Empowerment Circle: Public Housing Privatization

Empowerment Circle

"PRIVATIZATION of Public Housing: Opportunity or Elimination?"

Wednesday, July 28th
6:30 pm to 8:30 pm
Southwest Library
900 Wesley Place, SW

Linda Couch, Senior Vice President of Policy of the National Low Income Housing Coalition will be the special guest.

Many local and national affordable housing advocates and activists, including some members of the House Financial Services Committee and the Subcommittee on Housing, are very concerned with the potential harmful
impact of PETRA, which could mean the end or dismantling of traditional public housing.

With more than 25,000 households on the District of Columbia Housing Authority's (DCHA) waiting list for public housing and a waiting period of between 5 and 8 years, PETRA could have a devastating effect on the lives of tens of thousands of low income District residents.

A recent report by the District of Columbia Fiscal Policy Institute illustrates the growing severity of the housing affordability crisis facing the District's lowest income residents, those whose incomes are $30,000 and below. Of the District of Columbia's 244,000 households, "Some 98,000 paid more than 30 percent of their income for housing in 2007. This representsan increase of more than 20,000 households with unaffordable housing cost since 2000.."

The mission of Empower D.C. is to enhance and improve the self-advocacy of low and moderate income residents of the District of Columbia in order to bring about sustained improvement in their quality of life.

Empower D.C. is particularly interested in preventing the displacement and loss of housing that is affordable to low and moderate income residents.