ENROLLED ORIGINAL
A RESOLUTION
25-667
IN THE COUNCIL OF THE DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA
October 1, 2024
To declare an emergency with respect to the need to amend Section 8f of the Homeless Services
Reform Act of 2005 to reform the Emergency Rental Assistance Program to require
specific documentation from tenants establishing eligibility for emergency rental
assistance funds and to clarify the definition of a qualifying emergency situation; and to
amend Section 501 of the Rental Housing Act of 1985 to permit a court to enter a stay,
rather than require a court to enter a stay, when a tenant submits documentation to the
court demonstrating that he or she has a pending Emergency Rental Assistance Program
application.
RESOLVED, BY THE COUNCIL OF THE DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA, That this
resolution may be cited as the “Emergency Rental Assistance Reform Emergency Declaration
Resolution of 2024”.
Sec. 2. (a) Affordable housing providers in the District are currently facing a financial
crisis driven by ballooning rental arrearages. According to affordable housing providers, rent
arrearages have grown so large that many properties are not bringing in enough revenue to pay
mortgages and maintenance costs. While the full scale of unpaid rent in the District is not known
precisely, a recent article in BisNow suggests that 20 mission-driven affordable housing
providers with properties in the District have accrued a total of $15 million per year in unpaid
rent. The effects of this crisis cannot be understated.
(b) One affordable housing developer, Neighborhood Development Company, announced
its decision to end operations in the District beginning September 30, 2024. Another affordable
housing developer, E&G Group, is currently liquidating its properties in the District. Several
non-profit developers report that this crisis is drying up access to capital to build more affordable
units.
(c) This crisis is being driven, in large part, by District laws regarding Emergency Rental
Assistance Program (“ERAP”) funds and the eviction process. Currently, the law allows tenants
to submit an unsworn declaration made under penalty of perjury to establish proof of eligibility
for ERAP funds and requires the court to stay proceedings in eviction cases when a tenant
submits an application for ERAP even if the tenant is determined not to be eligible for ERAP or
will not receive enough ERAP funds to cover the full amount of unpaid rent and the housing
provider opts not to pursue a payment plan to cover the remaining arrearages.
 ENROLLED ORIGINAL
(d) Additionally, because the ERAP application portal opens each quarter, tenants in
numerous cases have been able to secure multiple stays in an eviction case further delaying the
ability of the housing provider to secure a writ while the rent arrearages continue to grow. Where
eviction cases used to take 3 to 5 months from the date of filing to an eviction, they can now take
a year or more.
(e) The provision requiring the court to stay proceedings in eviction cases when a tenant
submits an application for ERAP has not only contributed to the lengthening of eviction case
timelines, it has also contributed to a growing backlog of cases in the Landlord and Tenant
Branch of Superior Court, compounding the delays. In 2023, the pending caseload for the
Landlord and Tenant Branch grew by 23%, with more cases pending than at any point in the past
10 years despite the number of filings being significantly less than prior to the COVID-19
pandemic.
(f) Without Council action to amend these provisions of the law, the financial crisis
facing affordable housing providers will worsen, leading to foreclosures of affordable properties
and causing lenders to avoid providing loans to affordable housing developers in the District.
Importantly, foreclosures caused by this crisis would wipe out affordability covenants, which
will reduce our already inadequate supply of affordable housing.
Sec. 3. The Council determines that the circumstances enumerated in section 2 constitute
emergency circumstances making it necessary that the Emergency Rental Assistance Reform
Emergency Amendment Act of 2024 be adopted after a single reading.
Sec. 4. This resolution shall take effect immediately.