Testimony: Public Oversight Roundtable DCRA: What Issues Should the Committee Pursue?
Children’s Law Center attorney Anne Cunningham recently testified about DCRA. This testimony was the seventh time in 20 months that a CLC team member has testified about DCRA. We testify about this topic so often because the costly human and fiscal consequences of unsafe homes impact our clients and DC as a whole every day. Exposure to environmental allergens, such as mold and vermin, can cause both acute medical crises as well as the development of chronic, lifelong ailments. Lead exposure can permanently damage a child’s development. Poor conditions in rental housing can make it hard to sleep, eat, and thrive, thus impacting a child’s performance in school or a mother’s ability to go to work. Failure to prevent and remediate poor conditions also contributes to the accelerated deterioration and waste of our city’s precious affordable housing stock. Anne testifies about DCRA’s consistent failure to fulfill its housing code enforcement functions and how we can solve the problems. You can read her full testimony here.