The Van Ness South Tenants Association today sent a letter to Brenda Donald, Executive Director of the DC Housing Authority (DCHA), requesting that she override the agency’s recent rejection of a FOIA request by VNSTA.

The request, sent on April 1, ask for aggregate data on the number of housing vouchers used at 3003 Van Ness Street in the years 2015-2022, as well as the current rents paid by DCHA and the amounts received by Equity Residential for the apartments rented. The reason for the FOIA request is that there is substantial evidence that DHCA pays very high rates to landlords, driving up rents and discriminating against non-voucher holders, undermining rent stabilization, and providing huge profits to landlords.

Dear Ms. Donald,

I am writing in response to DCHA’s recent rejection of our FOIA request for aggregate information about the number of DCHA vouchers used and the rents paid for apartments at 3003 Van Ness Street, NW. DCHA refused to provide any information whatsoever, stating “we thoroughly searched the applicable agency records and found that there were no documents responsive to this request.”

It strains the imagination to think that the DC Housing Authority has no records whatsoever of how many households it sponsors at a given address and at what cost. For this reason, we ask that you overturn the blanket rejection of our request and that take action to quickly provide the information requested.

I and many other residents of 3003 Van Ness and the surrounding community support the use of vouchers to subsidize housing for low-income individuals and families. However, the DCHA list of approved rents reveals extremely high rates – $2,648 for a one-bedroom apartment in our area. (cont.)

Read the entire letter and attachments in printer-friendly PDF format