Will the FY19 Budget Advance Racial Equity?

According to a study commissioned by The Urban Institute in 2016, titled A Vision for an Equitable DC,  if DC were a truly racially equitable city:

• 57,300 more Black households and 5,900 more Hispanic households would be living above the poverty line
• 2,200 more Hispanic residents and 24,000 more Black residents would be employed, including more than 17,000 black residents in Wards 5, 7, and 8.
• 26,300 more Black households and 6,200 more Hispanic households would be earning a living wage.
• 968 more Black mothers and 189 Hispanic mothers would be receiving adequate prenatal care.  

The study goes on to show huge racial disparities, particularly in housing.

• In 2016, a first-time homebuyer from the average Hispanic household could afford 29 percent of homes sold and a first-time homebuyer from the average Black household could only afford 9.3 percent. In comparison, a first-time homebuyer with the average white household income could afford 67 percent of the homes sold between 2010 and 2014, including all homes sold in Wards 7 and 8.
• Very low income families could afford less than 7 percent of rental units west of Rock Creek Park, with 54% of Black families paying more than one third of their income in rent, and 33% of Black families paying more than half of their income in rent.

Does the FY19 budget help us move towards a truly racially equitable District in which more Black and Brown District households could afford their housing, have access to adequate healthcare, living wages, healthy food, and safe communities?

The Highlights:
You can click this link to view the full history of our FY19 recommendations.

The FY19 Budget makes important progress in the areas of Economic Justice, Food Access, Equality, and Justice, and Healthcare, and some smaller, incremental progress towards Housing Security and Community Safety:

• The budget provides full funding to implement Paid Family Leave, Fair Elections, Transportation Subsidies for Adult learners as well as returning citizens, and adds more pressure on the District to meaningfully enforce our labor laws

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• The budget fully funds Produce Plus, Produce Rx, and the Joyful Food Markets- increasing access to healthy, affordable food.

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• The budget adds funding to support a Maternal Mortality Review Committee to examine why the District’s maternal mortality rates (particularly for Black mothers) are far higher than the rest of the country, adds some mental health clinicians to our public schools, and implements the Special Education reforms, including Early Intervention that connects more infants and toddlers with developmental delays to the services they need.
  
  
• The budget adds funding to support a Pre-Arrest Diversion Program that will connect people who are found committing low level offenses to the services they need, supports immigrants who are seeking legal assistance, and adds funds to provide transportation subsidies for returning citizens and free identification documents.
  
  
• The budget makes our tax code a bit more progressive by decoupling the estate tax from the federal level
  
  
• The budget adds funding to redevelop our single adult shelters to make them more humane and habitable, to create a downtown day-time services center, and adds funding to support street outreach to individuals experiencing homelessness

Additionally, there are some notable highlights in areas outside of FBC’s purview:

• The budget provides dedicated funding for Metro for the first time in the regional compact’s  51 year history
  

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• It adds $1 million towards Interim Disability Assistance and additional funding for burial assistance programs

However, despite these important gains, the FY19 Budget falls short in advancing a truly racially equitable District. FBC is not confident that by the end of FY19, 63,200 Black and Hispanic households will be lifted from poverty, nor will 26,000 extremely low income households have access to safe, affordable housing. Advancing racial equity in DC will require far more systemic and meaningful changes so that we will truly start seeing different outcomes for Black and other communities of color.

The FY19 budget does not add nearly enough funding in affordable housing to meet the full need, it does not fully support survivors of domestic violence in finding safe housing, it does not add funding to a program that provides start up financing to returning citizens aiming to start businesses, it does not start a carbon rebate program nor decriminalize fare evasion, nor does it fund the reforms to the Healthcare Alliance program to ensure that undocumented immigrants have continued and easier access to healthcare.

These numbers are most starkly manifested in the area of Housing Security.

Though affordable housing and homelessness represent the most important and pressing issue affecting District residents, the DC Council and Mayor continue to fail to designate the resources necessary to address the full housing need. The charts below, developed by the Washington Legal Clinic for the Homeless and the Way Home Campaign show just how far the District is falling short:

We will continue to fight for a District budget that truly advances racial equity and addresses inequality. We will fight for full funding for Housing Security, Economic Justice, Food Access, Healthcare, Community Safety and Fair Taxes and Public Deals and insist that these programs be prioritized. That means meeting the full need before we offer massive subsidies to Amazon, finance stadiums, subsidize private luxury apartments, cut taxes for wealthy individuals, businesses, and elite financial executives.
We celebrate the small progress that we’ve made but continue to work towards a more just and inclusive District that prioritizes racial equity.