WASHINGTON ( DC News Now ) — Several families are suing D.C.’s Department of Human Services (DHS), accusing the agency of illegally cutting people from the Rapid Re-Housing Program, which is intended to help families get out of homelessness.
The lawsuit, which was filed with the Office of Administrative Hearings last week, is seeking class-action status. More than 800 families are included in the class, with three women named in the lawsuit.
DC apartment owners owe tenants and District $1.65 million in settlement with DC Attorney General One of them is Angel Gregory, who started in the Rapid Re-housing Program in December of 2021.
“I was homeless since I was 13, bouncing from house to house and once I got pregnant, I had no place to go,” Gregory said. “I needed help financially staying stable and staying afloat with my son. I’m only 23 so I need assistance, especially with a two-year-old.”
According to the city, Rapid Re-housing, “is a time-limited housing and support designed to assist families experiencing homelessness – or at imminent risk of experiencing homelessness –to afford dignified and safe housing in the private market.”
Clients in the program are assisted with rent and case management for 12 to 18 months. In the end, families are expected to be able to pay market rent value on their own. An amendment to the program, which went into effect in October of 2023, requires DHS to evaluate families on a case-by-case basis for program extensions.
However, the lawsuit alleges hundreds of families were not given the opportunity to apply for an extension and instead were told they’d be immediately exited from the program. Those notices went out in April, May and June of this year.
“It basically said I was going to be exiting the program because they didn’t have any funds for us to live here,” said Gregory, who received her notice in May.
Gregory said that sent her into a tailspin.
“It made me feel like ‘oh my gosh, my world is about to spiral out of control.’ I really put my all in trying to get my place, stay stable, I’m in school now for medical assistance,” she said. “I try to stay strong, but mentally it has beat me. It made me feel like I’m going to go back to being homeless. And I know what being homeless feels like, I don’t want [my son] to have to go through that.”
Reform could be on the way for DC’s Rapid Rehousing program following criticism Amber Harding, Executive Director of the Washington Legal Clinic for the Homeless, is one of the attorneys working on the case. She said D.C. has failed to give families the chance to request an extension, which is required by the law.
“Families are told the whole time they’re in the program as long as they do what they’re asked they’ll have a chance to request an extension at the end of the time period,” Harding said. “That’s in all of the materials, that’s in the law, that’s what they’re told.”
According to the lawsuit, DHS is not abiding by the October Family Re-Housing Stabilization Program Protection Act, which went into effect last year.
Harding said disregarding this law can be devastating to families who are in the program.
“They can’t pay their rent and then they get evicted and for many of them they come back into homelessness,” she said.
According to city law, DHS, “will thoroughly consider the totality of the participant’s circumstances, including their progress and eligibility for affordable housing,” when considering an extension.
Extensions should be considered if there is funding available, the participant has requested an extension in writing, and if they have made a good faith effort to achieve goals set with a case manager, among other things.
The Notice of Program Exits sent to families stated the family is “unable to request an extension due to exhaustion of funding.” This, as officials from DHS have said publicly that many housing programs are over-extended following the pandemic.
However, the lawsuit alleges DHS has money to approve extensions, despite the agency saying otherwise.
“They made a statement they were out of money and couldn’t give a single person an extension, then they went and gave a little grip of people extensions,” Harding said. “Then they went and got an additional $25 million from the council during the same time period. Then they kept putting new people into the program so they’re clearly making choices about how they spend their money and they’re choosing not to spend it on extending people in the program, but the law tells them they have to if they have funding available.”
‘It’s happening every day, every minute’: Gun violence impacting DC residents Attorneys are hopeful the lawsuit will keep their clients in the program.
Meanwhile, Gregory is hoping it’ll push the agency to “run the program properly.”
“I just want them to be more patient and take the time out to look at people’s cases on a case-by-case basis. Like, ‘oh this person looks like they need more help, let me send this to my supervisor, let me send this to DHS to see if they can help them more than what my program can give us,’” she said. “I didn’t get that. I never got that energy or action.”
DC News Now reached out to DHS and the Mayor’s Office for comment on the lawsuit but was told the government cannot comment on pending litigation.
As of last week, a hearing for the case has not been set by the Office of Administrative Hearings.
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