DC Department of Human Services
In 2022 and 2023, the District got funding to provide more than 5,000 new permanent housing vouchers, the largest ever two-year increase. While these vouchers were matched1 to residents, less than half of vouchers have been used to house residents.2 Housing services need to be both well-funded and easy to access in order to end homelessness. The Lab, the District of Columbia Housing Authority (DCHA), and the Department of Human Services (DHS) engaged the community to find ways to improve the experience and house residents more quickly.
A resident at a community design session providing ideas on how to improve the voucher program.
Why is this issue important in DC?
DC is a housing-first city, but the complexities of voucher administration and housing availability can make it difficult to deliver on that promise quickly. Coordination across multiple administering entities, as well as other District services, can present challenges. For example, DHS manages locally-funded vouchers and the contracts for case management. DCHA handles voucher applications, inspections, and rent payments to landlords. Community organizations provide face-to-face case management focused on maintaining housing. We also face a competitive housing market in DC, making it difficult to find an adequate unit, especially for large families or households with accessibility needs.
What did we do?
We hired five Resident Researchers—community members who all have housing vouchers—to be on our team. Their lived experience was invaluable to this work. In spring 2023, we held focus groups and interviews, and shadowed parts of the voucher process to learn how people experience the program. By talking to residents, case managers, and landlords, we learned about common challenges. In summer 2023, we hosted community design sessions to generate solutions to these challenges. The community-generated solutions informed a set of opportunities for improving the voucher process.
What have we learned?
The Final Report outlines six findings from the community:
- The application process is not user-friendly.
- Clients want more information about the voucher program.
- The voucher program runs on many manual processes.
- The voucher program is run by many teams who are not always in sync.
- Landlords feel unsupported by DC Government.
- Case manager burnout and turnover impact care for clients.
The Final Report outlines five areas for opportunity:
- Invest in customer service enhancements.
- Strengthen crisis intervention supports.
- Provide additional experiential learning opportunities for voucher staff and case managers.
- Increase the pipeline of future case managers.
- Provide dedicated support to private-market housing complexes with many voucher clients.
“Communication is a constant issue. We don’t know what’s going on once a document has been submitted and there’s radio silence. You don’t know who to contact. You don’t know who to talk to. You can’t get any answers from anyone.”
What comes next?
The District is already working on several efforts to improve voucher utilization. DHS has launched Operation Make Movement, which allows residents to fill out the voucher application in advance of a case manager assignment. DHS is also preparing to launch the Central Unit Repository to help clients locate available housing units. Similarly, DHS has designed the Peer Case Management Institute, which will train current and former voucher clients to become case managers for the voucher program. The Institute is expected to launch in spring 2024, in partnership with Howard University. Finally, The Lab, DCHA, and DHS have redesigned the voucher application packet and are working on improvements to the submission process.
What happened behind the scenes?
We hosted co-design sessions in public libraries. Our hope was that these spaces felt familiar and safe.
1 Being “matched” means a voucher is available and tentatively set aside for a resident. The resident still needs to apply to the DC Housing Authority to be approved for a voucher. Once approved, the resident will need to find a unit to accept the voucher before then moving in.
2 As of December 1, 2023 according to A Path to End Chronic Homelessness.