The D.C. Council is expected to vote on a bill on Tuesday that plans to change up the city’s troubled public housing system.
The bill would eliminate most of the elected and independent members of the Board of Commissioners of the D.C. Housing Authority and create an eight-member Stabilization and Reform Board appointed by Mayor Muriel Bowser, who supports the bill.
The move comes after a scathing federal report that says the city is failing to provide “decent, safe and sanitary” public housing.
Janet Parker, a member of the housing authority board who lives in public housing herself, thinks the bill is not the answer. “My role is to be the checks and balances on the power of the mayor,” Parker said. “Wasn’t it the British historian Lord Acton who said ‘power corrupts and absolute power corrupts absolutely?’”
The new temporary board would last three years, and would include public members who have expertise in affordable housing development, federal housing law and capital projects.
The report from the federal Department of Housing and Urban Development found tens of thousands of people waiting for public housing, as well as dangerous conditions at DCHA properties, including violence, lead paint hazards, water damage and mold. The report calls for corrective action by March 31, 2023.
Parker acknowledges the problems of the public housing system, but said eliminating elected and independent board members is not the way to go: “I go door to door and I talk to my constituents; I see them face to face, and I ask them what they need and what their problems are.”
D.C. Council Chair Phil Mendelson is in favor of the bill, saying the current board is viewed as dysfunctional.
Last week, an advocacy group that offers services to people who depend on the D.C. Housing Authority came out against the bill, while showing more support for a bill from council members Brooke Pinto and Elissa Silverman who introduced another piece of legislation which would create a nine-member board among other reforms. Their bill does not call for the complete dismissal of the current board.
It’s not an emergency measure, and thus would gather input from the community.
Daniel del Pielago, the organizing director for Empower DC, said last week that more oversight of DCHA from the council and more results from the improved funding DCHA has received in recent years.
WTOP’s Mike Murillo contributed to this report.
