Get to know DC Council at-large candidate Oye Owolewa

I am a pharmacist — PharmD from Northeastern, where I graduated as the only Black man in my program. A pharmacist does not just fill prescriptions. I look at the whole system a patient is living in. That frame has defined everything I have done since.

I started my career at the Rite Aid on U Street, where I saw firsthand how the overdose crisis and unequal healthcare access were hurting Black communities. I was elected ANC Commissioner in Ward 8 with no name recognition and won by one vote. I have served as DC’s elected U.S. Shadow Representative since 2020, re-elected twice, becoming the first Nigerian American elected to districtwide office.

I administered some of DC’s first COVID vaccines, launched expungement clinics serving 600-plus residents, and spent six years on Capitol Hill fighting for DC statehood. I live in Congress Heights. I know what it means to show up for a community — and I do not plan to stop.

Housing stability. Healthcare access. Protecting DC’s democratic rights.

DC residents are being priced out of the District they call home. I will restore emergency rental assistance, strengthen tenant rights, and cap rent increases at the rate of inflation.

The proposed cuts to Medicaid and the Healthcare Alliance would strip coverage from 25,000 residents. As a pharmacist I will fight to restore that coverage and raise reimbursement rates so providers stay in our communities.

And with Congress overriding DC laws at will, I will use every Council tool available to protect home rule, sanctuary protections, and every voter-approved initiative from federal interference.

When my home in Congress Heights was shot into, I did not call for more policing. I went outside and talked to the young men in the neighborhood. Every one of them wanted to work. Every one of them had a record blocking every door. So I launched quarterly expungement clinics that have now served more than 600 residents. That experience taught me that public safety is built through opportunity, not just enforcement.

Legislatively I will fight for fully funded violence interruption programs, non-police mental health crisis response, and removal of police from DC public schools — replacing them with counselors, nurses, and social workers. The DC Auditor found patrol staffing is adequate. What we need is smarter deployment: 65 more detectives, officers redeployed from administrative roles back to neighborhoods where they are needed.

To know if changes are working I will track youth employment rates, violence interruption contacts, school connection, and reoffense rates — not just arrest numbers. Arrest numbers measure enforcement. Employment, connection, and stability measure safety.

One additional year of education reduces violent crime by more than 11 percent. That is peer-reviewed research, not ideology. The most effective intervention DC has is investment in education, employment, and opportunity.

The Council’s role is clear: fully fund youth employment programs, invest in late-night and afterschool spaces, make the University of the District of Columbia tuition-free, and keep schools resourced east of the Anacostia. Prevention is not soft on crime. It is the intervention that actually works.

On accountability: consequences matter and must be proportionate, but longer sentences and new crime categories do not reduce youth violence. The evidence is unambiguous on this. Continuing to act otherwise is a choice to fail young people.

On youth curfews: I oppose them. DC’s own data showed gun violence increased 150 percent when the curfew was in effect. DC’s FY2027 budget increases youth detention spending by $6.6 million while cutting parks and recreation by $5.8 million. That budget tells you everything about priorities.

Open the recreation centers. Fund afterschool programs. Meet young people where they are — with jobs, purpose, and support. Not police as the first response.

The Council controls the purse. That is real power and I will use it.

I have spent years in DC classrooms running science experiments and encouraging students to call each other “doctor.” Teachers tell me the same thing everywhere: kids light up with hands-on learning and adults who see them. What keeps students from succeeding is hunger, housing instability, and schools without the resources to meet them where they are.

I will fight to enforce the Schools First in Budgeting Act so at-risk student funding cannot be raided. I will permanently fund the Early Childhood Educator Pay Equity Fund — child care workers doing essential work deserve equal pay, and early childhood investment has unambiguous returns. I will push for full implementation of the Birth-to-Three Act.

I will fight to increase school funding east of the Anacostia. The same 22-year life expectancy gap I see in healthcare shows up in education outcomes. That is not coincidence. That is the compounded cost of chronic underinvestment.

I will make the University of the District of Columbia tuition-free — because the pipeline from a DC classroom to a DC career should not be blocked by debt.

I have seen tenant protection rights save people’s homes. As an ANC Commissioner in Ward 8, I worked with seniors whose building was being targeted by an alleged slumlord. We organized tenants, slowed the sale, and built a coalition that led then-Attorney General Karl Racine to remove the developer and replace them with a nonprofit. Those seniors stayed housed. Without those protections, they would have been displaced.

That is preservation first — the foundation of my housing agenda.

I will fight to restore emergency rental assistance, cut from $63 million to $8.6 million in the current budget. I will restore tenant purchase rights for small buildings, cap rent increases at the rate of inflation rather than inflation-plus-two-percent, and fund the right to legal representation in eviction cases. I will support expanding social housing and community land trusts.

New development has a role, DC needs tens of thousands of new homes, but I will oppose any public subsidy that does not come with real, enforceable affordability guarantees. Public dollars require public standards.

DC’s communication systems are broken from the ground up. The 911 and emergency dispatch center has documented failures that cost lives. That is not a technology problem. It is a leadership and accountability problem. The Council has oversight authority and I will use it with real consequences attached.

I will push for mandatory public reporting on 911 response times, dispatch accuracy, and agency follow-through broken down by ward. I will fight for a world-class 311 system that connects neighbors to services and to each other, new residents and longtime ones alike. Serve DC volunteers and community organizations should be partners in that system, not afterthoughts.

When agencies fail I will push for named accountability. Not reassignment. Not a quiet reorganization. Public consequences tied to measurable outcomes.

I will make oversight hearings accessible by holding them on evenings and weekends in hybrid formats so residents who work during the day can actually participate.

Strong communities are built on communication and trust. That starts with a government that picks up the phone, follows through, and answers for failures publicly.

Budgets are moral documents. When I look at a DC budget I ask one question first: who pays when this line gets cut?

In a constrained budget the order is clear. Housing stability comes first. Emergency rental assistance, permanent supportive housing, right to legal representation in eviction cases. A family that loses housing loses school stability, employment, and health simultaneously. The downstream cost of displacement dwarfs the cost of preventing it.

Healthcare coverage comes next. Cutting 25,000 residents from Medicaid is not a savings. It is a cost shift onto emergency rooms and families. As a pharmacist I have seen what losing coverage actually looks like. I will not vote for any budget that does that.

DC is not resource-poor. The problem is where the money goes. Large corporations receive significant DC subsidies and those dollars leave the District without generating the local economic circulation that benefits everyone.

I support a progressive tax system where everyone contributes at different levels and we all receive the collective benefit. Not taxing the rich to help the poor. Taxing the wealthy to make DC better for everyone.

I have spent six years as DC’s Shadow Representative on Capitol Hill. I have lobbied Congress directly, organized statehood coalitions across the country, and watched Congress override DC laws that DC residents voted for. I know exactly what federal overreach costs the District.

The Council should be maximally assertive on home rule. Not performatively. Substantively. Every fight DC has on the Council, housing, healthcare, education, immigration, is vulnerable to federal override without statehood. Council members who stay quiet about that are not being pragmatic. They are conceding the most important fight DC has.

I will use the bully pulpit, pass resolutions with real force, refuse to quietly comply with federal overrides of voter-approved initiatives, and coordinate with the Shadow Delegation on every significant federal action affecting DC residents.

Seven hundred thousand people pay federal taxes, serve in the military, and follow laws they had no vote in making. That is not a historical grievance. It is the daily reality of disenfranchisement. The Council should say so loudly, consistently, and with specific action behind the words.

No one is coming to give us our rights. We have to fight for them.

Last year I was almost killed in a car accident in Ward 8. Because public transit east of the river is disconnected and unreliable, driving is my only real option for many trips. I put my life at risk to get around my own neighborhood. That is not a personal complaint. That is what happens when a city systematically underinvests in transit for certain communities.

Metro is an equity issue as much as a transportation issue. When a nurse misses a shift because an escalator is broken or a bus is 40 minutes late, the whole city loses.

I will support the DMV Moves regional funding plan, $500 to $600 million annually beginning in FY2028, and hold Maryland and Virginia to their fair share of Metro’s costs. I will advocate for fare-free buses as a near-term goal. I will push for expanded bus priority corridors, congestion pricing, and elimination of minimum parking requirements near transit.

I will not support removing Station Managers. I have worked with Station Managers during medical emergencies. Human presence on the system matters. Traffic and fare enforcement belong in a civilian agency, not with MPD.

As an ANC Commissioner in Ward 8 I watched development decisions get made by the people profiting from them, not the people living with the consequences. That experience taught me something simple: genuine community engagement has to begin before the deal is structured, not after the shovels are in the ground.

I will push for planning processes that are accessible. Evenings, weekends, hybrid formats, with ANC partnerships so residents who work during the day can actually participate. I will advocate for mandatory community benefit agreements on all projects receiving significant public subsidy. Project labor agreements and prevailing wages on projects receiving $25 million or more in District support. Displacement safeguards as non-negotiable conditions, not afterthoughts. Strong oversight of tax incentives and financing tools with public reporting on who actually benefits.

DC needs more housing. But growth that displaces the people who built the neighborhoods it is now profiting from is not success. It is extraction. The same communities that absorbed decades of disinvestment should not be the ones absorbing the consequences of sudden reinvestment without protection.

Public dollars require public standards. That applies to every development deal DC makes.

The relationship between the Council and the Mayor right now is terse. And that dysfunction has real costs for residents. When the two branches are fighting instead of governing, services stall, budgets get delayed, and communities pay for it.

The Council’s job is not to be an obstacle and not to be a rubber stamp. It is to be a co-equal branch providing oversight, writing law, and controlling the budget. That requires honest communication, even when it is uncomfortable.

Residents should demand that both branches communicate clearly and govern together. I will show up to that standard. Where I agree with the mayor I will say so and get to work. Where I disagree I will say so publicly with evidence and an alternative.

I have spent six years working across party lines as DC’s Shadow Representative. I know how to build working relationships without losing independence. The Council has subpoena authority, budget authority, and confirmation authority. Those tools are for governing, not for theater.

Delayed emergency response is a life and death failure. The Council has to treat it that way, with oversight that has real consequences attached.

DC’s 911 system has documented dispatch failures, understaffed call centers, and coordination breakdowns between agencies. These are not isolated incidents. They are system failures that the Council has been too slow to address.

I will push for mandatory public reporting on call wait times, dispatch accuracy, and response times broken down by ward. Residents deserve to see exactly where the system is failing.

I will fight for right-sized Fire and EMS staffing. DC has not added a new fire company since 1987. Call volume is rising. That gap is a policy choice and I will work to reverse it.

I will also push to route non-emergency calls, mental health crises, welfare checks, and noise complaints to appropriate civilian responders. Not because police do not matter, but because reserving 911 for true emergencies is how you make the entire system more reliable for everyone.

Public trust is built through consistent, transparent conduct and destroyed through closed-door decision making that protects insiders.

I have already started building the accountability structure I will govern by. My campaign created a governance council called 51 for Oye, focused on community-centered governing and creating mechanisms that keep elected officials accountable to residents, not donors. It is very easy to become isolated in office or to surround yourself with a small group of wealthy supporters. A community governance council is a structural check against that.

When Council members violate ethical standards, the Council should act publicly and without equivocation. Not manage it internally. Not reassign the problem. Public consequences for public failures.

My own standard: transparent votes, transparent reasoning, regular community sessions, and responsive constituent communication. Independent ethics oversight with real investigative authority and full financial disclosure requirements.

Dependable. Consistent. Accountable. That is not a slogan. It is the standard I will be judged by and I welcome that accountability.

DC is a neighborhood city. The lived experience of a resident in Deanwood is fundamentally different from a resident in Tenleytown, and both deserve a Councilmember who understands that. The 22-year life expectancy gap between Congress Heights and Georgetown Foxhall is not a Ward 8 problem. It is a districtwide failure that requires a districtwide response.

At-large members are best positioned to lead on issues that cross ward lines: transit, housing policy, environmental standards, and home rule. These are fights no single ward can win alone. They require a districtwide voice and I will be that voice.

I will rely on Advisory Neighborhood Commissions for the hyperlocal governance knowledge no at-large member can replicate from a single office. ANCs know their blocks. My job is to connect that knowledge to citywide policy.

I will use new technologies to strengthen democratic participation across all eight wards. Too many residents are locked out of civic life not because they lack opinions but because the systems we use to engage them are outdated.

I am the only districtwide elected official who lives east of the Anacostia. I will represent every ward as if it is my own.

Marion Barry Avenue Market and Café in Anacostia. Ward 8 has one major grocery store. The lowest life expectancy in DC. Dreaming Out Loud built this space knowing that health starts with food but grows through community. Local hiring, local farmers, a demo kitchen for nutrition education, and a place to sit down together. It is everything a neighborhood deserves and too rarely gets. Every time I walk in I remember exactly why I am running.

As a child of immigrants I was tracked into slower learning programs because of my name and my accent, not my abilities. My résumé is proof that an individual and their family can overcome a system that failed them. But that should not be the story. No child should have to overcome a system that was supposed to support them. That is exactly why I am running.