While Awaiting Belated Budget Submission, Council Passes Emergency Rental Assistance Program Reforms

Through no fault of its own, the Council’s spring calendar remains in upheaval due to an unprecedented late (and still pending) budget submission by Mayor Muriel Bowser.

Every year, under the authority of the Home Rule Charter, the Council approves a resolution establishing a budget submission deadline that is binding on the mayor, including a detailed list of required documentation and information which much be included with the submission.

At the Council’s December 3, 2024 Legislative Meeting, this year’s version of the resolution was approved, establishing an April 2, 2025 deadline for submission.

At the Council’s brief April 29 Legislative Meeting, an unprecedented second resolution was passed, dictating a new May 15 budget submission deadline. It remains unclear if this second date will be honored.

The Council’s timetable for approving the budget is firm, and dictated by the Home Rule Charter. The Council must take its first of two votes on budgetary legislation within 56 days of its submission by the mayor, with the second of two votes required by the 70^th day following the budget submission. Given the need to have a budget in place prior to the start of the new fiscal year on October 1, given that our budget bills must undergo the same 30 legislative day Congressional review as all other Council legislation, and given that Congress is in session for far fewer days than it once was (so legislative days are fewer and further between), time is tight.

The 70-day window from budget submission to required passage establishes one calendar goalpost. The second calendar goalpost is set by counting backwards from the October 1 new fiscal year start date based on a best estimate of when 30 Congressional legislative days will fall. Where the second calendar goalpost will fall is entirely outside of the District’s control. Where the first calendar goalpost falls is set by the Council, but must be respected by the mayor. The more the mayor delays, the narrower the calendar window, and the more narrow the space between the goalposts that the Council must thread to ensure timely budget passage.

Once the mayor’s budget is finally submitted, the Council’s budget office will once again create a schedule for the agency-by-agency budget oversight hearings conducted by the Council’s committees, as well as the schedule for committee markups and the eventual votes on the multiple pieces of legislation that comprise the District’s budget. This will replace the detailed schedule that had to be scrapped when the prior April 2 deadline was not honored.

Reforms to Emergency Rental Assistance Program Passed on Second Vote

Although the Council’s spring schedule has been disrupted by the mayor’s delayed budget submission, the legislative process does continue on other fronts. At the most recent Legislative Meeting, a permanent bill to reform the Emergency Rental Assistance Program (ERAP), a key eviction prevention measure, received the second of two necessary Council votes.

Evictions are undoubtedly traumatic events with deep personal, financial, physical, and mental consequences on those affected, and the government has an interest in seeking to avoid them whenever possible. During the COVID public health crisis, when the health and financial stability of the entire population was completely disrupted, the government understandably and correctly doubled down on the need to avoid evictions. It was during this time that a provision was written into the ERAP legislation that provided unlimited, indefinite stays to any eviction process affecting anyone with an open ERAP application.

As these ERAP-related holds accumulated, affordable housing providers found themselves unable to make mortgage payments on many affordable housing buildings in the District. If that lack of payment were to persist, the buildings could be foreclosed upon, the current residents would be displaced, and the affordability of that building would be permanently lost.

Once a smaller program, ERAP was originally designed to provide temporary, bridge funding during temporary periods of limited and unexpected emergencies. During the COVID crisis, so many more people faced unexpected emergencies, and the duration of these temporary periods greatly expanded.

In the aftermath of the COVID crisis, there is a need to balance continued compassion towards, and assistance for, those facing eviction due to unexpected financial instability with an attempt to preserve the District’s threatened existing affordable housing prior to a wave of foreclosures potentially decimating it. The critical policy challenge is seeking the proper, sustainable balance between short-term compassion for individual residents facing eviction with the long-term needs and survival of those who provide the District’s affordable housing stock. The permanent ERAP reform measure passed at the most recent Legislative Meeting seeks to find this balance.

As passed, the ERAP bill would continue to provide potential assistance to those applicants who could document their eligibility by demonstrating that the emergencies they are experiencing are in fact time-limited and unforeseen. The bill clarifies which documents are required to comply with the ERAP application process. Additionally, the bill would attempt to alleviate case backlogs in landlord/tenant court by giving those judges the discretion to grant (rather than requiring them to grant) stays in cases where the tenant has an approved ERAP application. The bill also creates a discretionary rent waiver workaround for tenants who demonstrate that their landlord did not cooperate in the ERAP process.

In other action at the most recent Legislative Meeting, the appointment of Dr. Antoinette Mitchell as State Superintendent of Education was confirmed.

The Council’s next Legislative Meeting is scheduled for June 3.