DC BUDGET: Mayor Bowser released her overdue FY2026 budget Tuesday for the remaining financial year and for 2026-2026, calling it a “transformational growth agenda” that “will create new jobs, generate new revenue, and attract new businesses to DC” while also investing in healthcare, workforce development, and growing sectors such as technology and healthcare. She promised to add new jobs and speed business development in the city by slashing burdensome regulatory barriers and creating new revenue streams. Bowser hopes to offset the city’s substantial revenue loss from the firings or forced retirements of a possible 40,000 resident federal workers, including federal social workers. Learn more at budget.dc.gov. City Council will begin considering her proposal immediately. You can view the Growth Agenda presentation here and a one-page summary here. More information on the budget breakdowns and council discussions will be shared later. 

AFFORDABLE HOUSING: In a May 28 public hearing by the DC Housing Committee, City Council members heard testimony from dozens of organizations, housing leaders, and businesses that the Emergency Rental Assistance Program (ERAP) needs more funds and has far too long of an eviction process. The outcomes have led to rent arrears that grow into the millions, potentially leading to a possible “wipe out [of] affordability covenants, which would reduce our already-inadequate supply of affordable housing,” wrote Council Chair Phil Mendelson. Changing ERAP would enable affording housing providers to quickly boost rent payment collection, support mayoral goals of avoiding homelessness, hold renters more accountable, and remove certain barriers to additional affordable housing construction and payments. While support was voiced for DC Mayor Bowser’s proposed $100-million investment in the Housing Production Trust Fund in her FY2026 budget this week, speakers also shared discouraging data, research, and trends that reflected the complexity and urgency of the housing problem. Needed in particular, they said, is passage of a reformed Emergency Rental Assistance Reform Amendment Act of 2024 to address ERAP weaknesses. As amended, the legislation would repeal a provision in the law that allows applicants for ERAP to self-attest to certain eligibility criteria and would give judges discretion regarding whether to apply a stay or not. “Without these changes, 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 providers in the District,” stated Mendelson.