Empower DC Holds Public Housing “Privatization” Forum
Empower D.C., a grassroots organization, will hold a Community Forum to discuss the Threat or Opportunity of the Obama Administration’s proposal to reform public housing through PETRA,(Preservation, Enhancement, and Transforming Rental Assistance Act).
PETRA would allow, among other major changes, private ownership of public housing, including the borrowing of money from private banks and other investors for repairs and maintenance.
The Community Forum, also called an Empowerment Circle, will be held:
Wednesday, July 28, 2010 from 6:30 pm to 8:30 pm at the Southwest Library, located at 900 Wesley Place, SW, Washington, DC. (Near “Eye” and 6th Streets,SW). The discussion topic is “PRIVATIZATION of Public Housing: Opportunity or Elimination.”
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 represents an 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.