December 24, 2021

On December 21, the District Council voted against emergency legislation that would have put discrete checks on Mayor Bowser’s encampment eviction program (the CARE Pilot). The emergency legislation, drafted by Councilmember Brianne Nadeau (Ward 1), was crafted with input from local houseless activists and advocacy groups and was supported by more than 20 public and civil society organizations including: the District Attorney General’s Office, the ACLU, the DC Council’s Office on Racial Equity, the Washington Legal Clinic for the Homeless, Empower DC, 80+ elected Advisory Neighborhood Commissioners, The Way Home DC and more. The legislation would have put checks on the Bowser Administration’s ability to clear encampments until April 1, 2022. In addition to enshrining due process for unhoused residents, it would have required the city to provide fire extinguishers, lavatories and handwashing stations to residents at the sites.

Seven councilmembers voted against the legislation. “No” votes included typical conservatives on the council: private equity heiress Brooke Pinto (Ward 2), GWU law professor Mary Cheh (Ward 3), housing chair (and arguably corrupt) Anita Bonds (At-Large) and corporate cynic Phil Mendelson (Council Chair). Kenyon Mcduffie (Ward 5) also voted no, ignoring the advice of the Council Office on Racial Equity (CORE) – a new District agency which he often takes credit for establishing. In an assessment, CORE found that Nadeau’s legislation would protect the health and wellbeing of Black, Indigenous and other residents of color. CORE wrote that the “[approach], design, and implementation of the CARE Pilot is deliberately cruel, unreasonably punitive, and fails to acknowledge the root causes of homelessness.” Find CORE’s full assessment here.

Shocking no votes came from Christina Henderson (At-Large) and Charles Allen (Ward 6). In a prior hearing on the legislation, they raised reasonable concerns about the original crafting of the bill. When their concerns were addressed in amended emergency legislation as proposed in December 21, they failed to acknowledge the changes made by activists. In a statement released by The Way Home DC, which had been helping craft the legislation, the organization wrote:

“We worked with the drafters to negotiate in good faith and helped re-write this legislation to account for concerns raised by many Council members, especially Councilmembers Allen and Henderson (even though their concerns were often untrue and rooted in stereotypes about homelessness). Even though our coalition made multiple attempts to speak with their offices over the past several weeks, our attempts to compromise were met with silence and our meeting requests were unanswered. To our shock and despite these concessions, these two Councilmembers still voted ‘no.’”

Opposition to Nadeau’s legislation took on a racist and classist character, with opposition routinely implying that unhoused residents are dirty, dangerous or irrational. Contrary to pernicious lies spread by DC conservatives and property owners over social media, the legislation explicitly stated that it would not stop the shelter and housing allowances provided by the CARE pilot!

Councilmembers Silverman (At-Large), T. White (Ward 8), R. White (At-large), and Lewis-George (Ward 4) all voted in favor of the legislation, stressing the need to check the Mayor’s misuse of the program and to build trust with houseless residents in order to assess their needs and provide residents real housing, not just shelter. (Read more about DC’s cruel encampment evictions in Street Sense). You can find a full recording of the Council’s discussion on this emergency legislation here (discussion begins at ~1:12).