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Three-Year Recovery Plan

The DC Housing Authority in recent years fell short in meeting the needs of the low-income families and individuals that it serves in the District. Regulatory audits, program reviews and department evaluations demonstrated that DCHA was not regularly employing sound business practices and not consistently following federal and local rules and regulations. These missteps and failures negatively impacted DCHA public housing residents, voucher program participants and landlords, and the District community.  

To reshape DCHA into a competent, efficient and well-functioning provider of low-income and affordable housing in the District of Columbia, a rigorous and comprehensive evaluation took place over nearly seven months beginning in November 2023.  

The months-long process involved a thorough department analysis that included an examination of existing policies and procedures, physical needs assessments, past strategies, and past planning activities, as well as interviews with DCHA staff, reviews of past agency evaluations including the findings of the U.S. Dept. Of Housing and Urban Development’s 2022 Assessment and the DC Office of the Inspector General’s 2021 Audit, visits to every public housing site, and engagement with public housing residents, voucher program participants and landlords, advocacy organizations, local community leaders, HUD and elected officials, and other stakeholders.   

As a result of this careful and detailed analysis, the DCHA has issued a blueprint with defined strategic goals and specific objectives to prioritize over the next three years to shepherd the agency’s turnaround.

The Three-Year Recovery Plan: The Roadmap to Restore, Rebuild & Revitalize the District of Columbia Housing Authority 

Click here to download a copy of the Three-Year Recovery Plan

 

The Three-Year Recovery Plan: The Roadmap to Restore, Rebuild & Revitalize the DC Housing Authority serves as a framework for DCHA and its staff to ensure a keen focus on DCHA’s fundamental mission to provide quality affordable housing units and manage the placement of vouchers in the private rental market.  

By outlining clear goals and objectives for DCHA and more than a dozen of its departments, the Recovery Plan provides a roadmap for DCHA to enhance the quality and efficacy of our customer service, refocus development activities on the repositioning and preservation of the public housing portfolio, increase use of technology to streamline cumbersome and complex processes, and expand access to programs and services that support DCHA residents and voucher participants on their path to independent and self-sufficient living. 

While some aims will be reached within several months, others may warrant the full three years allotted in the Recovery Plan. Additionally, some goals are static; when a metric is attained, the initiative is complete. Other goals are fluid and will require ongoing monitoring to determine if adjustments to criteria are needed. 

Progress Reports 

To ensure an unbiased assessment of DCHA and the steps taken to accomplish its strategic goals, an independent, third-party firm is designating benchmarks and tracking the agency’s efforts to meet those criteria. These observations will be maintained as part of periodic progress reports. Each progress report will transparently and proactively demonstrate DCHA’s advancement to the District community.    

Living Document 

The Recovery Plan is also a living document, not a rigid strategy. DCHA will continue the dialogue with public housing residents, voucher participants and landlords, elected officials, advocates and other community members, and consider their feedback as part of periodic reviews of the Recovery Plan.  

Suggestions, ideas and proposals can be submitted by email at RecoveryPlan@dchousing.org.  

Modifications to actions and milestones may be made based on community input. Any community-informed amendments or additions will be included in the progress reports.  

As materials undergo updates, DCHA will supply prior iterations of the documents in a publicly available archive.  

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