basic necessity. Causing people to lose their housing vouchers will mean more reckless violent behaviors. I would caution you against such an idea.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Are tenants convicted of a crime allowed to participate in the voucher program? Like, including dependents? I know in Charleston SC, when they lifted that restriction after the Floyd protests, the formerly safe public housing devolved really quickly into an absolute sh*tshow, and they have now backtracked.

Subsidized housing is a privilege. It's reasonable to impose some basic conditions like not committing felony crimes.

Restitution is also a thing, people should not have a criminal record follow haunt them from their youth. If a person has received a fine or jail time, then they have paid their debt to society. Moreover, many youth committing these crimes have not grown into their adulthood yet. Science says that children's brains are not fully formed until they are at least 25.

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

The caseworkers essential to the city’s housing-first approach work for service providers contracted by the District. They are supposed to help program participants like Watts with tasks that include creating household budgets, building community support networks and connecting with mental health and substance abuse services. For this, city contracts show, the Department of Human Services pays $755 per tenant per month. The contracts allow caseloads of up to 25 clients per caseworker.

Under the agreement, caseworkers must make at least two contacts with participants a month, one of which must be in person — down from a minimum of four contacts a month required until last year.

Yikes, that is not much and it's my understanding that participants do not need to even open the door if a caseworker knocks, never mind be compliant with MH treatment, addiction treatment, etc. Housing First does not allow requirements re: job training or education or moving toward self-sufficiency, in fact DC seems to have recently converted what used to be 1 year vouchers into PSH, not sure how that will be financially sustainable or if the end is built in when the buildings will be emptied, tenants who could exercise TOPA rights gone years before, and flipped to condos? No idea if audits are done to substantiate even these extremely minimal contacts, we know from WMATA how often records are faked.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Frumin is a disaster. At least Trayon White shows up when there are shootings. You know what’s up with vouchers? A real estate scam. Step 1: Drive old people and young families out of Connecticut Avenue buildings by putting in voucher holders who make life uncomfortable with crime and untreated mental illness. Step 2: Screw the poor voucher holders by sunsetting the program. Step 3: Real estate companies redo the empty buildings as Luxury Condo$ and make a lot more $$$$. Tell me I am wrong in 10 years!

Everyone is saying this now, but he's the one that the majority of people in Ward 3 voted for. And this board completely eviscerated candidates like Goulet and Monte.

Monte would have been great. Hope she runs again!

Even if she did, I would not vote for her. She is too polarizing.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:When I lived EOTP, it was common for me and neighbors to drive kids to Forest Hills Playground or to Rose Park or Palisades. That SHOOTERS ran across this playground at 3pm on a Saturday afternoon blows my mind. And basically crickets from the political class and somewhat of a shrug from residents. No community meeting scheduled as of yet...

https://dgs.dc.gov/page/dgs-forest-hills-park--play-dc-playground-project

3 shots were fired, 1 hit the victim, what do people think will protect you or your kids on the sidewalk from the other 2 as you go to the park, tennis courts, BreadFurst or Politics & Prose in broad daylight on a weekend?

If the provisions limiting the criminal background screenings and evictions were changed and landlords were held responsible for results or become ineligible for program, things would change. Too much money being made from status quo, I suppose. The WP series on Sedgewick Gardens laid out how disruptive tenants can be used to clear buildings of below market rent stabilized tenants and those who have the resources to exercise TOPA.

Curious- why didn’t you walk to your local playground? Or drive to one closer to your home?

DP but I almost find the naïveté here charming.

I also lived EOTP, walking distance to several playgrounds, and shootings in the vicinity were a thing more than once.

Turnage, who as deputy mayor oversees the DHS, said the District doesn’t limit how many supportive housing participants are moved into a particular building. “That is dependent on the unit that the resident chooses and then the willingness of the landlord … to take more,” he said

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