For the nearly fifty years since Home Rule—except for a two-year period between 1979 and 1981, the eight-year period prior to the Revitalization Act, and the few months that followed the pandemic—the District’s labor force and resident employment has grown. This happened even during periods when the labor force-eligible population (non-institutionalized residents 16 and older) was declining.
This report examines how providers of housing for youth experiencing homelessness obtain their funding (sources of funds), how they spend this funding (uses of funds), how these vary across providers and program types, and what role D.C. government funds play in the finances of the providers. The report also presents some information on how the COVID-19 pandemic impacted the providers and what they see as risks to their financial models in the coming years. This information helps inform the city about housing capacity and funding levels.
In D.C., many adults lack a high school diploma, and most jobs require some postsecondary education. Thus, career and education support for adult learners is incredibly important. While workforce training and postsecondary learning programs are common, D.C. is rare in that it has publicly funded schools at which adult learners can earn a high school degree, gain English language skills, or enroll in workforce programs.
Of third through eighth graders, 31% of students met English grade level expectations in the 2021-2022 school year, a decline from 37% during the 2018-2019 school year, according to the D.C. Policy Center
A just-released report by the D.C. Policy Center says that while enrollment has rebounded post-pandemic, there has been an uptick in students dealing with mental health issues.
How is job activity is shifting, and what does it mean for the District’s competitiveness in the region? Traditional job data do not account for where workers are working. This can obscure where labor market recovery is taking place. Examining a worker-based measure shows that significant portions of job activity have moved to suburbia and exurbia in occupations where employees can work remotely.
The pandemic accelerated labor market shifts that present new challenges and risks to large metropolitan areas like the D.C. region. When it comes to attracting talent, D.C. not only competes with neighbors like Arlington, Fairfax, and Montgomery Counties, but also large and small cities across the country. This has always been the case, but now, workers and businesses alike are increasingly mobile thanks to the rise of remote work.
My School DC has released the results of the 2023 common lottery, which matches students who newly enroll in pre-kindergarten, at a public charter school, or at a District of Columbia Public Schools school aside from their in-boundary option. Overall, the number of applications increased to 22,912 in 2023, up from a pandemic dip to 19,926 in 2021 but still 9 percent down from pre-pandemic levels
Out-of-school time (OST) programs, such as afterschool and summer programs, are important to many families the District of Columbia. Based on our analyses of where students live and go to school, locations of OST programs, potential need for additional programs, proximity analyses, and issues faced by providers and parents, this article contains recommendations for the Deputy Mayor for Education on OST programming.
Out-of-school time (OST) programs, such as afterschool and summer programs, are important to many families the District of Columbia. The experience of families is important in understanding what kinds of out of school time (OST) programs and service levels are desired and needed, as well as barriers families face to accessing programs. To understand more about the experience of families with OST programs, the D.C. Policy Center administered a survey to parents and guardians of children who are eligible to participate in OST programs and conducted a listening session with parents who are members of Parents Amplifying Voices in Education (PAVE).
Out-of-school time (OST) programs, such as afterschool and summer programs, are important to many families the District of Columbia. In addition to the number of out of school time (OST) seats available, it is important for the types of programming and services offered by providers to meet the needs of students. To learn more about program characteristics, times programs are offered, and what kinds of services and staff programs have, the D.C. Policy Center administered two surveys to providers of OST programs. This article describes provider characteristics identified through the responses to the survey, and discusses issues frequently mentioned by providers as pressure points or points of concern.
Out-of-school time (OST) programs, such as afterschool and summer programs, are important to many families the District of Columbia. Where programs are located is an extremely important factor for access to out of school time (OST) programs in the District. For some families, having programs located close to where they live might be the most helpful, whereas for others it might be most helpful for programs to be located near where children go to school. This article presents analyses of current coverage, defined as the number of OST seats by ward compared to the total number of public school students who live in that ward as well as the number of students who attend school in that ward. It also develops metrics of exposure, which shows proximity of OST seats to children and youth weighted by the number of students.
Out-of-school time programs, such as afterschool and summer programs, are important to many families the District of Columbia. This report examines, for school year 2021-22, the subsidized OST seats that exist across the District, including how many are available versus needed, based on four different policy metrics. The greatest OST capacity, in raw numbers, is in wards where most students live and go to school. However, the number of students is still proportionally higher than the number of seats.
Out-of-school time (OST) programs, such as afterschool and summer programming, provide childcare, academic support, and social and emotional development to students and families in D.C. But, access to these programs is not equal across the District.
In school year 2021-22, all students returned to in-person learning for the first time in almost two years after the COVID-19 pandemic began in spring 2020. The D.C. Policy Center’s State of D.C. Schools, 2021-22 report examines the transition back to in-person learning, measuring outcomes for the first time since the start…
Out-of-school time (OST) programs, such as afterschool and summer programs, are important to many families the District of Columbia. To determine what kind of out-of-school time (OST) programming and how many OST seats the city needs to invest in, the city must first determine policy goals and what populations need these services. Using the universe of children and youth attending D.C. public schools as the base (including both DCPS and public charter schools), this section identifies the potential need for subsidized out-of-school time programs based on the distribution of children and youth across two broad age groups and four broad policy targets, and identifies what gaps exist under each metric.
Out-of-school time (OST) programs, such as afterschool and summer programs, are important to many families the District of Columbia. Access to out-of-school time (OST) programming is dependent on many factors, including the availability of seats and location of programs. This article presents information on the number and location of subsidized OST programs in the District of Columbia, focusing on afterschool and summer programs by location and by two main age groups: prekindergarten (PK3) to 8th grade and grades 9 to 12.
Out-of-school time (OST) programs, such as afterschool and summer programs, are important to many families the District of Columbia. Policy decisions around OST programming, like where OST seat are located, and how the city invests funding, are highly dependent on where children live and where they go to school. To set the stage for a deeper analysis of out-of-school time programs, this article examines where students live, where they attend school, and how these vary both geographically across the city, and by various student characteristics.
Enforcement-heavy safety strategies, coupled with flat fine systems, also have a particularly devastating impact on lower-income and working-class communities, as well as communities of color. A 2018 DC Policy Center report stated that predominantly Black neighborhoods in the District bore the brunt of automated traffic enforcement.
It is still early — the number of students who end up attending each of D.C.’s schools will fluctuate until at least October — but interest in the lottery this year could signal that enrollment next year will be on par with this year’s figures, said Chelsea Coffin, director of the Education Policy Initiative at the D.C. Policy Center, a think tank.
The Office of the State Superintendent of Education (OSSE) has released enrollment audit data for school year 2022-23, showing that enrollment in D.C.’s public schools is up by 2.7 percent. This is a notable shift from virtually no growth in enrollment during the two pandemic school years in a system that historically adds 1,500 students a year. About two-thirds of the additional students are in pre-kindergarten through grade 12, and a significant share are adult and alternative students.
For every 100 ninth-graders in D.C., 37 students will graduate high school but not enroll in postsecondary school. Only eight out of 100 will graduate college within six years of leaving high school, D.C. Policy Center reported.
D.C. Policy Center executive director Yesim Sayin Taylor says she thinks of D.C.’s rent control laws as more like rent stabilization that prevents price gouging.
He cited a 2019 study from the D.C. Policy Center that shows the cameras are distributed in neighborhoods that have more people of color and lower incomes. He also said D.C. fines more money per capita than any other city.
During the 2021-2022 school year, Eastern High School had 766 students, the majority of whom were Black. Among all of the District public school feeder patterns, the one leading to Eastern most closely represents the District’s racial demographics, according to a report the D.C. Policy Center released earlier this year.
On April 5, 2023, Director of Policy and Research Emilia Calma testified during the FY2024 budget oversight hearing on education agencies before the Committee of the Whole. The testimony focused on findings on OST capacity across the District and how it compares to where students live and go to school. The testimony is based on a forthcoming D.C. Policy Center report, Needs assessment of out-of-school time programs in the District of Columbia.
Recent research by the DC Policy Center shows that there is a specific geography to food access in DC. So-called “food deserts” are neighborhoods that lack ready access to a full-service grocery store.
The Walmart on H Street NW was just blocks from one such residential area. It’s a neighborhood with multiple public and low-income housing buildings with thousands of residents who call the area home.
On April 5, 2023, Director of the Education Policy Initiative Chelsea Coffin testified during the FY2024 budget oversight hearing on education agencies before the Committee of the Whole. The testimony focused on the critical importance of knowing what happens to D.C.’s high school alumni that will now be possible with the creation of the Education to Employment Data System (or P20W System) in the FY 2024 Budget.
The high school graduation rate in Washington, D.C., is climbing. However, student school performance seems to be falling dramatically. While more and more seniors graduate high school, test scores are down and absenteeism is up.
On March 31, 2023, Director of the Policy and Research Emilia Calma testified during the FY2024 budget oversight hearing on the Department of Human Services before the Committee of on Housing. The testimony focused on findings about financial structures of housing providers of youth experiencing homelessness. The testimony is based on a forthcoming D.C. Policy Center report, Public Expenditure Review: Programs servicing youth who are experiencing homelessness in the District of Columbia.
Data from the 2022 Business Response Survey—a survey administered by U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) to provide timely information to assess the impact of specific events—was released last week. As we begin to emerge from the pandemic, establishments continue to allow telework in D.C.—more so than the rest of the U.S….
The American Counseling Association estimates that 40% of Black male teenagers suffer from persistent sadness and feelings of hopelessness, with nearly one out of four seriously considering suicide. On the education front, the D.C. Policy Center found two years ago that 14 percent of high school graduates who enter college could expect to obtain their degree within six years.
Washington schools reported a sharp decline in school attendance for the 2021-22 school year, with nearly half of students missing at least 10% of the entire school year, according to the D.C. Policy Center. Roughly 42% of students were labeled as “truant.”
But amid the applause and happy tears, officials acknowledged more must be done — to not only send more children to college but also make sure they graduate. A recent report from the D.C. Policy Center, a local think tank, found that for every 100 ninth-graders in D.C., just eight will graduate college within six years of leaving high school.
The numbers are stark in a March 2023 report by the D.C. Policy Center, a nonpartisan research organization. Almost half the students in the district – 48 percent – were absent for 10 percent or more of the 2021-22 school year. Seven years of academic progress were erased in math: only 19 percent of third through eighth graders met grade-level expectations in the subject in 2021-22, down from 31 percent before the pandemic.
The report said that students with disabilities experienced high levels of absenteeism. They also had the lowest learning outcomes during the 2021-2022 school year, as seen in their scores on the Partnership for Assessment of Readiness for College and Career, also known as PARCC. Researchers attributed that, in part, to staffing vacancies that prevented students from receiving speech and language services and, in some cases, relegated them to a general education classroom without support.
The D.C. Policy Center is looking for a motivated and organized analyst to support the work of its Education Policy Initiative. The analyst will support upcoming work to produce briefings and research connected to the impact of the pandemic on D.C.’s students, maintain a periodic D.C. Voices publication, disseminate findings at events, and facilitate meetings with school leaders, parents, teachers, students, and other key stakeholders.
On March 21, 2023, the D.C. Policy Center’s upcoming work on a D.C. school boundaries study was reported by HillRag: The public has a chance to opine on changes, Kihn added. There will be three rounds of District-wide townhalls, an Advisory Committee, engagement with school-specific communities, a boundary study website for information…
Rising community violence in the District is exacerbating the academic and socio-emotional issues students D.C. students face as they recover from effects of the COVID-19 pandemic. How can schools, in collaboration with the broader D.C. community, be part of the solution and extend their reach in supporting students holistically?
The report found that current attendance patterns in most cases do not reflect the city’s overall racial diversity, and that some schools are significantly overcrowded while others have trouble filling their seats. Still, the possible changes to boundaries are only likely to impact a relatively small number of schools and kids.
On March 15, 2023, the D.C. Policy Center’s report, State of D.C. Schools 21-22, was cited by Axios: D.C. public school students still haven’t fully recovered from the pandemic despite returning to the classroom. Driving the news: A report out today from the D.C. Policy Center says students are still struggling with the residual impacts of…
On March 15, 2023, the D.C. Policy Center’s report, State of D.C. Schools 21-22, was cited by the Washington Post: In the year that D.C. schools fully reopened after being forced to shutter campuses because of the pandemic, math and reading proficiency plummeted, more high school students reported feeling sad or hopeless, and…
On March 15, 2023, the D.C. Policy Center’s report, State of D.C. Schools 2021-22, was cited by The DC Line: A report out today delves into the many changes for DC schools since the start of the pandemic. Meanwhile, nine members of the DC Council are introducing a bill that seeks to…
State of D.C. Schools is an annual systemwide overview of public education in the District of Columbia. In school year 2021-22, all students returned to in-person learning for the first time in almost two years after the COVID-19 pandemic began in spring 2020. This report examines the transition back to in-person learning, measuring outcomes for the first time since the start of the pandemic, and beginning work on recovery.
The average distance between D.C. Code offenders and their communities and families is farther than the average distance in other states. The average distance between D.C. and D.C. Code offenders in BOP facilities is 818 miles.6 While there is no recently available data on the U.S. as a whole, one study from 2001 found that the average distance between an incarcerated male and his home or family is 100 miles across all states, and the average distance between an incarcerated female and her home or family is 160 miles.
Amid ongoing work toward D.C. statehood, an outstanding question is the cost of the District fully re-assuming responsibility for its criminal justice system. One of the most talked-about components of that re-assuming is that the District would need its own prison. Our research suggests that building a new prison for 4,000 to 6,000 inmates could cost between $400 million and $750 million. The annual operating costs for such a facility would range between $180 million and $230 million.
The District’s criminal justice system is largely federalized, and individuals may be held either locally by the District’s Department of Corrections (DOC). or federally by the U.S. Bureau of Prisons (BOP). What do we know about the individuals incarcerated within D.C.’s criminal justice system? How does D.C.’s uniquely federalized system impact D.C. Code offenders, and what does it mean for their access to rehabilitation programs during their incarceration?
Layoffs in both D.C. and the entire U.S were up in the second half of 2022 compared to earlier in the year. However, layoffs remain below pre-pandemic levels. And, in D.C., hiring continues to lag historically high levels of job postings.
A long list of entities and agencies make up the District’s criminal justice system. Which ones are local, and which are federal? What are their individual responsibilities, and how are they funded? Finally, how does an individual D.C. Code offender process through this complicated stream of entities?
In the last budget cycle, OSSE invested in postsecondary supports including the reimagining high schools work-based learning investments, the college rising project, and the DC Futures Tuition Assistance Project. It is critical to measure the impact of these programs, as well as our school system as a whole to see how students…
What does the history of D.C.’s criminal justice system look like, and what changes were enacted under the Revitalization Act? As part of Criminal Justice Week 2023, this introduction to the District’s criminal justice system outlines its current structure, analyzes Revitalization Act changes have impacted justice system operations, and evaluates outcomes for D.C. residents.
The District’s criminal justice system is complex and involves an overlapping system of agencies and organizations that are a mix of federally funded and under federal jurisdiction, federally funded and independently operated, locally funded and under local jurisdiction; and locally funded and independently operated. This unique configuration of entities with disparate leadership—which makes cooperation challenging, and systems change complicated—is the direct result of the federal Revitalization Act of 1997.
Hybrid work schedules continue to remain popular with most remote-eligible workers coming into the office 2 to 3 days per week. And, office vacancy rates remain high. As of Q4 2022, office vacancy is 17.3 percent in the central business district. Thus, remote work trends still present a risk to D.C.’s future tax base. While the city cannot likely influence worker preferences and behavior, the best way for the city to maintain and grow its tax base in this new post-pandemic environment is to double down on retaining existing and attracting new residents.
On February 21, 2023, the D.C. Policy Center’s report, The role of school boundaries in the District of Columbia, was cited by The Washington Informer: In January, the D.C. Policy Center released a report showing that most District students — nearly three out of four — opt to leave their neighborhood to attend either…
Last year, we looked at migration data from 2020 to track demographic shifts in D.C. following the first year of the COVID-19 pandemic. We found the ability to telework was driving some workers out, particularly those well-educated and aged 25 to 34. Recently, 2021 data was released, so we look again at migration across three key demographic groups—age, income, and education—to see if our observations from 2020 held in the second year of the pandemic.
“Within the Jackson-Reed feeder pattern, families tend to have the resources to either choose where they live and therefore choose their by-right school or choose to attend a private school,” said Chelsea Coffin, the Director of the Education Policy Initiative at DC Policy Center and one of the report’s authors.
It’s hit the economy of the capital hard — there are some 280,000 federal workers in the region, about 141,000 in Washington itself. The city’s tax revenue is down, stores are closed, and subway ridership is low. “It’s like a three-year hurricane in the city,” says Yesim Sayin, executive director of the D.C. Policy Center, a nonpartisan think tank.
“People kind of want to live in places that give them the opportunity at reasonable prices,” says Yesim Sayim, who runs a local think-tank called the D.C. Policy Center. “They don’t particularly care about the flag that adorns the sky.” Washington always worked well for people, a place that may not have offered the startup-economy upsides of Manhattan or Silicon Valley, but also didn’t come with the risks of an employer going out of business. “But now, if you have a chair and a computer, the world is your oyster. And the presence of a job in D.C. is not necessarily a reason for someone to move to D.C.”
The District of Columbia’s economy is also largely dependent on commuters, given that 70% of its workers lived outside the city before the pandemic, according to a May report from the D.C. Policy Center.
Out-migration from the District to the suburbs led to a decrease of 23,000 residents in 2021, according to D.C. Policy Center, a record high in the last two decades, so it’s not surprising that more people are working from spaces outside the city.
There are 116 DCPS facilities; 98 of those are considered by-right and 18 are citywide. According to “The Role of School Boundaries in the District of Columbia,” a recent analysis conducted by the DC Policy Center, 72% of students use the common lottery each year to secure a seat in a charter school or a DCPS institution outside of their community; only 28% of students attend their by-right school.
On January 27, 2023, the D.C. Policy Center’s report, Remote work and the future of D.C. (Part 2), was cited by the Washington Post: Even before the pandemic, downtown Washington had an oversupply of offices that was aggravated by the emergence of telework and competition from emerging neighborhoods such as the Wharf. That dynamic…
“The more successful the conversions are, the less the conversation is about whether the floor plates are right or wrong, because if the value is in residential, then you may as well just tear down and rebuild,” DC Policy Center Executive Director Yesim Sayin said.
For only the second time since 1968, D.C. is reviewing school boundary assignments. Based on their home address, these assignments determine the schools where each D.C. student is guaranteed a seat. There is much we can explore about school boundaries: Where in the city are students are more students attending their by-right school? Which by-right schools are most representative of all public school students? How does enrollment compare to capacity at by-right school facilities? And where in the city could changes to student assignment policies impact the largest number of students?
D.C. faces conditions that it hasn’t seen for years—the past decade’s rapid growth trends slowing, together with federal pandemic assistance ending. The city’s revenue picture remains stable. But it not strong enough to make up for the end of federal COVID assistance. Thus, the city is already committed to spending much less in FY 2024 than it did in FY 2023, at least on paper.
Conventional wisdom says that Washington is recession resilient thanks to Uncle Sam. Federal spending and jobs helped us stave off the worst during the Great Recession. But relying on the federal government isn’t what it used to be, local economists who are concerned about a 2023 slowdown tell Axios. For one, federal workers staying remote means the District is “no longer as protected” from a recession as it was in the past, says Yesim Taylor, head of the D.C. Policy Center.
Prior to the pandemic, a typical business establishment in the District’s private sector employed 13.4 employees. By the second quarter of 2022, that number had declined to 10.7, representing a 20 percent contraction in the average establishment size. This decline was observed for all of the District’s major sectors. The average size…
“Washington, D.C., has always been a recession-proof place before the pandemic because we have the federal government here that is countercyclical … It operates in an expanded capacity during bad times,” said Yesim Sayin, executive director of the D.C. Policy Center. “I don’t believe the federal government will be the same type of floating device in the future we had before. Federal spending may still expand, but federal spending accrues everywhere.”
After peaking in April or May of 2020, unemployment rates declined across large metropolitan areas, often to below pre-pandemic levels. For example, in the Washington metropolitan area, the unemployment rate increased from 3.4 percent in January 2020 to 9.6 percent in May 2020. But the most recent data release from the Bureau…
On January 3, 2023, D.C. Policy Center Executive Director Yesim Sayin was quoted by NBC 4: Yesim Sayin, executive director of the nonprofit think tank D.C. Policy Center, told the I-Team it’s too soon to say what success looks like for the fare crackdown campaign. She noted the estimated money lost to…
Yesim Sayin, executive director of the D.C. Policy Center and one of the only witnesses to speak against the Green New Deal For Housing during its 11-hour public hearing on Nov. 22, said she doesn’t believe there are enough market-rate renters willing to pay the rent needed to cross-subsidize the social housing developments’ cheapest units.
Public school enrollment in our region has dipped since 2019, especially in suburban school districts.The declines might be caused by decreased demand for public schools during the pandemic and lower birth rates, per the D.C. Policy Center.
Out of the graduating class from the first pandemic school year of 2019-20, 51 percent of students from District of Columbia Public Schools (DCPS) and public charter schools enrolled in postsecondary education (including bachelor’s degree and two-year programs) within six months following graduation. This marks a decrease of five percentage points in postsecondary enrollment compared to pre-pandemic school year 2018-19. This suggests that the uncertainty brought by the pandemic led some students to delay or change their plans compared to a typical year.
While virtual learning during school year 2020-21 presented challenges to all students, students with disabilities experienced significant impacts to their instruction because of obstacles with service delivery or difficulties identifying students who need additional interventions in the virtual format.[i] Students with disabilities were among those prioritized for an early return to physical…
“Our main funding model is that money follows students,” Sayin said. If a school loses students — but not enough in a single grade to eliminate a classroom teacher, for example — DCPS would have to figure out how to provide that school with the lost per-pupil funding.
On Tuesday, D.C. Council unanimously advanced a bill that would make all Metrobus rides that begin in the District of Columbia free (upon approval of the WMATA Board). The fare-free rides are estimated to cost $34.4 million per the fiscal impact statement issued by the OCFO. In addition, the bill provides $8.5 million to support the…
School year 2021-22 marked an incredibly challenging transition back to in-person learning in D.C., after a difficult virtual school year 2020-21 and shortened school year 2019-20. Chronic absenteeism rose to a high of 48 percent,[i] up from 29 percent in the last full school year of 2018-19. COVID-19 cases spiked to an…
Of 733 large buildings in D.C., about one in five are more than 25% empty and could rise to one in three if leasing activity does not increase, according to analysis of tax data from D.C. Policy Center, further stressing the city’s tax base.
It’s called high-impact tutoring — at least 90 minutes of tutoring per week, divided across a few sessions before, during or after the school day, including immediate tutor feedback. Many sessions include three or fewer students, according to a D.C. Policy Center report.
How much school students attend is a strong indicator of student wellbeing and future academic success, making it a critical metric to track and understand. In D.C., during the virtual school year of 2020-21, even with relaxed attendance requirements, 31 percent of students were chronically absent, up from 29 percent in 2018-19. Among high school students, 35 percent of students were chronically absent, and among students designated as at-risk, this share was 48 percent.
Between the lines: Before the pandemic, 28% of D.C. households lacked access to broadband internet or a home computer, according to the D.C. Policy Center. This disparity was further highlighted by the rise in remote work and virtual learning during the pandemic.
There are 733 large office buildings in the office-heavy parts of the District today, of which 228 are more than 25% vacant or are likely to become vacant in the next two years as tenants leave with no one to replace them, according to a data analysis by the D.C. Policy Center. Those buildings, in turn, could trade for bargain prices and potentially depress the values of similar properties.
At the same time, leaders of America’s biggest cities are grasping the fact that remote and hybrid work are here to stay. A D.C. Policy Center report in May summed up the city’s challenge: “Our best estimate is that of the 401,481 workers who commuted to D.C. from elsewhere prior to the pandemic, 155,550 can do their jobs from home.” There simply won’t be as much need for office space going forward. That’s a massive problem for downtown D.C.‚ which the mayor’s office says consists of more than 90 percent commercial space and only 8 percent residential.
Bill 24-802, the “Green New Deal for Housing Amendment Act of 2022,” begins with a financially impossible proposition and makes it even costlier. The bill is premised on the idea that higher-income tenants can cross-subsidize the rents for lower-income tenants, all combined in a mixed-income project. However, the parameters of the bill—the…
Since the introduction of B24-454 in October of 2021, there have been some improvements in economic activity in the Central Business District (CBD). Office occupancy during the last week of October 2022 was at 40 percent—or 10 percentage points above the same week in October 2021. While economic activity at retail and…
On November 16, 2022, the D.C. Policy Center’s report, Declining births and lower demand: Charting the future of public school enrollment in D.C., was cited by the Washington Informer: The DC Policy Center released a study earlier this year that highlighted declining pre-school and elementary school enrollment in the pre-pandemic years. This had especially…
The figure represents an increase of almost 3 percent from last school year, or about 2,600 more students, according to preliminary data from the Office of the State Superintendent of Education (OSSE). Before the pandemic, public school enrollment had been growing by an average of about 1,600 students every school year since the 2007-2008 academic year, according to the D.C. Policy Center, a local research group. That progress stalled during the public health crisis.
In the fall of 2021, students in DCPS and public charter schools returned in-person, after spending roughly a year and a half learning at home. Students returned to school at roughly the same time that most of Metro’s 7000-series trains were removed from service due to safety concerns. The reduction in service doubled wait times at Metro stations and put additional strain on the Metro’s bus network. This is concerning because transportation vulnerability, including increased commute times or unreliable service, has been linked to issues with school attendance—which may result in loss of academic achievement.
A July report by the D.C. Policy Center predicted enrollment in D.C.’s public schools could drop by 6,000 students — the equivalent of 16 average-sized schools — over the next five years, driven by falling birth rates and lower demand for living in the District due to the pandemic. “An enrollment decline of this magnitude would have significant implications for D.C.’s public schools.”
On November 7, 2022, D.C. Policy Center Executive Director Yesim Sayin was quoted by Axios: Yes, but: There are a few factors besides the price drop that could be contributing to weekend ridership’s rebound. Historically, Metro has largely been used by commuters during the week — fewer weekend riders means a smaller pool…
Executive Director Yesim Sayin testified at a public roundtable hosted by the D.C. Office of Planning on the future of housing in downtown areas. She discussed why housing production is even more critical today than it has ever been for the city’s continued vibrancy, some of the promising ways to increase the production of housing in downtown areas (specifically those areas within the D Zone overlay), and why the Office of the Attorney General’s proposal to expand Inclusionary Zoning requirements into D Zones will impede, and not support, the goal of increasing housing, especially affordable housing in D Zones.
After years of improvement in D.C., NAEP standardized test scores released in October 2022 show that students’ performance declined across math and English for school year 2022 when compared to 2019. Nationwide and in D.C., the pandemic had a greater negative impact on math than reading.
B24-355 requires collection and publishing of certain data on educators in D.C.’s public schools. However, some of the requirements would also introduce new burdens on schools, and may be better suited to periodic surveys (data collection every five years, for example) or an internal dataset. Teacher attendance, or ideally instructional time, is one data point missing from the requirements and should be added.
As high-impact tutoring (HIT) continues to scale in school year 2022-23, it is important to take stock of provider, tutor, and teacher experiences and challenges during the first year of HIT. We asked tutoring providers, tutors, and teachers involved with HIT to tell us about the day-to-day realities of HIT in D.C. last year. What changes are being implemented during this school year, and where do they see the program going forward?
Results from D.C.’s 2021-22 statewide PARCC assessment show declines in both English language arts (ELA) and math since the last time the test was administered in 2018-19. But how did learning outcomes change for a cohort of students as they moved from lower to upper grades? To take a closer look, we compared PARCC results and enrollment for elementary school students to middle school students three years later to answer two questions: First, have student cohorts experienced learning gains during the pandemic years that were similar to pre-pandemic patterns? And what do we know about how enrollment in this cohort has changed over time?
Quick Links Access the one-page report summary here. View the launch event, including a recording, here. Introduction In D.C., learning outcomes for public school students had been improving for over two decades.[1] Then, in March of 2020, the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic transitioned all students to distance learning and ended school…
While job openings remain at historically high levels, employment growth has not been strong enough to make up for all the losses the District experienced since the pandemic. Since June 2020—the first month employment growth turned positive after the pandemic, D.C. added 47,000 jobs, making up about half the job loss the…
On October 4, 2022, D.C. Policy Center analysis on Metro’s Kids Ride Free program was cited by Greater Greater Washington: Take the Kids Ride Free program, for which every District student from age 5–21 is eligible. Distribution of SmarTrip cards for Kids Ride Free is poor, estimated at 38% last year by DC…
On October 3, 2022, the D.C. Policy Center’s analysis, How the region’s racial and ethnic demographics have changed since 1970, was cited by WAMU: Just 34% of Black residents own their home, a 12 point drop from the 46% Black homeownership rate in 2005, according to a report from various housing experts convened by…
The location at 2224 Town Center Drive SE is the first new grocery store in Ward 7 in over a decade. Local leaders hope the new store will address gaps in access to food for residents in neighborhoods east of the Anacostia River. 80 percent of D.C.’s food deserts were in Ward 7 and Ward 8 in 2017, according to D.C. Policy Center.
Many large cities, including D.C., have lost population due to out-migration through the pandemic. Researchers have found that (1) this exodus is pandemic-induced, and (2) many people are leaving behind large, high-cost cities in favor of less populated regions with a lower cost of living. Looking at labor market recovery, we find that lower-cost metro areas have emerged from the pandemic as more economically competitive than their high-cost peers, which may shift workforce dynamics to the D.C. region’s detriment.
Just 34% of Black residents own their home, a 12 point drop from the 46% Black homeownership rate in 2005, according to a report from various housing experts convened by the mayor. Meanwhile, homeownership has increased for white residents over that same time period, hovering around 49%. D.C. has also seen a decline in Black residents over that time, falling to 49.2 percent by 2011 according to the D.C. Policy Center.
Seventy-six percent of establishments in D.C. are small businesses with less than 500, and they account for 49% of its employment and 43% of its annual payroll. Even businesses under 50 employees count for one in five jobs in the District. So, it’s all the more important to find ways to keep them here, especially as remote work has proven its usefulness and “can’t be legislated away,” said Yesim Sayin, executive director of the D.C. Policy Center.
The 2022 State of Business Report builds a better understanding of the post-pandemic city, with a special focus on small businesses: How has the pandemic changed businesses and entrepreneurial activity in DC? What trends are emerging in the labor market and how do they impact business operations? What are the greatest risks and opportunities in the post-pandemic era? And how have businesses’ needs evolved to this new reality?
COVID-19 has changed migration trends across the entire country, pushing an increasing number of people outside of high-cost areas like the D.C. region, to lower cost, smaller metropolitan areas. When these folks move, do they take new jobs close to their new homes? Or with remote work taking hold, are they moving away but keeping their existing jobs in the region? Remote work may disguise the extent of talent shifting away from places like Washington area to elsewhere in the country.
D.C. Policy Center executive director Yesim Sayin Taylor tells Axios that the Washington region’s high concentration of workers who are able to do their jobs remotely has continued to make it even harder for Metro to rebound from pandemic losses.
A recent increase in violent crimes across the District has amplified concerns about community safety, including for students on their commutes to school. To improve student safety on their way to and from school, the Safe Passage Program places trusted adults from the community along specific routes. Mayor Bowser’s office allocated more than $4.3 million to community organizations to hire 215 Safe Passage workers during Fiscal Year 2022. We asked students, businesses, and administrators about their perceptions of safety for students during their commutes, and what experiences they have had with the Safe Passage program.
The federal government has provided three rounds of Elementary and Secondary School Emergency Relief Fund (ESSER) grants to help schools with pandemic recovery. In D.C., the three rounds of ESSER funding added up to $540 million to be spent locally by the end of FY2024. This is the equivalent of about $1,307 per student per year.
Sellars said this entity will be focused just on D.C., which has had far less success than both Maryland and Virginia in attracting companies and generating jobs thus far. Of 120 large headquarters that have moved to Greater Washington this century, just 16 have come to the District itself, according to research from D.C. Policy Center, and the city is losing 2.4 jobs for every job it adds.
As drafted, the regulatory requirements of this bill would create uncertainty and a regulatory burden on a large number of D.C. businesses, including businesses or organizations whose area of work is completely disconnected from algorithms and other scoring mechanisms.
The three rounds of ESSER funding mean $540 million allocated to schools to be spent by the end of fiscal year 2024 (September 30, 2024). This means approximately $1,307 in additional funding per student across five school years between 2019-20 and 2023-24 for the 48 LEAs receiving ESSER funds, assuming constant enrollment from last school year. ESSER funds are therefore about 10 percent the size of the foundation level of funding per pupil for school year 2022-23, making it important to take stock of how these funds are spent along the way and what may happen when funds expire.
While a 2018 study found that giving at-risk students a higher priority would improve outcomes for just 8.2% of at-risk participants, a 2020 study by DC Policy Center was much more promising. They looked specifically at charter schools with long waitlists that had just 15% of at-risk students enrolled (city-wide, 45% of students are at-risk). At these schools, given the preference siblings get in the lottery, it was hard for at-risk students to snag a coveted spot.
Three of the concerns we expressed in January – implementing an inflationary adjustment in a high inflation year, baking the existing inequities into the system, and basing calculations on proposed budgets and not actual spending — remain under this staff draft. We also have two additional concerns, related to new language and stemming from new information.
Research by the DC Policy Center found that in 2021 almost 80% of people lived within half a mile of a homicide (which are on the rise in DC) occurring that year. Black residents, however, are 19 percentage points more likely than their white peers to live within that radius.
D.C.’s nearly 40-year-old rent control law caps annual rent increases at the rate of inflation plus 2% at larger apartment buildings constructed before 1976. Roughly one third of rental units in D.C. fall under rent control, but that number has decreased over time, according to the D.C. Policy Center.
According to the D.C. Fiscal Policy Institute, early childhood educators, who are predominantly Black and brown, earn a median annual income of approximately $31,950 — barely above minimum wage and not on par with public school teachers. The median teacher pay in D.C. is just over $81,000, says the D.C. Policy Center.
In the 2021-2022 school year, D.C. public and public charter schools retained an average of 74 percent of their teachers, compared to a national average of 84 percent. However, some areas of D.C. have faced lower teacher retention than others, with greater shares of teachers in Wards 6, 7, and 8 choosing to leave their schools.
At-risk kids are also less likely to get into their lottery choices. A major reason is that the lottery gives preference to siblings, according to research by the D.C. Policy Center, which tends to maintain school demographics rather than disrupt them.
A report in June by the D.C. Policy Center noted that just being in proximity to repeated criminal acts can have a deleterious effect on mental and physical health. The study found that 80 percent of District residents lived within a half-mile of a homicide in 2021. However, in wealthy and predominantly White Ward 3, there were only two homicides, and no one lived within a half-mile of either killing.
Chelsea Coffin joined the D.C. Policy Center in 2017 as the Director of the Education Policy Initiative, which seeks to use new data and information to improve outcomes for District students— especially, those that are underprivileged. The AFRO connected with Coffin to learn more about tackling the achievement gap and the importance of diversity in the classroom. The conversation below has been edited for length and clarity.
On August 3, 2022, the D.C. Policy Center’s Chart of the week, Ongoing substitute teacher shortages affect schools’ ability to function, was cited by the Washington Informer: D.C. Public Schools may face a huge shortage of substitute teachers in the upcoming academic year, which could have an impact on classrooms and school…
Meanwhile, with three weeks to go until school starts back up, DC Public Schools is facing a serious shortage of substitute teachers. The number of subs has dropped by 50 percent in the past two years, according to a new D.C. Policy Center report. A lot teachers say they’re quitting because of low pay, lack of benefits, and COVID concerns.
To show how the pandemic and ensuing policies have affected the HCC supply in D.C., we submitted multiple Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) requests to the D.C. Department of Health (DOH) to create a database of clinicians who are licensed to practice in D.C. This licensee database is a full census of licensed clinicians in D.C. at three points in time (April 2020, January 2021, and August 2021), presenting the clearest picture of who is available to provide care to the District’s residents.
According to a recent analysis from local research group D.C. Policy Center, the number of substitutes on the DCPS payroll has gone down from 987 at the start of 2020 to 501 in the first quarter of 2022. It’s not known exactly how many substitutes there are going into the upcoming school year, as D.C.’s public employee salary database has yet to update with the most recent quarter’s data.
On July 30, 2022, the D.C. Policy Center’s article, Examining office to residential conversions in the District, was cited by The American Conservative: An analysis by the D.C. Policy Center found that while a Class C office building could increase in value if converted to residential, converting it to Class A would yield…
On July 25, 2022, a map from the D.C. Policy Center’s article, D.C.’s heat islands, was cited by City Cast DC: The last few days have been some of the most wretchedly hot ones I’ve seen in D.C. Apparently, D.C. is an urban heat island (a.k.a it’s hotter than neighboring counties, lucky us). However,…
D.C. has not escaped the national substitute shortage facing districts across the country. According to public salary data published by District of Columbia Public Schools (DCPS), the number of substitute teachers on the payroll has dropped from a peak of 987 in the first quarter of 2020, to 501 in the first quarter of 2022 (data are not available for public charter schools). While enrollment has shrunk in DCPS schools by four percent since 2019, the decrease in substitutes has outpaced that.
How do and enrollment trends differ across different areas of D.C.? While the number of births decreased across all wards, some wards have seen larger declines than others. These declines have varying levels of significance for enrollment trends as the relationship between the number of births and where students live and where they enroll in school varies across the city. While we can look to births and cohort retention ratios to project future public school enrollment by grade, it is very challenging to do so by ward.
The increasing cost of renting an apartment in the District of Columbia is making it more difficult for essential community workers (teachers, nurses, police officers etc.) to live in or near the communities they serve. Given the current salaries teachers receive, how affordable is the city for the median teacher? Comparing the…
in recent years, the share of students who are Black enrolled in D.C.’s public schools has declined across all grade bands – due in part to fewer births to mothers who are Black and weaker preferences for pre-kindergarten during the pandemic.
A report by the DC Policy Center shows enrollment growth stalled in D.C. schools during the pandemic and if the trend continues, an enrollment that currently stands at 87,000 could decline to 81,000 by 2026.
Data released by the Bureau of Labor Statistics based on a survey of businesses across the country show that a larger share of private sector businesses in D.C. adopted telework, reduced their office space, and moved their offices, compared to the private sector establishments across the entire U.S. Across D.C., 68 percent…
Enrollment in D.C.’s traditional public and charter schools is expected to drop over the next five years, a disappointing turn for a city that had celebrated more than a decade of growth in its public schools. The current enrollment stagnation and anticipated decrease in the coming years — according to a study released Wednesday by the local research group D.C. Policy Center — was propelled by declining birthrates and adults leaving the city or pulling their children out of public schools during the pandemic.
School enrollment numbers in D.C. are projected to decline, the latest shift after years of growth in its public and charter schools.
Even if employees do come back a few days a week they’ll be spending less. If the estimated 155,000 who commute into D.C. from nearby came in just days a week, D.C. would lose out on $62.9 million a year in sales tax revenue, according to the analysis. Yesim Sayin, its executive director, said that puts more importance on a strategy that proves a value of in-person work.
The two main drivers of enrollment growth (births in D.C. and preference of families to live in D.C. and choose public schools) have both been on the decline in recent years. This report analyzes how changing trends will impact future enrollment projections for D.C.’s public schools.
As of January 2022, student ridership on public transit, as measured by Kids Ride Free trips, was 11 percent of pre-pandemic levels (September 2019), according to data from the Office of the Deputy Mayor for Education’s Performance Oversight data for FY21 and FY20.
On July 7, 2022, the D.C. Policy Center’s article, Food access in D.C is deeply connected to poverty and transportation, was cited by the Washington Post: Wards 7 and 8 lost four of their seven full-service grocery stores between 2010 and 2020, while the city’s other six wards gained 37 grocery stores…
This report is the second in a two-part series focused on building a better understanding of how remote work will impact the District’s future. We estimate how the shift to remote work might impact the city’s tax base and propose next steps to ensuring the District has an upward economic growth trajectory as the city recovers from the pandemic.
As of May 2022, total employment in D.C. stood at 766,900—still 38,400 below the pre-pandemic peak of 805,400 in February of 2020. Most of these job losses are in the private sector (37,600 jobs behind pre-pandemic level, accounting for 98 percent of the loss).
Data showing how many D.C. kids are impacted by shootings reflects just how important that support is.The DC Policy Centermapped it out. “On average, when a homicide happened in DC [in 2021], there were about 2,800 kids that were nearby,” executive director of the center, Yesim Sayin said. Sayin said in areas that see more violent crime, that number can get up into the hundreds of thousands.
Despite a 6 percent decline in employment between 2019 and 2021, total wages earned in the District of Columbia in that same time grew by 7 percent. And, average wages increased by 14 percent—faster than the inflation rate.
When neighborhoods are exposed to crime, children are less likely to play outside, more likely to be stressed out or experience poor mental health. They worry about safe passage to their schools and fall behind in their schoolwork. The incidence of homicides has increased dramatically in the District of Columbia since 2017. And homicides are increasingly happening in parts of the city that are denser, exposing a larger number of people. But less dense neighborhoods tend have more children, so when adjusted for child population, many more neighborhoods start lighting up on our maps, showing the great toll these events take on the District’s children.
The Anacostia River branches off the Potomac just two miles due south of the U.S. Capitol building near the Nationals baseball stadium, running through Washington, D.C. past the National Arboretum, and into Maryland. Across the 11th Street bridge is a low-income and predominantly-Black neighborhood (per Statistical Atlas) which, on a map published by the D.C. Policy Center, is lit up with blue dots, each marking a bodega or corner store. The area contains only two full-service grocers — which, as the map shows, are abundant and accessible everywhere north and west of the river.
On June 20, 2022, the D.C. Policy Center’s article, Charts of the week: A pandemic-induced exodus has broken the District’s population boom, was cited by the Washington Examiner: The availability of remote work, the persistence of pandemic-related restrictions, and the rise of crime and inflation have all contributed to a stream of…
Between May 2021 and May 2022, the District’s labor force has grown by nearly 6,000. The labor force, as estimated by the BLS per today’s data release, is at 386,440—still about 14,323 below pre-pandemic levels. The bad news: this is probably due to population loss including the loss of working adults. The good news: the 6,000 increase is recent, perhaps signaling that employment growth will also pick up. The labor force remained virtually flat between May 2020 and May 2021, and of the 6,000 increase almost 15 percent happened in a single month between April and May of 2022.
“Bowser has directed several new initiatives to address food insecurity in Wards 7 and 8, where the D.C. Policy Center estimates 82% of the city’s food deserts lie.”
In contrast to its stated intent, the bill may reduce opportunities for the most vulnerable workers. Little is known about the demographics and number of domestic workers in the District, and the bill does not examine the impact employment agreements will have on workers. By formalizing employment agreements, the bill may close doors to workers whose immigration status cannot be verified.
Good morning, Chairman McDuffie and members of the Committee. My name is Yesim Sayin, and I am the Executive Director of the D.C. Policy Center—an independent non-partisan think tank advancing policies for a strong, competitive, and vibrant economy in the District of Columbia. As we welcome a new CFO to the city,…
High-income earners eventually started returning to the city, and so did the jobs, according to a DC Policy Center study. Growth in DC, according to the DC Policy Center, was driven by young people between the ages of 25-35 in the early 2000s. Areas like Fairfax, Montgomery, and Prince George’s also experienced huge spikes in population growth. And TOD sprouted up in places throughout the District as more and more people wanted to be able to walk to their destinations.
Medici Road has been working for over a year to resurrect what is now an overgrown lot on a main neighborhood thoroughfare within the Deanwood policy focus area, which emphasizes infill development, especially with neighborhood-serving retail. Advisory Neighborhood Council 7C supported the project, noting the corridor has much under-used land, and the grocery store has been a popular demand in an area the D.C. Policy Center designates as a food desert. The grocery store and coffee shop users haven’t been made public, Jackson said.
According to the Internal Revenue Service’s migration data, D.C. lost 15,304 residents and 7,990 tax filers between 2019 and 2020. Pre-pandemic, between 2018 and 2019, D.C. also lost residents and filers, but in the first year of the pandemic, these losses increased greatly. Importantly, 60 percent of the leavers were tax filing units (individuals, couples, or families) that had taxable incomes of $100,000 or more. These are clearly filers with jobs. At the same time, the withholding portion of income tax collections–the income taxes that are directly taken out of paychecks every pay period–is growing at 10 to 11 percent. That means that the wage and salary incomes of District residents are growing despite this loss.
Washington D.C. has long been an expensive city to rent an apartment, but where within the city renting housing is most expensive has changed during the pandemic. In the past three years, the cost of renting an apartment in the District has increased overall by an average of 15.46 percent—but these increases are inconsistent across both apartment size and between the city’s eight wards.
There have been hundreds of PUDs over the past two decades, but the data isn’t particularly well organized. It lives in a series of individual zoning orders and supporting documents — hundreds of PDFs buried within the zoning website. In 2019, contributor Nick Sementelli systematically combed through those documents to build a scannable, sortable database. We are publishing an update to that database to include 92 more recent PUDs.
D.C.’s high school graduation rate was on the decline for years, D.C. Policy Center’s Education Policy Initiative director Chelsea Coffin tells Axios. But it increased during the pandemic as some graduation requirements were relaxed or waived. What to watch: Coffin says the decrease in D.C. births will impact public school enrollment in the future, especially for younger students.
Nationally, enrollment across public and private/not-for-profit postsecondary institutions (including undergraduate, graduate, two-year, and four-year programs) declined by 3.6 percent from Fall 2019 to Fall 2020. D.C.’s enrollment likewise declined, but to a lesser extent.
This week, the Council of the District of Columbia added a subtitle to the FY23 budget with two additional weights to the student funding formula, which would provide additional funds to schools where 40 percent or more of the student population is designated as at-risk, and to schools where 70 percent or…
As remote work is taking hold, it is breaking the relationship between where people live and where they work. Historically, proximity to work has been a key driver of population growth in the District of Columbia. And commuters have been an important source of economic activity, both supporting the local service economy and sustaining the demand for office space.
D.C.’s population fell by about 3%, representing a loss of more than 20,000 residents, in 2021, the D.C. Policy Center reported on March 25, citing data from the U.S. Census Bureau.
Remote work is likely here to stay and is breaking the relationship between where we live and where we work. This has implications on the District’s attractiveness, competitiveness, economic growth, and fiscal health. As workers spend less time near their workplaces and more time near their homes, it shifts the geography of…
On April 20, 2022, The D.C. Policy Center’s article, D.C. Voices: D.C. schools ramped up mental health resources during the pandemic. How well do these services address student needs?, was cited by The D.C. Line: The D.C. Policy Center has a new analysis of the extra mental health resources provided by DC schools during…
While schools invested in supports like hiring additional staff and providing social-emotional integration trainings during the 2020-21 school year, many students and families reported challenges when trying to access mental health resources. In this latest installment in our D.C. Voices series, we hear directly from students, researchers, and administrators to learn more about the barriers students may face when accessing services and how available mental health services currently meet needs.
On April 15, 2022, the D.C. Policy Center’s article, Do residential properties in D.C.’s historic districts outperform the rest of the city in value appreciation?, was cited by 730DC: Appreciating historyContrary to what you might expect, homes in DC’s historic districts have actually risen less in value. Read more: Not easy being Orange…
kindergarten, at a public charter school, or at a DCPS school aside from their in-boundary option. Last week, applicants to the common lottery received their results, which for the first time included an equitable access priority for students who are identified as “at-risk” with 400 applicants matching in this category.
Andrew Trueblood will join the D.C. Policy Center as a Senior Advisor to its Housing Policy Initiative, to direct the development of the organization’s Cash for Covenants project. Most recently, Andrew served as the Director of the DC Office of Planning (DCOP), where he prioritized agency efforts around housing and equity, and…
On April 14, 2022, the D.C. Policy Center’s article, Do residential properties in D.C.’s historic districts outperform the rest of the city in value appreciation?, was cited by Greater Greater Washington: Residential properties in DC’s historic areas have underperformed in value appreciation compared to homes in the rest of the city, despite the properties…
Residential properties in the District’s historic neighborhoods are generally more expensive than those outside these neighborhoods. But data show that these buildings have underperformed in value appreciation compared to the rest of the city.
The D.C. Policy Center, a local research group, crunched the numbers and determined that expanding the eligibility for at-risk funds could cost the city anywhere between $20 and $33 million each year. Analysts figured that many children who would fall under these new categories already qualify for at-risk funding because their families qualify for food stamps.
Since the beginning of the pandemic, the District has been underperforming relative to the Washington metropolitan area both in employment recovery and the growth of the labor force.
D.C. Council Chairman Phil Mendelson announced he has appointed former Mayor Anthony Williams as chairman of the D.C. Tax Revision Commission, as well as five other members… the appointees to the commission are Rahsaan G. Bernard, president of Building Bridges Across the River; Erica Williams, executive director of the DC Fiscal Policy Institute; Yesim Taylor, executive director of the DC Policy Center…
During the first two weeks of March 2022, 36 percent of working-age District residents reported working (or volunteering) outside their homes during the previous week.
Individuals with trauma responses can face great difficulties in finding and retaining a job. Trauma responses oftentimes make it difficult for workers to handle everyday stressors at work. While many publicly-funded job training programs have adopted a trauma-informed approach, it is rare to find private employers who have adopted trauma-informed management practices as these changes are often considered difficult and outside of the scope of management.
The District is no longer attracting as many of the young and well-educated adults who have fueled its recent population growth, census data shows. The migration of young people over the past two decades led to an increase in public school enrollment, new development, and more tax revenue for the District. But the number of people aged 25 to 34 moving into the city has slowed in the past four years, further declining during the pandemic, local think tank D.C. Policy Center found.
The FY23 budget includes substantial investments in academics, with a historic increase of 5.87 percent to the UPSFF foundation level and $14 million for high impact tutoring, among others. These resources intended to boost learning outcomes are essential for success in school year 2022-23, but there is a need to focus more on the expected results. OSSE’s Annual Performance Plan has FY22 targets of 43.2 percent of students being college and career ready in English Language Arts (ELA) and 40.1 percent in Math, which indicate an increase of 6.2 percentage points in ELA and 9.1 percentage points in Math from 2018-19.
According to data recently released by the U.S. Census Bureau, the District’s population fell by around 3 percent in 2021, to 690,093 – a loss of 20,043 residents. Domestic out-migration, or people moving from D.C. to other parts of the country, is the primary source of this decline. While domestic out-migration has been underway since 2018, over 23,000 residents left the city in 2021, setting a record high of the last two decades.
On March 24, 2022, the D.C. Policy Center’s article, Chart of the week: Mayor Bowser’s FY 2023 proposed budget, was cited by The DC Line: If folks want to understand what irresponsible financial planning and management look like, they need only review the recent Chart of the Week published by the D.C. Policy…
The majority of DC residents rent their homes, and in 2019, when the D.C. Policy Center was collecting data for its 2020 report on rental housing in the District, 60 percent of rental units were in apartment buildings. That’s 124,641 apartment units, in 3,121 buildings. And we’d like to know more about what it’s like to live in them.
Adults ages 25-34 left DC in record numbers during the pandemic, new data shows. This is worrisome not just because you have to make new friends now*, but because maintaining a net inflow of young adult workers can be crucial to a city’s ability to attract new business and maintain what the D.C. Policy Center calls “strong fiscal health.”
Mayor Bowser submitted her budget to the D.C. Council on Wednesday, March 16 and the budget tables show that the proposed FY 2023 budget (local portion only), set at nearly $10.7 billion, grew by 10 percent from the revised FY 2022 budget. Recurring revenue (money from taxes, non-tax revenue, and the lottery) is at $9.5 billion, showing a growth of 4 percent from FY 2022’s projected revenues. The budget is balanced by $1.2 billion of non-recurring, one-time resources which include the city’s savings from previous years (including the surplus from FY 2021) and federal fiscal aid.
Overall, the D.C. Policy Center has found that domestic in-migration into the nation’s capital in particular had turned negative in 2019, remaining that way through the pandemic. For every resident who moved into D.C. from the nearby suburbs in recent years, two moved out, and household formation markedly slowed, according to the center.
Educated young adults have left DC at historic levels during the pandemic and are no longer moving to the District at the rate of years past. DC also lost workers in key industries, particularly those with more remote-eligible jobs.
Even prior to the pandemic, the District was experiencing decelerating population growth, particularly among the young, educated adults who have traditionally driven growth in the city. Now, the ability to telework may be driving some workers out, particularly those that are well-educated and aged 25 to 34. While it is uncertain whether these moves are temporary or permanent, maintaining and retaining a net inflow of young adult workers is crucial to any city’s ability to attract new businesses, as well as ensure strong fiscal health.
With the rise of teleworking and shifting preferences in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic, the District of Columbia finds itself at greater risk of losing its young professional population. In the first year of the pandemic, the largest population group that left the District was young adults. Of the residents who moved out of the District in 2020, 54 percent were aged 25 to 34 (margin of error: 0.5 percent).
State of D.C. Schools is an annual systemwide overview of public education in the District of Columbia. The report’s main purpose is to give D.C. residents, parents, caregivers, policymakers, and other stakeholders a snapshot of the overall performance of the District’s public schools. This report captures school year 2020-21 and how it continued to be impacted by COVID-19, with most students learning virtually for the entire school year. It also provides an update on 2021-22, when in-person learning resumed with the Herculean tasks of keeping students and teachers safe while making up for the unfinished learning from previous pandemic years.
On March 8, 2022, D.C. Policy Center’s launch of the Alice M. Rivlin Initiative for Economic Policy & Competitiveness, was covered by The DC Line: A new research project — named in honor of the late economist and DC advocate Alice Rivlin — will delve into the District’s competitive standing and ways to attract…
The D.C. Policy Center is launching a major effort to study the District’s economic competitiveness and just how much the pandemic has moved that needle.
The new project — to be called the Alice M. Rivlin Initiative for Economic Policy & Competitiveness, in honor of the late D.C. economist — will study both D.C.’s economic policies and the effects of Covid-19, with an eye toward achieving more inclusive economic growth.
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE TUESDAY, MARCH 8, 2022 WASHINGTON, D.C.– Today, the D.C. Policy Center announced the launch of the Alice M. Rivlin Initiative for Economic Policy & Competitiveness. The Rivlin Initiative will undertake comprehensive research examining the District of Columbia’s competitiveness and explore policies that can make the city more attractive and…
Likely because of the economic impacts of the pandemic, there was an increase in the percentage of students designated as at-risk to 45 percent, two percentage points higher than the previous year (see Figure 1). This was mostly driven by an increase in the number of students who were eligible for SNAP – the numbers of students in foster care, experiencing homelessness, or overage decreased.
The pandemic has had a chilling effect on both resident employment and private sector employment in D.C. In the first few months of the pandemic, 37,413 D.C. residents lost their jobs. Since then, we have gained back 26,633 jobs (through December 2021), but we are still behind by nearly 11,000 jobs. Private sector jobs in the city—regardless of the residency of the employee—took a bigger hit. We lost 85,700 private sector jobs and made up for less than half of it. We are still missing 47,700 jobs.
DCPS and public charter schools returned to full-time in-person learning in August 2021, which was a huge shift from the previous school year. At the start of school year 2020-21, 99 percent of students were learning virtually for five days a week, followed by a gradual re-introduction to in-person learning for some students according to D.C. School Report Card data.
One of the biggest changes in school year 2020-21 was that there was likely less instructional time and less content covered. At the start of the school year, 99 percent of students were learning virtually for five days a week (many with one day of asynchronous learning), and 79 percent of students were still doing so by the year’s end.
We used United States Postal Service data to examine how business move patterns have changed in the post-pandemic era. These data show that business establishments were quick to respond to the pandemic: The net domestic outmigration of business establishments (address changes out of D.C. minus address changes into D.C.) within the first three months of the pandemic (March, April, and May of 2020) was about 3 percent of all private sector business establishments in D.C. at that time.
The BEST Amendment Act would greatly simplify the steps businesses will need to take in order to obtain the licenses necessary to operate a business in the District of Columbia. There are costs to today’s complicated system, which may be impairing entrepreneurial success without any discernible public benefits. This reform is much needed to improve business conditions in the District.
“A walk down Martin Luther King Jr. Avenue SE from Good Hope Road toward Morris Road reveals cranes and a string of rising projects, adding to what has long been the area’s quirkiest landmark, an oversized chair…But even amid those plans, not nearly enough has changed. The area median income in Anacostia’s northwest portion is $35,750, sliding down to $17,159 in its eastern sections. It’s still designated a food desert, according to the D.C. Policy Center. More than half of area residents have no access to a car.”
Newly released audited enrollment data for the District’s public schools (both DCPS and public charter) for school year 2021-22 show that enrollment stands at 94,532 students: almost the same as last year. Enrollment in high school is up by 7 percent, while adult learner enrollment rebounded from last year’s dip, growing by 8 percent. Enrollment in early grades (pre-kindergarten and elementary) declined, continuing last year’s trend.
D.C. Policy Center executive director Yesim Sayin Taylor tells Axios that because the pandemic pushed workers away from downtown and out of D.C., new businesses are more important now than ever.
Organizations and publications from the Associated Press to the University of Oxford use style guides to standardize writing, formatting, and design, providing consistency for their readers. Some style guides can become a point of local pride. Like many organizations, the D.C. Policy Center adheres for the most part to AP Style, but maintains an extensive addendum that fills in for things AP Style does not cover, or in other cases, overrules AP Style.
D.C. employment has not grown in recent months. However, this is not because of lack of job openings. In fact, we are experiencing a historically high level of job openings with an average of 41,000 job openings per month between June and November 2021—that is more than 5 percent of total employment in D.C.. But employment is not growing because employers are slower at hiring new employees, and more people are leaving their jobs at rates faster than we have ever observed.
Approximately 82% of the city’s food deserts — areas where residents have low rates of car access, a high poverty rate and are located more than half a mile from a grocery store or supermarket—occur in Wards 7 and 8, and that trend has persisted for decades, according to research by the D.C. Policy Center.
The District’s competitive position within the region has weakened in the past few years. As regional policies and dynamics has changed, the flow of people, businesses, and jobs has changed as well. The region’s suburbs have increased in importance as competing destinations, and this trend has only been amplified by the pandemic. Now, to reset the District’s economic growth trajectory, new approaches to policy may be required.
Yesim Sayin Taylor, executive director of the D.C. Policy Center, said the city should consider how it wants TOPA to influence its affordable housing priorities. She said a shortened timeline or even waiver of the TOPA process for housing operators with a commitment to affordability should be on the table as the city moves out of the pandemic.
Bill 24-571, “The Schools Full Budgeting Amendment Act of 2021” aims to prove schools budget stability by ensuring that schools will have at least the same budget as they got in the previous year unless the school loses a grade level, is poised for closure or must absorb students from a school poised for closure, or there is a systemwide shock that reduces total DCPS formula funding by more than 5 percent.
Yet, according to the Brookings Metro Monitor 2021 report, Greater Washington ranks 51st among 53 large metro areas for racial inclusion, or the gap between the white population and people of color on key poverty indicators. In addition, the DC Policy Center found that even when District-born and raised youth find jobs, they are likely to be in low-paying occupations with little opportunity for economic mobility.
On Wednesday, December 15, 2021, Education Policy Initiative Director Chelsea Coffin testified at the public meeting of the D.C. State Board of Education (SBOE) on SR20-11: State Board of Education Resolution On Improving the School Transparency and Reporting (STAR) Framework.
Some civil rights advocates oppose automated enforcement on the grounds that even race-blind cameras are used to scale up America’s traditions of revenue-driven and racist policing. In D.C., for example, researchers found that drivers in segregated Black neighborhoods received 17 times as many camera tickets per capita as their counterparts in white neighborhoods. Black Washingtonians are indeed more likely to live near high-speed arterials where drivers (including white suburbanites) go very fast, but the disparity suggests the cameras aren’t improving driver safety so much as raising money.
Survey data suggest that students with access during high school to career supports such as connections to employers, exposure to careers, and professional counseling tend to earn wages 20 percent higher than their peers—and such access could have lasting impacts. In this latest installment in our D.C. Voices series, we hear directly from students and counselors about the implications better early career outcomes data could have as students make their postsecondary education and career choices.
A 2020 study conducted by the D.C. Policy Center found that prioritizing at-risk students had the potential to improve their chance “to match at a school they have ranked and to increase socioeconomic diversity, especially at a subset of schools that serve low percentages of students who are at-risk.” The study said sibling preference preserved schools’ preexisting demographics by making it harder for students without siblings at a school to get in.
Increasingly, it looks like office owners downtown need to start considering a range of possibilities for their buildings, according to the D.C. Policy Center. Office vacancies were already rising before the pandemic, says a recent report from the think tank, and neighborhoods with a combination of commercial and residential space proved to be more resilient during the crisis.
An example from the D.C. Policy Center is informative: The owner of a single-family home can increase the value of the property by replacing the single-family home with a duplex or triplex while still paying the same in taxes under a system of land value taxation, reducing the average tax burden per unit. In contrast, under the standard property tax regime, this increased densification would result in a higher property tax burden due to the increased value of the property, and the landowner may decide not to undertake this improvement.
Mixed use neighborhoods with a heavy office presence have proved more resilient to the effects of the pandemic than office-heavy downtown areas, which have been seeing more vacancies. (Bailey McConnell / DC Policy Center)
Most students who left their schools at the end of last year did not transfer to another campus within the city but moved out of the District entirely, according to city officials. It is hard to pinpoint exactly how many of those departures are because of the pandemic. Chelsea Coffin, who directs education research at the D.C. Policy Center, said birth rates in the District have declined since 2016, a possible indicator that fewer students can be expected to enroll in school.
A new report from the D.C. Policy Center asks whether mixed-use projects represent downtown’s future. Senior research analyst Bailey McConnell notes that areas replete with mixed-use development have proved more resilient to the economic impact of the pandemic.
Introduction The impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic have led to a lot of speculation about the future of cities, but many agree that cities, and especially downtowns, will experience some changes in use as people alter how and where they live and work.[1] At the onset of the pandemic, economic activity in…
In 1867, the federal government purchased a 375-acre site in Anacostia for the settlement of African Americans after the Civil War. In 1941, the government seized a 34-acre section of the community’s land to build Barry Farm Dwellings, a public housing development for African Americans, per a report from the D.C. Policy Center.
Right now, many Black D.C. residents cannot afford to live within walking or biking distance of their workplace. Data from the D.C. Policy Center found that those who biked to work earned an average of $60,000 a year, while workers who took the bus earned an average of $32,000, the 2017 data found.
Quick links Download this report in the original PDF format here. Access the 1-page report summary here. Access the launch event page and event program here. Chapter 1. The importance of tracking early career outcomes D.C.’s public schools, serving students from pre-kindergarten through grade 12, strive to prepare students to succeed as young…
On November 10, 2021, the D.C. Policy Center’s article, D.C. high school alumni reflections on their early career outcomes, was cited by The DC Line: DC Council hears testimony on effectiveness of pilot program on school security [WTOP] ‘Old news? 214-unit development proposed for former Fox 5 site on Wisconsin Avenue’ [UrbanTurf]…
Earlier this year, the D.C. Policy Center collected data showing that isolation and increased economic hardship during the pandemic further primed young people for socioemotional challenges. In anticipation of months of unresolved trauma spilling into the classroom, Yaa-Anna participated in workshops about trauma-informed instruction.
Introduction Data exist on D.C.’s public and public charter school students’ high school graduation rates and student’s enrollment in postsecondary education six months after graduation. But beyond that six-month mark, in terms of publicly available data the picture goes dark: there is very little qualitative or quantitative information on early career outcomes…
Many of D.C.’s public school students change schools at some point between pre-kindergarten and grade 12, transferring into a different feeder pattern. At the final transition point, which is between 8th and 9th grade, the most popular school-to-school feeder pattern in the District of Columbia Public Schools (DCPS) system is Wilson High…
Executive summary It is a common myth that the District has always been dependent on a steady stream of reliable federal funding. This myth clouds the D.C. statehood debate. The truth is that, going back to the 1790s, federal fiscal supports to the District are better characterized as erratic, unpredictable, and declining…
“For most of its history, the District suffered from underinvestment that can, at least in part, be attributed to the lack of stable and proper fiscal supports from the federal government in several fields including education and infrastructure,” researchers with the D.C. Policy Center, which prepared the report alongside Statehood Research, wrote.
Incidents like these continue to occur across DC and are prevalent in every ward. A recent study by the DC Policy Center documented these incidents across the city. It also points out that many of these incidents have not been tracked. Upwards of 30% of incidents involving a pedestrian outside a vehicle that resulted in a 911 call were not actually logged by the Metropolitan Police Department.
The residents located in those areas have limited access to nutritious food, which leads to higher reliance on junk food and fast food, experts say. Additionally, food deserts are usually in low-income areas and communities of color, according to a Department of Agriculture study. Those neighborhoods also often report higher rates of obesity and diabetes, according to a study done by the D.C. Policy Center.
Researchers at the D.C. Policy Center and D.C. Office of Planning have both argued in recent studies that the dearth of conversions often stems from a simple math problem: Even with declining vacancy rates, the shift to residential still may not generate high enough rents to justify the expense of making the switch. Owners of older, class B and C buildings are therefore much more likely to explore the prospect, and even then, owners in the suburbs have more incentive to convert than those in downtown D.C.
“Over the past couple of years City leadership has propelled the District to be ranked as the #11 startup ecosystem in the world. Moreover, according to the DC Policy Center annual data through Q4 2020 shows there was a 5 percent increase in total private establishments in the District between 2019 and 2020. Now is the time to ensure that the growth of businesses in DC is equitable for all,” said Melissa Bradley
“As of June 2021, nearly half the small businesses that operated in January of 2020 were closed, and revenue was down by about 57%,” according to a D.C. Policy Center report commissioned by the D.C. Chamber of Commerce. Those closures were concentrated in “consumer-facing industries” such as leisure and hospitality, where employment remained 35% below February 2020 levels. In contrast, the report found, employment in office-based jobs was only 3% below February 2020 levels.
How do you understand the effects of a once-in-a-generation pandemic on the local economy? You rely on Yesim Sayin-Taylor, who has spent the last year outlining Covid’s effects on businesses and workers, as well as the District’s own coffers. Her D.C. Policy Center has deepened its partnership with the D.C. Chamber of Commerce to produce regular reports on the region’s economy, while producing more research on topics like D.C. schools, affordable housing and traffic data.
In April, President Biden set a national greenhouse gas emissions reduction target of 50-52 percent of 2005 emissions levels by 2030. Meeting this goal will require the U.S. electricity sector to source 80 percent of its generation from carbon-free energy sources by 2030, with President Biden setting a further target of 100…
“Parents who move their children from D.C. public schools to surrounding jurisdictions cite school quality and housing affordability as major contributing factors to leaving — but what makes a quality school varies widely by household, a new report out today by the D.C. Policy Center found.
On October 13, 2021, the D.C. Policy Center’s report, Exit & voice: Perceptions of the District’s public schools among stayers and Leavers, was cited by Axios D.C.: Parents who move their children from D.C. public schools to surrounding jurisdictions cite school quality and housing affordability as major contributing factors to leaving —…
Parents who move their children from D.C. public schools to surrounding jurisdictions cite school quality and housing affordability as major contributing factors to leaving — but what makes a quality school varies widely by household, a new report out today by the D.C. Policy Center found.
Quick links Download this report in the original PDF format here. Access the 1-page report summary here. Download additional tables prepared with the survey data here in MS Excel format. View the launch event discussion recording here. Executive summary Enrollment in D.C.’s public schools had been steadily increasing since 2009 until the COVID-19 pandemic disrupted this…
Good morning, Councilmember Allen, Councilmember Gray, and the members of the Special Committee on COVID-19 Pandemic Recovery. My name is Yesim Sayin Taylor, and I am the Executive Director of the D.C. Policy Center—an independent non-partisan think tank advancing policies for a strong and vibrant economy in the District of Columbia. I thank you for the…
On October 9, 2021, D.C. Policy Center Executive Director Yesim Sayin Taylor, was quoted by Bisnow: D.C. Policy Center Executive Director Yesim Sayim Taylor said the data shows the vast majority of eviction cases have involved nonpayment of rent. “Landlords are not happy with the extension of eviction to all causes, they…
On October 8, 2021, the D.C. Policy Center’s article, Examining office to residential conversions in the District, was cited by Greater Greater Washington: A housing shortage and recent pandemic-driven changes in work patterns mean the District seems to have too much office space, and too little residential. But office to home conversions…
On October 8, 2021, the D.C. Policy Center’s article, Examining office to residential conversions in the District, was cited by the Washington Post: The D.C. Policy Center came out with its own study Thursday focused on the potential of turning office buildings downtown into residential space. It painted those conversions as an answer to…
On October 7, 2021, the D.C. Policy Center’s article, Observed disparities between 911 calls and crash reports, was cited by Greater Greater Washington: A study by the DC Policy Center found that nearly a third of crashes involving pedestrians, cyclists, and scooter riders go unlogged in DC crash data. Police say they…
On October 7, 2021, the D.C. Policy Center’s article, Observed disparities between 911 calls and crash reports, was cited by Axios DC: A third of crashes during a six-week period where a driver hit a cyclist or a pedestrian was not publicly reported by police, a new report by the D.C. Policy Center found….
On October 7, 2021, the D.C. Policy Center’s article, Observed disparities between 911 calls and crash reports, was cited by The DC Line: A new analysis out today from the D.C. Policy Center finds that Metropolitan Police Department’s crash data is incomplete but nonetheless provides the basis for safety decisions by the District Department of Transportation. “While…
Employment centers in the District of Columbia have long been a source of economic activity and city revenue. Office buildings not only bring in businesses that pay corporate franchise taxes, but they also bring in workers, create employment for those who staff these buildings, and support surrounding retail and restaurants. The historically…
On October 6, 2021, the D.C. Policy Center’s article, Pushing through complacency to fight health disparities in D.C.’s African American communities, was cited by StreetSense: Opening the medical center east of the Anacostia River was done strategically, according to Bread for the City’s press release. Access to quality healthcare has been a…
On October 6, 2021, the D.C. Policy Center’s article, Observed disparities between 911 calls and crash reports, was cited by WTOP: You wouldn’t necessarily expect every single car accident to get a police report after the fact, even if an ambulance is sent out to respond to the scene as a precaution….
In D.C., the District Department of Transportation (DDOT) is responsible for planning and building the city’s transportation infrastructure, including where bicycle lanes, crosswalks, and safety features are installed. When making decisions about public infrastructure investments, DDOT relies on public crash data provided by the Metropolitan Police Department (MPD) to understand where crashes happen in…
Over the past year and a half, the COVID-19 pandemic has placed unprecedented burdens on the District’s residents, establishments, and economy. As businesses were forced to adjust to a new way of operating under a rapid shutdown of the city and the nation, the pandemic induced a historic spike in unemployment, with…
Photo/Joe Flood (Source) Message from the Chamber One of the nation’s most resilient regions, Washington, DC, like the country itself, experienced unprecedented changes in its economy, workforce, and business community during the COVID-19 pandemic. The 2021 State of Business Report provides both data and analysis of the impact of COVID-19 on…
On September 27, 2021, the D.C. Policy Center’s article, Births and international in-migration maintain the District’s population 15-year population growth, was cited by the Wall Street Journal: People are pushing farther out. Stafford and Loudoun counties in Virginia and Frederick County in Maryland saw the strongest area population growth rates, almost 2%, as well…
On September 18, 2021, the D.C. Policy Center Education Policy Initiative Director Chelsea Coffin was cited by WTOP: During a public hearing in July 2020, before the law was passed, Chelsea Coffin, the director of the Education Initiative of D.C. Policy Center, testified before the city council on the report the center published on…
On September 17, 2021, the D.C. Policy Center’s report, At-risk priority in D.C.’s common lottery: Potential implications for access and diversity, was cited by DCist: In an analysis published last year, the D.C. Policy Center determined that a new at-risk preference would likely accomplish those goals. “Implementing a priority for at-risk applicants…
Introduction Over the last four decades, deindustrialization, automation, trade with China, the rise of the tech economy, and industry concentration have all contributed to the country’s regional divergence in economic prosperity. A 2019 Brookings report found that 90 percent of growth in high-tech jobs happened in just five metropolitan areas–Boston, San Francisco,…
On September 10, 2021, the D.C. Policy Center’s article, How big of a deal is Amazon HQ2 for the DC Metro Region?, was cited by DCist: Economist Yesim Sayin Taylor with the D.C. Policy Center wrote in a 2018 paper that Amazon would likely be “an unimpressive flare in the region’s chronic housing crisis,”…
On September 8, 2021, D.C. Policy Center’s article, Challenges outside of school for D.C.’s students and families during the pandemic, was cited by the Washington Informer: A report published by the D.C. Policy Center in March found that District children who stayed home during the pandemic experienced social isolation, anxiety and depression. As adults…
On August 25, 2021, the D.C. Policy Center’s article, The long view for the District’s budget: What is awaiting the District in Fiscal Year 2022 and beyond, was quoted by Citizens Against Government Waste: Both policy analysts on the right and left agree that the city has enough money and will continue…
On August 19, 2021, the D.C. Policy Center’s article, Discriminatory housing practices in the District: A brief history by Kathryn Zickuhr, was cited by Washington City Paper: “[G]overnment regulations and recommendations at every level of government sought to keep Black and white residents separated, subsidizing construction, loans, and housing for white residents…
On August 14, 2021, the D.C. Policy Center’s article, How the region’s racial and ethnic demographics have changed since 1970, was cited by the Washington Post: White people, who didn’t face labor market discrimination or the legacy of slavery, got there first. But plenty of Black people wanted houses with yards and…
On August 13, 2021, the D.C. Policy Center’s article, What is happening to the District’s personal income tax base?, was cited by Law360: The D.C. Policy Center is among the most influential think tanks in the nation’s capital. The center conducts excellent research and analysis on a wide variety of public policy…
On August 13, 2021, the D.C. Policy Center’s article, The rise and demise of racially restrictive covenants in Bloomingdale, was cited by WUSA9: Much of what shaped these Black neighborhoods was the result of racially restrictive covenants throughout the mid-20th century that banned Black people from buying property in White neighborhoods forcing…
On August 6, 2021, the D.C. Policy Center’s article, Food access in D.C is deeply connected to poverty and transportation, was cited by the Washington Business Journal: The grocery store is a necessity for her neighbors, too. The D.C. Policy Center, a research group launched years ago by the Federal City Council,…
In October 2020, all 67 Local Education Agencies (LEAs) in the District submitted their Continuous Education and School Recovery Plans (CEPs), providing information on what changes they were aiming to implement during school year 2020-21 to best serve their students. The plans were mandated by the Office of the State Superintendent of Education (OSSE)…
Housing prices—especially the price of single-family homes—in the Washington metro region have increased rapidly since COVID-related restrictions were first implemented in March of 2020. The House Price Index (data, methodology) compiled by Federal Housing Finance Agency, shows that single-family home prices (including the appraised values for both purchased and refinanced homes) in the…
Since March 2020, over 33 million people have contracted COVID-19 in the United States.[1] Compared to the national average and many other large metropolitan areas, D.C. fared relatively well, with a case rate of 6,996 per 100,000 people, compared to the national average of 10,140 per 100,000 people.[2],[3] While many elements contributed to D.C….
The D.C. Council is considering various proposals to increase income taxes on high-income earners. Supporters argue that a tax hike is necessary to meet needs like childcare and reducing homelessness. But paying for a good cause and public support for higher taxes are only tangentially related to what constitutes good tax policy.
In July 2020, the District of Columbia State Board of Education (DC SBOE), in partnership with the Office of the State Superintendent of Education (OSSE), created the Social Studies Standards Advisory Committee to review and update the District’s social studies curriculum. These standards were last revised in 2006. The goal of this…
One year after schools physically closed on March 16, 2020,[1] an estimated 88 percent of students in the District of Columbia were still learning from home[2], as most programs for students in kindergarten to grade 12 remained virtual through the end of the fall 2020 semester and start of the spring 2021…
The U.S. Census Bureau’s recently-released estimates of components of population changes (April 2010 to July 2020) show that the District’s population total rose to 712,816 between 2019 and 2020—a gain 4,563 new residents. This gain is approximately a third of the average annual change seen in the first half of this decade….
In focus groups conducted by the D.C. Policy Center in August 2020, some teachers reported that when D.C.’s public and public charter schools transitioned to distance learning in March, they didn’t have the tools they needed to design and deliver virtual lesson plans. They didn’t know how to best engage students in…
On June 4, 2021, D.C. Policy Center Executive Director Dr. Yesim Sayin Taylor, was quoted by The Washington Post: Some analysts said statehood could bring other financial opportunities as well. If the District had voting representation in Congress, lawmakers could lobby more effectively for federal grant funding available to all states, said…
On June 3, 2021, D.C. Policy Center Education Policy Initiative Director Chelsea Coffin testified at the Committee of the Whole Public Oversight Hearing on education, addressing what the budget means for students who are designated at-risk. You can read her testimony below or download a PDF version here. Good morning, Chairman Mendelson…
On June 1, 2021, the D.C. Policy Center was mentioned by Greater Greater Washington: There’s no cost estimate yet for the program, but White expects cost estimates to be “very compelling.” He said they are working with the DC Policy Center to estimate how much funding the program would need and how…
To help schools and students cope with the extreme challenges created by COVID-19, the U.S. Department of Education awarded three rounds of Elementary and Secondary School Emergency Relief (ESSER) funds. These grants were given to states to assist schools and Local Education Agencies (LEAs) in addressing the impacts of COVID-19 on elementary…
On May 26, 2021, D.C. Policy Center Education Policy Initiative Director Chelsea Coffin testified at the Special Committee on COVID-19 Pandemic Recovery & Committee of the Whole Joint Public Oversight Hearing, addressing learning gaps and ensuring that students’ mental and physical health needs are met. You can read her testimony below or…
Good morning, Councilmember McDuffie, and the members of the Committee on Business and Economic Development My name is Yesim Sayin Taylor, and I am the Executive Director of the D.C. Policy Center—an independent non-partisan think tank advancing policies for a strong and vibrant economy in the District of Columbia. I thank you…
On May 21, 2021, D.C. Policy Center Executive Director Dr. Yesim Sayin Taylor was quoted by the Triad Business Journal: But that can cause issues, according to Yesim Taylor, head of the D.C. Policy Center, who noted that these maps are based off census tracts. Read more: He was denied an SBA…
On May 21, 2021, D.C. Policy Center’s Executive Director Yesim Sayin testified before the Special Committee on COVID-19 Pandemic Recovery to share ideas on how the District can gradually transition out of the public emergency and wind down safety net supports in the least disruptive ways. You can read her testimony below…
COVID-19 related federal legislation and administrative actions have provided an unprecedented amount of federal funding for the District of Columbia. The American Rescue Plan Act alone—the latest in a series of federal legislative initiatives—is delivering the District $2.2 billion in operating expenditure support, $107 million for COVID-19 related capital expenditures, $386 million…
High school students in D.C. have been especially impacted by the pandemic. In an EmpowerK12 survey of 2,500 public charter school students, high schoolers’ responses indicated that they were the least confident in their ability to succeed during distance learning compared to students in other grade bands.[i] Although some have thrived in…
For students at District of Columbia Public Schools (DCPS), and many public charter schools, the 2020-21 school year will end on or around June 24, 2021. After the academic year ends, many students will participate in summer programs to address reduced learning and socialization over the last year. In 2017, at least…
On May 5, 2021, D.C. Policy Center Executive Director Yesim Sayin Taylor, was quoted by WUSA9: The D.C. Policy Center, a think-tank nonprofit, said hundreds of people like Bryan decided to open small, home-based businesses during the pandemic. In its 2020 report, it found that as hundreds of businesses were being wiped…
The disproportionate health and economic impacts of the COVID-19 health pandemic have been widely documented. In Washington, D.C., adult learners suddenly found themselves pivoting to virtual learning while simultaneously navigating heightened concerns about their employment, health, and housing. In May 2020, adult charter schools in D.C. conducted a survey of learners to…
On May 3, 2021, the D.C. Policy Center’s article, Goodbye to Chocolate City, was cited by DCist: D.C. went by several names in the second half of the 20th century: Chocolate City for example, referred to the fact that D.C. was the country’s first majority Black city. While more white residents now call the…
On April 29, 2021, the D.C. Policy Center’s article, Tax practices that amplify racial inequities: Property tax treatment of owner-occupied housing, was cited by StreetSense: A 2018 report by the D.C. Policy Center stated that provisions such as the homestead deduction and property tax cap, which give large tax breaks to homeowners in gentrified…
On April 29, 2021, the D.C. Policy Center’s article, The District’s population grows for the 14th year in a row, but at a weaker rate, was cited by Greater Greater Washington: The city’s population has grown over the last two decades, and is likely to continue to do so. Even if COVID…
The District of Columbia and the greater Washington metropolitan area have always been great places to live and work. High wages, high quality of life, and a stable hiring environment with a depth of talent has attracted workers from all parts of the nation and all corners of the world. Data from…
On April 26, 2021, D.C. Policy Center researcher Sunaina Kathpalia was quoted by the Washington Post: Sunaina Kathpalia, a demographics researcher at the D.C. Policy Center, said that the slowed population growth in the latter half of the decade is “not a sign of some kind of doom.” “It is part of…
On April 22, 2021, the D.C. Policy Center’s article, Where it’s easiest to live car-free in D.C., was cited by Greater Greater Washington: The goals of safety and equity in transportation are aligned. Private vehicles are the most deadly form of transportation. The DC Policy Center has shown that areas where car-free living is…
On April 19, 2021, the D.C. Policy Center’s report, Taking Stock of the District’s Housing Stock, was cited by Greater Greater Washington: Multifamily affordable housing units are more difficult to find, as only 31% of the available housing units in the District were “potentially” affordable to families of four, according to a 2018 report…
On April 9, 2021, the D.C. Policy Center’s article, Food access in D.C is deeply connected to poverty and transportation, was cited by Slate: Researchers define a food desert in D.C. as an area where there is no full-service grocery store within a half-mile and where 40 percent of the households don’t have a…
On March 24, 2020 – exactly one year ago – D.C. public schools and many public charter schools began their first day of distance learning. The D.C. Policy Center’s State of D.C. Schools report documents how students, parents, and teachers (representing the most directly impacted groups) experienced this transition to virtual instruction.[i]…
The District has lost many jobs but added many businesses. Between September of 2019 and September of 2020, private sector employment in the District of Columbia declined by 12.6 percent (or 68,000 jobs lost), and wages earned in the third quarter of 2020 were 2.7 percent below where they were a year…
On March 17, 2021, Chelsea Coffin, Director of the Education Policy Initiative, testified before the District’s State Board of Education (SBOE) regarding distance learning during the pandemic. You can read her testimony below, and download it as a PDF. Good evening, Members of the State Board of Education. My name is Chelsea…
State of D.C. Schools, 2019-20 is an annual systemwide overview of education in the District of Columbia. Its main purpose is to give D.C. residents, parents, caregivers, and other stakeholders a snapshot of the overall performance of the District’s public schools.
On March 9, 2021, D.C. Policy Center Wilkes Scholar Yanesia Norris was quoted and cited by WAMU: Students who live in Ward 7 and 8, majority-Black parts of the city with large concentrations of low-income families and high numbers of frontline workers, are at higher risk of contracting the coronavirus, according to an…
Health The health impacts of the pandemic have been concentrated among Black and Latino residents, likely related to unequal access to healthcare and essential work status across race and ethnicity lines, among other factors. As of February 15, 2021, residents of Wards 7 and 8 accounted for 28 percent of the District’s…
Good morning, Chairperson Mendelson and members of the Committee of the Whole. My name is Chelsea Coffin and I am the Director of the Education Policy Initiative at the D.C. Policy Center, where our education research focuses on how schools connect to broader dynamics in the District of Columbia. The pandemic put…
On March 2, 2021, D.C. Policy Center Executive Director Dr. Yesim Sayin Taylor, was quoted by DCist: Yesim Sayin Taylor, the director of the D.C. Policy Center, another local think tank, says she understands the desire to identify new sources of revenue for social programs, calling the issues raised by Allen “terribly…
On February 26, 2021, D.C Policy Center Executive Director Dr. Yesim Sayin Taylor was quoted by the Washington Business Journal: The benefits of homeownership reverberate well past a domicile’s four walls. It doesn’t just produce wealth for current owners — it snowballs over time for future generations. It creates a pipeline for…
On February 25, 2021, D.C. Policy Center Executive Director Dr. Yesim Sayin Taylor was quoted by the New York Times: Even if the disease strikes the overall population somewhat evenly, the risks of death are far less uniform, said Yesim Sayin Taylor, the executive director of the D.C. Policy Center, a research…
On February 24, 2021, the D.C. Policy Center’s article, A decade of demographic change in D.C.: Which neighborhoods have changed the most?, was cited by StreetSense: Public worries about the plan’s focus and intentions stem from the negative effects of gentrification and Black and brown displacement in the city, particularly in the…
On February 17, 2021, Executive Director Yesim Sayin Taylor’s interview with Washingtonian was cited by the DC Line: ► DC BUDGET – ‘DC has a surprise $552 million budget surplus despite Covid. What gives?’ Washingtonian’s Luke Mullins: “Though the covid pandemic has hammered the Washington region’s economy, the DC government finished its 2020 fiscal year…
On February 18, 2021, D.C. Policy Center Executive Director Yesim Sayin Taylor was quoted by the Washington Business Journal: Yesim Taylor, head of the D.C. Policy Center and before that a longtime staffer in the CFO’s office, believes Mendelson’s assessment is accurate, if for no other reason than the job is an…
The public health emergency caused by COVID-19 has increased scrutiny on the District of Columbia’s health care system. Does D.C. have adequate health care workforce capacity to handle the health care need and health care demand of its residents during this pandemic? If not, what supply gaps exist, and what impact do…
On February 16, 2021, the D.C. Policy Center’s report, 2020 State of Business: Pivoting from Pandemic to Recovery was cited by DCist: The D.C. Policy Center, which is run by Yesim Taylor, a former staffer in the CFO’s office, summarized the risk to D.C. as follows in its 2020 State of Business Report:…
On February 16, 2021, D.C. Policy Center Executive Director Yesim Sayin Taylor was quoted by Washingtonian: Though the covid pandemic has hammered the Washington region’s economy, the DC government finished its 2020 fiscal year with a surplus of more than half a billion dollars. How is that possible? What does it say about about…
Most students in the District of Columbia have been learning from home since the COVID-19 pandemic began in March of 2020. School closures have likely been more challenging for students living in low-income households than for those in higher income households – households in Wards 7 and 8 are less likely than…
On February 4, 2021, D.C. Policy Center Executive Director Yesim Sayin Taylor was quoted by the Washington Business Journal: Yesim Taylor, executive director of the D.C. Policy Center and a former staffer in the CFO’s office, observed that the typical formula for appraisers involves examining a building’s capitalization rate: essentially, the ratio…
What does a successful research-practice partnership look like? In 2018, the D.C. Council enacted legislation to create a research-practice partnership (RPP) in support of actionable, independent research for the District’s education sector. An education research-practice partnership is a collaborative engagement between researchers and education agencies that aims to identify paths for continued…
On February 4, 2021, D.C. Policy Center Executive Director Yesim Sayin Taylor was quoted by the Washington Business Journal: Yesim Taylor, executive director of the D.C. Policy Center and a former staffer in the CFO’s office, observed that the typical formula for appraisers involves examining a building’s capitalization rate: essentially, the ratio…
On January 19, 2021, the D.C. Policy Center’s article, Single-family zoning and neighborhood characteristics in the District of Columbia, was cited by Vox: Limited supply means greater competition for the housing that is available, and that competition benefits higher- and middle-income people. And local zoning regulations, which make it more difficult for…
On January 19, 2021, the D.C. Policy Center’s report, 2020 State of Business Report: Pivoting from Pandemic to Recovery, was cited by NBC: The city has been hammered by political unrest over the last year as the pandemic closed stores and prohibited indoor dining, gutting some businesses. More than one-quarter of small…
In D.C., students are required to receive certain vaccines to attend school,[1] a practice that increases community protections against potentially life-threatening diseases. However, data show that routine vaccination rates among kindergarteners in D.C. are declining, and had been even before the COVID-19 pandemic began. Between the 2009-10 and 2017-18 school years, the…
The District’s strategy for targeting industries, and the dollar value of incentives offered, is unique when compared to the tax incentive strategies of neighboring Baltimore, Maryland and Virginia Beach, Virginia, as well as other large cities around the country. The District’s incentive-granting strategy relies primarily on local property tax abatements. Since D.C….
On January 9, 2021, the D.C. Policy Center’s article, Goodbye to Chocolate City, was cited by The Atlantic: Though the rapidly gentrifying District is now 46 percent Black and 46 percent white, many still see it as “Chocolate City.” Scaling back democratic protections for Black people has been a hallmark of this administration and…
On December 21, 2020, the D.C. Policy Center’s policy brief, How would the “Reclaim Rent Control” proposals change the District’s rental housing landscape?, was cited by DCist: In 2011, a study by the Urban Institute found that 79,145 units across 4,818 properties in D.C. were “potentially subject to rent control.” At a recent…
On December 18, 2020, the D.C. Policy Center’s article, The impact of occupational licensing requirements in D.C., was cited by DCist: Earlier this year, the District’s protections for criminal-record-holding citizens seeking occupational licenses received a C- grade in a nationwide report on licensing barriers from the Institute for Justice. According to a 2019 D.C. Policy Center…
In response to a Freedom of Information Act lawsuit, on December 1, 2020, the U.S. Small Business Administration (SBA) released additional details regarding the loans received through the Paycheck Protection Program (PPP), including recipient names as well as exact loan amounts. In contrast, the previous disclosure included only loan ranges for loans…
On December 14, 2020, D.C. Policy Center executive director Yesim Sayin Taylor was quoted by Washington Business Journal: Yesim Taylor, executive director of the D.C. Policy Center, said the trend in new business applications is the same nationwide, with a dramatic increase in the third quarter. But the D.C., Virginia and Maryland…
The public health and economic crises caused by COVID-19 have created additional challenges for students who are navigating the transition from high school to postsecondary school or to the workforce. High school seniors in spring 2020 found it difficult to visit schools, complete the necessary tests, apply for financial aid, and discuss…
On December 2, 2020, the D.C. Policy Center’s article, How COVID-19 is affecting small businesses in D.C., was referenced in a letter-to-the-editor in the Washington Times: It is small business owners, especially, that do not have the resources or means to perpetually stay open in the midst of lockdowns. In D.C., this…
On December 1, 2020, the D.C. Policy Center’s article, New D.C. education data show how school choice plays out across wards, was cited by Washington City Paper: The cuts would come when there is a vaccine. (Dr. Moncef Slaoui, the chief scientific adviser for Operation Warp Speed, tells CNN it’s possible we reach herd immunity…
On December 1, 2020, D.C. Policy Center Executive Director Yesim Sayin Taylor, was quoted by DCist: And while the pain will be felt across the Washington region, Yesim Sayin Taylor of the D.C. Policy Center says the District will feel it particularly acutely. D.C. has already seen its revenue depleted by hundreds…
On November 23, 2020, the D.C. Policy Center’s policy brief, How would the “Reclaim Rent Control” proposals change the District’s rental housing landscape?, was cited by Street Sense: Yesim Sayin Taylor, executive director of the D.C. Policy Center, said that “there are currently 72,900 rent-controlled units in the District and if the Council enacts…
On November 19, 2020, the D.C. Policy Center’s article, How COVID-19 is affecting nonprofits in the D.C. area, was cited by DCist: Before the pandemic, Rebuilding Together relied largely on volunteers — more than 1,000 each year — to do basic home repairs like fixing smoke alarms and installing safety grab bars…
On November 18, 2020, the D.C. Policy Center’s report, At-risk application patterns in D.C.’s common lottery, was cited by The DC Line: Families of at-risk students are less likely to participate in the school lottery and submit applications prior to the deadline, a new report from the D.C. Policy Center found. Even so, author Chelsea Coffin says, there…
The D.C. Council has passed legislation to allow (but not mandate) public charter schools to prioritize at-risk applicants in the common lottery. Charters could do so either by prioritizing an at-risk applicant pool over other student groups in the common lottery, or by reserving a certain share of their seats for at-risk…
On November 9, 2020, the D.C. Policy Center’s report, How would the “Reclaim Rent Control” proposals change the District’s rental housing landscape?, was cited by WUSA9: According to the DC Policy Center, roughly 36% of the District’s rental units are rent controlled, which amounts to around 75,000 rent-controlled apartments in D.C. But laws…
On November 10, 2020, the D.C. Policy Center’s report, How would the “Reclaim Rent Control” proposals change the District’s rental housing landscape?, was cited by DCist: If the bill passes, it would immediately subject more than 13,000 housing units to rent stabilization, most in small buildings, according to a new report from the…
On November 9, 2020, the D.C. Policy Center’s policy brief, How would the “Reclaim Rent Control” proposals change the District’s rental housing landscape?, was cited by Washington City Paper: The D.C. Policy Center, a business-backed think tank, released a lengthy report on the bill ahead of hearing that could spook some councilmembers. The report…
Why are the numbers presented in the study estimates? Three sources of uncertainty make it difficult to know exactly how many units exist in multifamily buildings, and how many are subject to rent control. First, we do not have full administrative records on the number of units in multifamily apartment buildings and…
As renter incomes rise in the District, the upward pressure on rents in rental housing is becoming stronger. This could make policies proposed by the “Reclaim Rent Control” platform seem appropriate, since the immediate impact would be to put more units under rent control and slower rent increases. But the lower rents…
The underlying tension in rent control policies is balancing the desire to stabilize rents for tenants against the need for the housing providers to a turn a reasonable profit from their operations. Unlike housing subsidies, which are paid for by public dollars, rent control laws try to split the economic value created…
Many factors impact the trajectory of rents in a city including the increase in renter households relative to the number of available units, incomes, and the overall strength of the economy. In cities like the District, with relatively restrictive land use regulations, rent control laws could put a significant wedge between market…
At present, the District has an estimated 113,281 rental apartment units in 4,767 taxable buildings. An estimated 72,878 units in 2,157 buildings are already subject to rent-control.[1] An estimated 31,980 units in 198 large buildings built after 1977 are currently exempt from rent control. But only 52 of these buildings are completely…
Bill 23-873, the Rent Stabilization Program Reform and Expansion Amendment Act of 2020 would make comprehensive and sweeping changes to the current rent control laws, affecting every aspect including the universe of rent-controlled units, calculation and timing of rent increases including increases on vacant units, and various petition processes. Changes to exemptions…
D.C.’s rent control laws, first enacted in 1985, are designed to stabilize rents for current tenants to protect them from rapid, unreasonable increases in their rents. While landlords can increase rents from year to year, these increases must be within established parameters and be predictable. Who is covered? The rent control laws…
Rising rents in the District of Columbia, along with increased pressure on rental housing from higher income renters, have led to a debate on whether to expand rent control provisions in the city. In July of 2020, the D.C. Council voted to retain the city’s rent control laws (expiring at the end…
Good morning, Chairwoman Bonds and members of the Committee on Housing & Neighborhood Revitalization. My name is Yesim Sayin Taylor and I am the Executive Director of the D.C. Policy Center, an independent, nonpartisan think tank committed to advancing policies for a strong and vibrant economy in the District of Columbia. I…
The D.C. Council is considering six separate bills that would amend the District’s rent control laws. Among these six, B23-873, the Rent Stabilization Program Reform and Expansion Amendment Act of 2020, which reflects the policy proposals of the “Reclaim Rent Control” platform, offers the most comprehensive and sweeping changes, affecting every aspect…
The D.C. Council is now considering at least six separate bills that would amend its rent control law. Among those six, Bill 23-873, the Rent Stabilization Program Reform and Expansion Amendment Act of 2020, which is based on the various policy proposals from the “Reclaim Rent Control” platform, proposes the most comprehensive…
Good evening, Chairman Gray and members of the Committee on Health. My name is Emilia Calma and I am the Director of Research and Policy for the D.C. Policy Center, an independent, nonpartisan think tank committed to advancing policies for a strong and vibrant economy in the District of Columbia. I thank…
As the District takes steps to identify what changes need to be made to safely and successfully transition back to in-person learning, the D.C. Policy Center reached out to school leaders, parents, teachers, and students to ask: In short term, what changes would make students, teachers, and staff feel safe attending school in person? What academic and socio-emotional supports would ensure student success? What about in the medium and long-term?
On November 3, 2020, the D.C. Policy Center’s article, COVID-era health care workforce capacity in Washington, D.C., was cited by The DC Line: A new report from the D.C. Policy Center examines the District’s COIVD-era health care workforce, including the geographic distribution of physicians, nurses, respiratory therapists and other health providers in the District. In…
On November 3, 2020, the D.C. Policy Center’s article, Food access in D.C is deeply connected to poverty and transportation, was cited by Washington City Paper: Food insecurity in the District long predates the pandemic. In 2019, 10.6 percent of adults and 19.3 percent of children were food insecure, and according to…
While D.C. has been successful in keeping its COVID-19 viral reproductive number low, it has nonetheless consistently had 20-80 daily new cases since July. This low-level, ongoing crisis begs the question, what kinds of challenges does COVID-19 bring to bear on the District of Columbia? Is the District equipped with the physicians, nurses, respiratory therapists, and other providers needed to meet this public health crisis? Does D.C. have adequate health care workforce capacity to handle the health care need and demand of its residents during the pandemic? What supply gaps exist, and what impacts do those gaps have on residents?
On October 30, 2020, D.C. Policy Center Executive Director Yesim Sayin Taylor, was quoted by the Washington Business Journal: “We see this especially in D.C.,” said Yesim Sayin Taylor, executive director of the D.C. Policy Center, a business-focused research and policy group, regarding the pandemic’s disproportionate blows to lower-paid workers. “The impacts…
On October 27, 2020, the D.C. Policy Center’s report, Appraising the District’s rentals, was cited by DCist: Large, professionally managed apartment buildings are the most visible source of the city’s rental housing. But in the District, one third of rental stock exists in what’s called the “shadow” rental market, according to the…
Living in a toxin-free environment is essential to people’s mental and physical health. Being exposed to chemicals from pollution in soil, air, and water has wide ranging health effects including acute asthma symptoms, hormone disruption, decreased mental ability, and cancer. A U.S. national environmental quality index determined that there are over 30…
On October 9, 2020, D.C. Policy Center Executive Director Yesim Sayin Taylor was quoted by BisNow: D.C. Policy Center Executive Director Yesim Sayim Taylor said the data shows the vast majority of eviction cases have involved nonpayment of rent. “Landlords are not happy with the extension of eviction to all causes, they…
On October 7, 2020, the D.C. Policy Center’s Executive Director, Yesim Sayin Taylor, was quoted by the Washington Business Journal: That most likely reflects the District’s assumptions about how long it will take for some people to return to work at their traditional offices, said Yesim Taylor, executive director at the D.C….
On October 6, 2020, the D.C. Policy Center’s Executive Director, Yesim Sayin Taylor, was quoted by the Wall Street Journal: Already, the unemployment rate in Washington’s Wards 7 and 8, the areas east of the Anacostia, surged to 14.2% and 18.4% in August, respectively, compared with 9.3% and 12.5% a year earlier, according to D.C. government data. In Ward 2, which includes the city’s central business district, the August jobless rate was 4.7%, compared with 3.8% a year earlier. “I’m very concerned about businesses closing,“ said Yesim Sayin Taylor, founding executive…
Introduction October marks the seventh month of closures and job losses due to COVID-19. To combat the health and economic impacts of the pandemic, many jurisdictions, including the District of Columbia, have implemented emergency measures; adopted short-term policies to cushion the initial shocks, and are now looking for longer-term policies to aid…
On October 2, 2020, the D.C. Policy Center’s 2020 State of Business Report: Pivoting from Pandemic to Recovery, was cited by the Washington Business Journal: While every part of the region has been touched by the crisis, the chamber’s annual “State of Business” report documented especially dire effects in D.C. driven by…
The pandemic-induced recession has put an unprecedented pressure on the District’s economy. Precautions taken to slow the spread of COVID-19 have closed businesses and schools, reduced travel and mobility, and put thousands out of work. With the dramatic decline in demand from consumers, and halted business operations, the nation swiftly fell into a recession at the end of February.
Washington, D.C. is one of the highest-earning, most educated cities in the country, yet almost 20 percent of families with children under 18 live below the poverty line and 45,000 adult residents do not have a high school diploma. Adult-serving public charter schools in D.C. reduce these disparities by working with adult learners to put them on a path toward economic prosperity.
On September 30, 2020, D.C. Policy Center Executive Director Yesim Sayin Taylor was quoted by the Washington Post: At the more moderate D.C. Policy Center, executive director Yesim Taylor argued for across-the-board cuts that would reduce each agency’s budget by perhaps 2.5 percent, rather than tax increases. “The benefit of cutting spending…
On September 30, 2020, D.C. Policy Center Executive Director Yesim Sayin Taylor was quoted by the DC Line: The new projections will force changes to the 2021 budget, either in the form of spending cuts or revenue increases. Although the surplus for 2020 is roughly equivalent to the newly identified revenue shortfall…
Good morning, Chairman Mendelson and members of the Committee of the Whole. My name is Yesim Sayin Taylor and I am the Executive Director of the D.C. Policy Center, an independent, nonpartisan think tank committed to advancing policies for a strong and vibrant economy in the District of Columbia. I thank you…
On September 27, 2020, the Director of the D.C. Policy Center’s Education Policy Initiative, Chelsea Coffin, was quoted by The 74 Million: “It’s critical to find out who those students might be,“ said Chelsea Coffin, director of the Education Policy Initiative at the D.C. Policy Center, who has studied enrollment trends in the…
Good morning, Chairwoman Bonds and members of the Committee on Housing & Neighborhood Revitalization. My name is Yesim Sayin Taylor and I am the Executive Director of the D.C. Policy Center, an independent, nonpartisan think tank committed to advancing policies for a strong and vibrant economy in the District of Columbia. I…
On September 23, 2020, the D.C. Policy Center’s article, Roughly 36 percent of D.C.’s rental housing units are rent-stabilized, was cited by the Washington Business Journal: The District hasn’t updated its rent control law in 35 years. It currently covers most apartments built before 1975 – about 75,000 units, or 36% of all units…
The shift to distance learning last spring created access and language barriers for some of D.C.’s most vulnerable students, including students with disabilities and English learners. In this installment of our D.C. Voices series, we asked, how are schools serving students with disabilities and English learners during distance learning this fall? What lessons were learned last spring?
On September 22, 2020, the D.C. Policy Center’s article, D.C. is hard to count. Here’s where officials could target efforts for the 2020 Census, was cited by WAMU: D.C. Policy Center fellow Mike Maciag says D.C. has some specific challenges. “In D.C., we have a very transient population,” Maciag says. “Members of the military,…
On September 21, 2020, the D.C. Policy Center’s report, At-risk priority in D.C.’s common lottery, was cited in The 74 Million: These measures work. As noted by the D.C. Policy Center, at-risk students tend to be excluded from schools already serving lower percentages of such children, largely because existing preferences in D.C.’s common lottery…
New data released by the District of Columbia Department of Employment Services (DOES) show that between May and July, D.C. saw a slight growth in its labor force and employment, as well as a marginal decrease in unemployment. Between May and July, labor force participation increased by 5,300 workers over age 16…
On September 4, 2020, the D.C. Policy Center’s publication, The history and evolution of Anacostia’s Barry Farm, was cited by Greater Greater Washington: For example, two miles from Greenleaf Gardens, the historic Barry Farms is in the 14th year since NCI redevelopment was approved. Although residents were eventually able to assert their rights and…
On July 30, 2020, Mayor Bowser announced that D.C. Public Schools (DCPS) would begin the 2020-21 school year entirely virtually. Most public charter schools have made similar decisions, including the city’s two largest charter networks: KIPP DC PCS and Friendship PCS. This virtual start will follow a shortened 2019-2020 school year that…
On August 19, 2020, the D.C. Policy Center’s article, Paycheck Protection Program in the District: Hard-hit industries receive a smaller share of loans, was cited by The DC Line: ► REPORT – ‘Paycheck Protection Program in the District: Hard-hit industries receive a smaller share of loans.’ DC Policy Center’s Sunaina Kathpalia and Yesim Sayin Taylor: “Establishments with 20-49…
On August 21, 2020, the D.C. Policy Center’s article, How COVID-19 is affecting small businesses in D.C., was cited in an opinion piece in the Washington Post: As a local business owner who has lived and worked in the D.C. area for 35 years, I’ve seen the incredible growth of this city. Local…
On August 20, 2020, the D.C. Policy Center’s article, The District’s population grows for the 14th year in a row, but at a weaker rate, was cited by The Hill: The most recent census numbers put D.C.’s population at 705,749 as of July 1, 2019, up 4,202 people from 2018. This equates to a growth rate of 0.6…
On August 20, 2020, the D.C. Policy Center’s work and map were cited by the Washington Business Journal: While many today are not aware of the racist roots of these policies, and would strongly oppose perpetuating racial inequity, the results are hard to argue: Our region and many others remain as segregated…
From its conception, the Paycheck Protection Program (PPP) attracted a lot of attention. The PPP loans were thought of as lifelines for small businesses that have taken large losses from the pandemic-induced economic shocks. By providing sums of money to cash-strapped businesses, PPP loans were intended to allow small businesses to keep their employees on the payroll. Importantly, it was advertised that businesses that could demonstrate need and spend the loans mainly on preserving they employees would be able to convert these loans into grants.
On August 12, 2020, the D.C. Policy Center’s article, State of D.C. Schools 2018-19, was cited by Forest Hills Connection: In 2018, as UDC was rolling out its four-year strategic plan, 3,359 students graduated from DC public schools and charter schools. According to the DC Policy Center, 56% of those students went on to pursue…
On July 30, 2020, D.C. Mayor Muriel Bowser announced that public schools in the District would start the academic year virtually and remain that way until November 6, 2020. This announcement does not apply to the city’s public charter schools, which educate nearly half of the city’s public school students. While a…
A recent working paper released by the Washington Center for Equitable Growth (WCEG) —and covered by the Washington Post on July 2—found that Black and Hispanic homeowners pay a higher effective tax on their homes when compared to what white homeowners pay on comparable homes, because Black- and Hispanic-owned homes are assessed…
On August 5, 2020, the D.C. Policy Center’s article, Speed cameras in D.C., was cited by Greater Greater Washington: By looking at the locations where most violations occurred, it’s clear that DC drivers’ habits began changing in March. The most frequent location of moving violation citations in February through April 2019, as…
On August 5, 2020, the D.C. Policy Center’s article, Student achievement is on the rise, but critical gaps persist, was cited by The DC Line: After a quarter-century of education reform in the District — including a 1995 law authorizing public charter schools as well as mayoral control of the city-run school…
On August 4, 2020, the D.C. Policy Center’s article, At-risk priority in D.C.’s common lottery: Potential implications for access and diversity, was cited by the Washington Post: The D.C. Policy Center, a local think tank, released a study last month examining the impact that adding an at-risk preference would have on lottery results. The…
On July 31, 2020, D.C. Policy Center Director of the Education Policy Initiative Chelsea Coffin testified before the Committee of the Whole and the Committee on Education on B23-0717, the Expanding Equitable Access to Great Schools Act of 2020. Download this testimony.
Within schools, student diversity is low in the District of Columbia. The 2018 D.C. Policy Center report, Landscape of Diversity in D.C.’s Public Schools, looked at data from the 2016-17 school year and found that there was less racial, ethnic, and socioeconomic diversity in District of Columbia Public Schools (DCPS) and public…
The “At-risk priority in D.C.’s common lottery: Potential implications for access and diversity” report explores the implications of implementing a preference for at-risk students in Washington, D.C.’s common lottery, and what such a preference could mean for public charter schools in the city. Below is the full report. You can also read…
On July 20, 2020, D.C. Policy Center Executive Director Yesim Sayin Taylor, was quoted in the Washington Post: Meanwhile, day-care centers are losing slots or going under. Few have enough space to serve as many children as in the past, given the need for physical distancing. Many can’t afford to reopen. “Their financial…
On July 16, 2020, the D.C. Policy Center’s article, Food access in D.C is deeply connected to poverty and transportation, was cited by the American Geographical Society: In Washington D.C., food insecurity is no new phenomenon. D.C. is broken down into eight wards, shown on the map to the right. D.C. Policy Center…
During the COVID-19 pandemic, households with children are more likely to face loss of employment income than households without children nationwide. This is likely due to parents having to give up jobs or reduce their hours to shoulder the additional responsibilities of educating and caring for their children without outside help. Until…
On July 15, 2020, the D.C. Policy Center’s article, D.C. Voices: Sustainability of D.C. child care facilities during the pandemic, was cited by The DC Line: Amid concerns about the state of the child care sector now and in the future, the D.C. Policy Center’s Chelsea Coffin and Amanda Chu write that pandemic-related financial…
According to preliminary data released by the D.C. Department Employment Services, the District’s labor force declined by 15,000 between April and May, in addition to a 18,000 decline between March and April, and now stands at 387,500. Between April and May, 2,300 residents lost their jobs, and employment fell to 353,200. The…
On July 14, 2020, the D.C. Policy Center’s article, D.C. Voices: Teacher retention and recruitment during the pandemic, was featured on the blog of the National Council on Teacher Quality: The COVID-19 pandemic has introduced new challenges to retaining teachers and the traditional teacher hiring process. New analysis from Chelsea Coffin and Tanaz…
On July 12, 2020, the D.C. Policy Center’s work was cited in the Chico Enterprise-Record: If DC were a state this would lead to the Federal government being “coerced” by being part of a state. In fact, the vast majority of DC residents do not work for the federal government: according to…
The D.C. Policy Center’s recent report, Transition to College or Career for the District’s High School Students, examined what we do and don’t know about outcomes for D.C.’s high schoolers. Fifty-six percent of D.C.’s high school graduates continue to postsecondary within six months of completing high school, but we don’t know much…
On July 3, 2020, the D.C. Policy Center’s article, D.C. is hard to count. Here’s where officials could target efforts for the 2020 Census, was cited by Mashable: D.C. is “becoming more and more white… It’s pretty hard to see race as a factor in the denial [of statehood]. I think it’s…
In summer 2020, the D.C. Policy Center article A timeline of the D.C. region’s COVID-19 pandemic was cited by the Johns Hopkins Coronavirus Resource Center. Read more: Timeline of COVID-19 policies, cases, and deaths in your state | Johns Hopkins Coronavirus Resource Center Related: A timeline of the D.C. region’s COVID-19 pandemic…
“Transition to college or career for the District’s high school students” explores outcomes for D.C.’s students at the close of high school and as they become young adults transitioning into postsecondary or entering jobs. Below is the full report. You can also read the summary – available in both English and Spanish…
On June 22, 2020, the D.C. Policy Center’s article, D.C.’s heat islands, was cited by Casey Trees: In 2017 the D.C. Policy Center published a report that added more detail to how heat affects Washington residents. It overlaid temperature with social, economic and health-related factors, as well as vegetation variability, to yield what is…
On June 19, 2020, the D.C. Policy Center’s article, Goodbye to Chocolate City, was cited in an opinion piece at the Washington Post: In 1970, our city was more than 70 percent African American, but what became of Chocolate City? In 2015, the city dropped to below 50 percent African American. It is conservatively estimated that…
COVID-19 has dramatically altered the District of Columbia’s fiscal picture. The CFO’s updated revenue estimates tell us that it will take the city at least two years to gain back the deep losses incurred in a matter of two months. When these numbers are adjusted for inflation, we see that recovery will take even…
On June 11, 2020, the D.C. Policy Center’s article, Predominately black neighborhoods in D.C. bear the brunt of automated traffic enforcement, was cited in an op-ed at the Eno Center for Transportation: While Washington, D.C. relies heavily on automated traffic enforcement cameras, a report by the DC Policy Center found that drivers in predominantly…
On May 22, 2020, Mayor Muriel Bowser announced that D.C. Public Schools would begin its next school year on August 31. Public charter schools are determining their start dates independently, but it’s likely that some will align their calendars with DCPS. It remains uncertain whether students will attend school in-person, learn virtually,…
On June 11, 2020, the D.C. Policy Center’s article, ARTICLE, was cited by The DC Line: A new publication from the D.C. Policy Center explores how school facilities and operations will need to adapt for DC schools to reopen. Authors Tanaz Meghjani and Chelsea Coffin posed a key question to several school leaders: “What is top of mind for you in…
On June 11, 2020, the D.C. Policy Center’s article, Predominately black neighborhoods in D.C. bear the brunt of automated traffic enforcement, was cited by Vice: Speed and red light cameras are a proven, functional technology that make roads safer by slowing drivers down. They’re widely used in other countries and can also enforce parking…
On June 9, 2020, the D.C. Policy Center’s article, Implementing the NEAR Act to reduce violence in D.C., was cited by NPR: Ward 5 Councilmember Kenyan McDuffie thinks there’s a middle ground. “I want community policing in my neighborhood, but I do not and do not condone over-policing in any neighborhood, particularly…
On June 7, 2020, the D.C. Policy Center’s article, D.C. Voices: Mental health supports during school closures, was cited by The 74 Million: And that’s just one part of the equation. As with many districts nationwide, DCPS is still determining the best way to “creatively assess” students as the new academic year…
On June 7 , 2020, the D.C. Policy Center’s article, What is the impact of fare evasion in D.C.?, was cited by Courthouse News Service: According to the D.C. Policy Center, the Washington Metropolitan Area Transit Authority expanded funding for fare enforcement in recent years though the D.C. council only recently decriminalized fare evasion….
Since its inception, the D.C. Policy Center staff and researchers have taken great care to examine inequalities across different issue areas. Below is a list for our readers who would like to learn more about our work. D.C. History Once Upon A Time In NoMa. The neighborhood was primarily home to people–per…
On June 4, 2020, D.C. Policy Center Director of the Education Policy Initiative Chelsea Coffin testified before the Committee of the Whole and the Committee on Education at the Joint Budget Oversight Hearing for FY21. Download this testimony.
On May 27, 2020, the D.C. Policy Center’s Education Policy Initiative Director Chelsea Coffin was cited by The 74 Million: These students’ “lived experience are going to look quite different in the coming months, perhaps from income shock or doubling up on housing, stress in the household, and other ways,” said Chelsea…
On May 27, 2020, D.C. Policy Center Executive Director Yesim Sayin Taylor was quoted by the New York Times: “I would add to the resource issue the black population’s historically complex relationship with health care,” said Yesim Sayin Taylor, the executive director of the D.C. Policy Center, a research organization. Ward 8 has…
On May 27, 2020, D.C. Policy Center Education Policy Initiative Director Chelsea Coffin was quoted by The 74 Million: These students’ “lived experience are going to look quite different in the coming months, perhaps from income shock or doubling up on housing, stress in the household, and other ways,” said Chelsea Coffin,…
On May 26, 2020, the D.C. Policy Center’s article, Pandemic-induced unemployment has hit the District’s Hispanic, Latino, and younger workers more intensely, was cited by The Undefeated: Washington is one of a few areas, and NBA markets, that has yet to fully reopen businesses and public spaces since President Donald Trump declared…
On Friday, May 22, the Bureau of Labor Statistics released its monthly data on employment and unemployment for states and metropolitan areas. These data show that unemployment rate in the District of Columbia now stands at 11.1 percent—the highest rate seen in recent history. The city reached this level of unemployment with…
Both during and after, the COVID-19 pandemic is going to widen existing inequities in Washington, D.C. Despite the heavily repeated mantra that pandemics are “a great equalizer” that we all must face together, mounting evidence confirms that infection and death rates are anything but equal. Per capita, the number of COVID-19 cases…
On May 19, 2020, the D.C. Policy Center’s executive director, Yesim Sayin Taylor, was quoted by the Washington Post: But Yesim Taylor of the D.C. Policy Center, a more centrist think tank, said the mayor was smart not to balance the budget with higher taxes. “It’s easy to say, ‘Well, cut, cut,…
Teacher quality is the most influential school-level contributor to student achievement,[i] which means retaining effective teachers is an essential component of improving student learning. Amid the challenges of distance learning during COVID-19, retaining teachers might also provide students with much-needed stability as teachers can build on their pre-existing relationships with students to…
About 95 percent of U.S. households will fill out their 2020 Census information using forms mailed to their house that they will reply to via the internet, phone or mail. In the Washington D.C. region, the self-response rate from these forms varies greatly depending on location, density, race, population and income. What…
On May 16, 2020, the D.C. Policy Center’s article, How many small businesses are in D.C.?, was cited by the Washington Post: The pandemic is threatening the survival of independently operated stores, restaurants, bars and other enterprises in cities with vibrant, walkable neighborhoods and soaring commercial rents. In the District alone, there…
On May 13, 2020, the D.C. Policy Center’s article, Trends in federal employment in D.C., was cited by NBC4: Right now, the Office of Personnel and Management says it is beginning a phased transition to normal operations and agencies will make decisions based on local rules. Just under 200,000 federal employees work…
The nonprofit and advocacy sector in the District of Columbia employs over 70,000 employees.[1] While some of these organizations are focused on national policy, local nonprofits play an important role in service delivery—from out-of-school time programs, to community collectives providing services to the most vulnerable residents. The D.C. Policy Center implemented a…
Recently, many people were surprised that much of the “small business relief” in the federal CARES Act was received by large publicly owned companies. While later guidance from the U.S. Treasury clarified that these types of businesses were not the intended target of the program, and many national chains have returned their…
After declaring a public health emergency for the District of Columbia on March 11th, 2020, Mayor Bowser closed non-essential businesses and issued a stay at home order, requiring residents to socially distance from those outside their households. Schools closed two days later. The COVID-19 pandemic has introduced new health concerns for many,…
The economic effects of the coronavirus pandemic have been dramatic and unprecedented, as cities and countries shut down large swaths of their economies to control the spread of the virus, and consumer demand has fallen due to stay-at-home orders, rising unemployment, and general economic uncertainty. As previous recessions and other economic shocks…
On April 28, 2020, the D.C. Policy Center’s article, Goodbye to Chocolate City, was cited by WAMU: In 1970, the African-American population in the city stood at 71%. Five decades later, it’s less than half. Read more: After Six Decades, Ben’s Chili Bowl Faces Its Greatest Challenge Yet: Coronavirus | WAMU Related:…
With the novel coronavirus continuing to spread across the nation, the impacts have been uneven, both in terms of who is more likely to be exposed to the virus, and in terms of who is most likely to experience serious complications. These high-risk groups include adults over 65 years of age, as…
Note: D.C. updates on the spread of the coronavirus and COVID-19 are available at coronavirus.dc.gov. This article was originally published on March 25, 2020. We will continue to update it as needed as the District’s response to the situation evolves. For more, see our frequently updated timeline of the COVID-19 pandemic and…
On April 23, 2020, D.C. Policy Center Executive Director Yesim Sayin Taylor was quoted in The DC Line: No one with whom I spoke was surprised by the data. The numbers amplify weaknesses and inequities in the nation’s health care system. They also underscore historic discrimination experienced by people of color, especially…
In response to COVID-19 social distancing protocols, educators in D.C. have had to confront the daunting task of virtually teaching almost a hundred thousand students. It’s crucial to continue supporting schools in navigating this transition, but it’s also important to recognize that distance learning cannot provide the same experience as traditional schooling….
On April 20, 2020, D.C. Policy Center Executive Director Yesim Sayin Taylor was quoted by WAMU: But the coalition’s requests come amid a wider financial crisis for the city. The District is already expecting to have to trim the current year’s $9 billion budget by more than $600 million, and maybe as much…
On April 20, 2020, the D.C. Policy Center’s executive director, Yesim Sayin Taylor, was quoted by the Washington Business Journal: Yesim Taylor, executive director of the D.C. Policy Center, said this sort of tax relief has merit specifically because it is more broad-based, targeting an industry over specific businesses that would need…
On April 20, 2020, D.C. Policy Center’s Executive Director Yesim Sayin Taylor, was quoted by the Washington Business Journal: Hoffman is confident the council could structure the program stringently, building in provisions that ensure that a commercial tenant has to remain open and employ a certain number of District residents to score…
According to the latest population estimates released by the Census Bureau, D.C.’s population grew by just 4,202 residents last year, which is only 37 percent of the average annual growth since 2010. Almost all of this net growth—91 percent—is due to natural growth, or the number of births minus the number of…
On April 8, 2020, the D.C. Policy Center’s article, Pushing through complacency to fight health disparities in D.C.’s African American communities, was cited by DCist: In the District, black residents compose about 46 percent of the population, with white residents representing about 1 percentage point less than that, per recent U.S. Census…
On April 8, 2020, the D.C. Policy Center’s article, COVID-19 pandemic and the District of Columbia: What to expect?, was cited by WAMU: But even furloughs and two consecutive years of $600 million cuts might not be enough, according to an analysis by the D.C. Policy Center think tank. In the wake of…
On April 6, 2020, the D.C. Policy Center’s article, Goodbye to Chocolate City, was cited by American Renaissance: By the time he died, Marion Barry was a relic, because after 2000, the city began gentrifying. Whites returned. Crime dropped. Property values rose. Journalists, of course, mourned: “D.C., Long ‘Chocolate City,’ Becoming More…
On April 3, 2020, the D.C. Policy Center report, Appraising the District’s rentals, was featured in City Observatory: Too often, our debates about housing policy are shaped by inaccurate pictures of how the housing market really works. A new report from the D.C. Policy Center provides a remarkably clear and detailed picture of the…
On April 3, 2020, the D.C. Policy Center’s report, Appraising the District’s rentals, was cited by Urban Turf: DC Policy Center’s latest rental report builds on prior analysis of the city’s mismatched housing market. Read more: The DC Rental Affordability Mismatch | Urban Turf Related: Appraising the District’s rentals | D.C. Policy Center
On April 2, 2020, chapter four of the D.C. Policy Center’s report, Appraising the District’s rentals, was excerpted by Greater Greater Washington: The DC Policy Center has published a new report, Appraising the District’s rentals, on rental housing in the District, and how rentals can help keep housing affordable provide more economically inclusive. We…
On April 2, 2020, the D.C. Policy Center’s report, Appraising the District’s rentals, was cited by Urban Turf: In addition to exploring how the concept of Inclusionary Conversions could work in DC, DC Policy Center’s latest report gives a comprehensive snapshot of the city’s rental market. Read more: 34,000 Units in 20 Years: DC’s Rental Market, by…
On April 1, 2020, the D.C. Policy Center’s report, Appraising the District’s rentals, was featured by Urban Turf: A new report by the DC Policy Center suggests there may only be one way to reach DC’s affordable housing production targets. Released Wednesday, the extensive report takes stock of the city’s rental housing, putting forth the…
This report provides a comprehensive picture of the District’s rental housing to evaluate its capacity to create economically inclusive neighborhoods in the District of Columbia. It estimates the number and type of rental units and the buildings that hold them, and the rents that prevail. It also provides extensive data on rental apartment buildings including the rent-controlled stock as well as rental units outside the rental apartment buildings including condominiums, single-family homes, and flats.
In the District of Columbia, where housing is prohibitively expensive and neighborhoods are economically segregated, rental housing—with its lower costs, variety of units, and a more egalitarian distribution across the city’s eight wards and many neighborhoods—offers one avenue for reducing housing burdens and mixing incomes to create affordable and inclusive neighborhoods. Rental…
ONE | THE ROLE OF DISTRICT’S RENTAL HOUSING IN CREATING AFFORDABILITY AND INCLUSION The high cost of housing in the District of Columbia is a significant challenge. The city’s zoning laws and poorly run regulatory regime, sometimes combined with resistance to growth, restrict the amount, type, and location of housing that can…
TWO | THE LANDSCAPE OF RENTAL HOUSING IN THE DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA The District of Columbia is largely a city of rentals. Of the estimated 322,000 housing units (excluding those owned by the federal government, foreign governments, universities, or charitable or religious organizations),[1] 114,550 are occupied by their owners.[2] The remainder—207,400 units,…
THREE | HOW AFFORDABLE IS THE DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA’S RENTAL HOUSING? This chapter compares prevailing rents to the income profiles of District households to examine the extent to which rental housing can meet renter demand at different income levels. This analysis shows that rent-controlled housing offers a significant discount over the uncontrolled…
FOUR | HOW MUCH DOES THE DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA’S RENTAL HOUSING ADVANCE ECONOMIC DIVERSITY AND INCLUSION? The District of Columbia is an economically segregated city where higher-income households and lower-income households typically live far away from each other. In previous research, the D.C. Policy Center linked the city’s economic segregation to its…
FIVE | HOW CAN THE DISTRICT USE ITS EXISTING RENTAL HOUSING TO CREATE INCLUSIVE NEIGHBORHOODS? Up to this point, this report has provided extensive information on the District’s rental housing. It has shown that there are too few rental apartment units to house all renters, and the paucity of units is squeezing…
SIX | CONCLUSIONS As renter incomes rise in the District, the pressures on rental housing are becoming stronger. As this report has shown, there are not enough rental apartments to serve all renter households. And this pressure comes both from the bottom and from the top: for every household that would need…
APPENDIX I – THE HISTORY OF RENT CONTROL LAWS IN THE DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA The District of Columbia’s rent control laws date back to 1973, following the end of the federal price controls. That year, the federal government authorized the city to enact rent control policies if, after a series of public…
APPENDIX II – REVIEW OF LITERATURE ON THE IMPACT OF RENT CONTROL ON HOUSING QUALITY AND QUANTITY, DISPLACEMENT, AND INCLUSION Evidence suggests that rent control measures can have various impacts on a city’s housing stock and affordability, which are in turn related to the type and extent of the city’s rent control…
APPENDIX III – METHODOLOGY AND DATA SOURCES The analysis presented in this study relies on a combination of data sources, including administrative data from the District of Columbia government, data from private sources, and other publicly available data from the U.S. Census. The basic information on the rental stock is gleaned from…
Works referenced in the report Albon, Robert P., and David C. Stafford. “Rent Control and Housing Maintenance.” Urban Studies. Sage Publications, Ltd., 1990. Ambrosius, Joshua D., John I. Gilderbloom, William J. Steele, Wesley L. Meares, and Dennis Keating. “Forty Years of Rent Control: Reexamining New Jersey’s Moderate Local Policies after the Great…
This report has been prepared with support from Apartment and Office Buildings Association. The Urban Capital Impact Fund has provided generous support for the development of the Inclusionary Conversion model. Funders do not determine research findings or the insights and recommendations of the D.C. Policy Center employees and experts. The views expressed are…
Across the country 46 states[1], including the District of Columbia, have closed schools. Beginning on March 16th, District of Columbia Public Schools (DCPS) closed to slow the spread of COVID-19 and will remain closed through at least April 24th, following the Mayor’s declaration of a public health emergency. Public charter schools in…
On March 26, 2020, the D.C. Policy Center’s article, COVID-19 pandemic and the District of Columbia: What to expect?, was cited by the DC Line: Thus far, the long-term budget impact has drawn minimal attention. The hue and cry has been for economic relief and public health protections. Echoing the view of…
The CARES Act (Coronavirus Aid, Relief and Economic Security Act) is the latest round of federal relief packages to address the COVID-19 pandemic. Following on the Families First Coronavirus Response Act, which provided sick leave and expanded FMLA for those affected by COVID-19, the CARES Act was passed by the Senate late…
On March 26, 2020, the D.C. Policy Center’s article, Food access in D.C is deeply connected to poverty and transportation, was cited by Eater DC: While Maketto’s efforts will be focused on Ward 6 residents, Bruner-Yang says the model could be applied to help out areas with more dire needs, too. Data…
On March 25, 2020, the D.C. Policy Center’s article, A timeline of the D.C. region’s COVID-19 pandemic, was cited by Urban Turf: DC proper’s A-grade reflects a 60% decrease in the average distance travelled by city residents. This data is as of March 21st, by which time the city was under a state of…
For two weeks, we have been watching our lives, our economy, and our government dramatically change with the actions we need to take to limit the spread of the COVID-19 pandemic. There is increasing consensus on the possibility of a deep global recession as the reduced economic activity in the service sector…
This article was originally published on March 24, 2019. It was last updated April 22, 2020. The outbreak of the new coronavirus disease 2019 (abbreviated COVID-19) has made tens of thousands of people worldwide (and counting) sick, with thousands dead and the crisis deepening daily. Officials have declared the disease a worldwide…
On March 20, 2020, the D.C. Policy Center’s Executive Director, Yesim Sayin Taylor, was quoted by the Washington Post: Officials and analysts said state and local governments should move quickly to provide small businesses with grants, loans and relaxed regulations to prevent layoffs. “The most important thing that government can do right…
At the D.C. Policy Center, we are working to gauge the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on the region’s businesses and nonprofits. To date, there is not a lot of up-to-date information about D.C.-area businesses and nonprofits that local policymakers can use to respond to the quickly changing economic consequences of this…
Everyday life in Washington D.C. metropolitan area and beyond is on hold, including for students, educators, and their families and caregivers. Many are sharing guidance on how we can best adjust to the new normal. Below are resources compiled by our Education Policy Initiative that may be useful. The D.C. Policy Center…
On March 12, 2020, D.C. Policy Center Executive Director Yesim Sayin Taylor was quoted by the Washington Business Journal: With organizers canceling a slew of conventions, sporting events and concerts, and workers increasingly urged to stay home, there’s no telling yet what sort of impact the pandemic will have on the District’s coffers. And…
The Washington metropolitan area is one of the top regions in the country for entrepreneurship, but within the metropolitan area, jurisdictions experience different outcomes. The decisions they make affect the flow of businesses, workers, and residents across their borders, and these forces are constantly shifting: The District has seen significant economic and…
On March 10, 2020, the D.C. Policy Center’s articles, Mapping segregation in D.C. and The rise and demise of racially restrictive covenants in Bloomingdale, were cited by the Equal Rights Center: DC’s geographic racial divide and corresponding disparities did not happen by chance but are the result of a long history of discrimination against…
On March 10, 2020, D.C. Policy Center Director of the Education Policy Initiative Chelsea Coffin testified before the Committee of the Whole and the Committee on Education on the Critical Risk Rate School Funding Designation Act of 2019. Download this testimony.
On March 9, 2020, the D.C. Policy Center’s report, 2018-19 State of D.C. Schools was cited in the Washington Post: School quality is on the rise in the District. The recent D.C. Policy Center report on the State of D.C. Schools makes plain that our traditional public and public charter schools alike have outpaced other cities…
The D.C. Policy Center’s State of D.C. Schools, 2018-19 report highlighted where D.C.’s traditional public and public charter schools have made progress as well as where targeted improvements are still necessary. Learning outcomes can be examined in the same way – student achievement on D.C.’s state assessment is on the rise, but large…
On March 4, 2020, the D.C. Policy Center’s article, Appraising the District’s rentals, was cited by City Observatory: Too often, our debates about housing policy are shaped by inaccurate pictures of how the housing market really works. A new report from the D.C. Policy Center provides a remarkably clear and detailed picture of the…
On March 3, 2020, the D.C. Policy Center’s article, Single-family zoning and neighborhood characteristics in the District of Columbia, was cited by WAMU: In the D.C. region, vast swaths of residential areas are zoned exclusively for single-family homes, the most space-intensive and costly form of housing. For example, almost 90% of residential land in…
In D.C., a large share of children and youth up to age 17 are likely to be exposed to traumatic events: 21.3 percent have been exposed to an adverse childhood experience, including an estimated 9 percent who have been a victim or witness to neighborhood violence. Community violence often happens without warning, which can cause feelings of sudden, horrifying shock and loss of control and safety. It involves intentional acts to harm others, which can lead to feelings of extreme mistrust of others and powerlessness.
On February 28, 2020, the D.C. Policy Center’s article, The economic costs of land use regulations, was cited by Urban Turf: Other reportage (and some Democratic presidential candidates) have also suggested that dismantling some regulations could create housing price relief by adding to supply. DC Mayor Muriel Bowser has tied current efforts to amend the Comprehensive Plan to ambitious housing…
On February 27, 2020, the D.C. Policy Center’s article, Where the Washington region achieves walkable density, was cited by the GW Hatchet: GW sits in an area of the city with some of the best roadways to walk to and from nearby amenities, a study from the D.C. Policy Center released last…
On February 26, 2020, D.C. Policy Center Director of the Education Policy Initiative Chelsea Coffin testified before the D.C. State Board of Education at a public meeting. You can read her testimony below, and download it as a PDF. Good evening, members of the State Board of Education. My name is Chelsea…
On February 26, 2020, the D.C. Policy Center’s report, 2018-19 State of D.C. Schools, was cited in The 74 Million: The District’s public education system is now a national model, and a recent report outlines how far the city’s schools have come. The “State of D.C. Schools,” released by the D.C. Policy…
On February 24, 2020, the D.C. Policy Center’s article, What is the impact of fare evasion in D.C.?, was cited by Greater Greater Washington: Metro officials say fare evasion is a big problem, and have pushed back hard against a recent DC move to decriminalize fare evasion. But a new study from the DC…
On February 24, 2020, the D.C. Policy Center’s report, 2018-2019 State of D.C. Schools, was cited by The Uptake: Specifically, in Washington, D.C this divide has presented itself in males of color. In 2015 Black and Hispanic boys made up 43% of the student enrollment, yet their test scores and graduation rates…
The Washington region today seems unimaginable without Metro, but the system we have today was hardly inevitable. Initial proposals for a subway system date back to the FDR administration, when the federal government’s expansion during the New Deal and World War II led to an increase in the District’s population. It still…
On February 21, 2020, the D.C. Policy Center was quoted in an opinion piece published by the Washington Business Journal: Collectively, these initiatives have the potential to create a perfect storm of good individual intentions that have the opposite effect — a halt to housing development. In fact, the warning signs are…
On February 21, 2020, the D.C. Policy Center’s article, The history and evolution of Anacostia’s Barry Farm, was cited in an op-ed in the Washington Post: In 1941, D.C.’s nascent housing authority used eminent domain to force 23 remaining land owners from their homes for the construction of Barry Farm Dwellings; as is commonly…
On February 21, 2020, the D.C. Policy Center’s articles, Where the Washington region achieves walkable density and Roughly 36 percent of D.C.’s rental housing units are rent-stabilized, were featured by City Observatory: 4. Mapping Walkable Density. DW Rowlands has mapped walkable density in 17 of the nation’s largest metropolitan areas. Her maps compare…
On February 21, 2020, the D.C. Policy Center’s article, What is the impact of fare evasion in D.C.?, was cited by Washington City Paper: The Washington Metropolitan Area Transit Authority has suggested that more people are piggy-backing or tailgating since the D.C. Council decriminalized fare evasion in July 2019. (It should be noted that…
WMATA has estimated a consistent fare evasion rate of 5 percent on Metrorail based on peer systems and industry averages. Its estimates of fare evasion on Metrobuses, as reported by operators’ farebox reports, has risen sharply over the past four years. However, it is unclear if the increase in fare evasion reports on Metrobus reflects a rising number of unpaid trips, or is related to increasing implementation of fare evasion measurement methods or other issues.
On February 19, 2020, D.C. Policy Center Policy Director Kathryn Zickuhr was quoted by WAMU: Not all app-based gigging opportunities are created equal, either. In a study that looked at the activity millions of Chase checking accounts from 2012 to 2018, the web-platform economy showed growth overall. Yet earnings for jobs in transportation (like…
On February 19, 2020, D.C. Policy Center Fellow D.W. Rowlands’ article, Where the Washington region achieves walkable density, was crossposted at Greater Greater Washington. Read more: These maps show where the Washington region achieves walkable density | Greater Greater Washington
Population density can say a lot about an urban environment, and it’s often used as a signal of how walkable a place is. But common density measures don’t truly capture how easy it is to walk from one location to another. Transit planners often approximate “walking distance” as half a mile. If…
In the two years since a graduation controversy at Ballou High School exposed a serious student absenteeism problem across the city, D.C.’s traditional public schools and many of its public charter schools have deployed numerous interventions to improve attendance. Extensive evidence suggests that absenteeism undermines learning, beginning in very early grades. National…
On February 4, 2020, the D.C. Policy Center’s report, Taking Stock of the District’s Housing Stock, was cited by WAMU: But while the revenue bump is good news for D.C.’s coffers, the influx of high earners is making it harder for lower-earning families to find homes, according to the D.C. Policy Center….
On February 3, 2020, the D.C. Policy Center’s article, The history and evolution of Anacostia’s Barry Farm, was cited by WPGC: Barry Farm Dwellings has existed since the 1940s, and the neighborhood includes the rich history as a home to African Americans after the Civil War, and a place that helped birth go-go. Read more: Barry Farm Is…
On January 31, 2020, the D.C. Policy Center’s report, 2018-19 State of D.C. Schools, was highlighted in an op-ed in The DC Line: Mayor Bowser’s administration has made historic investments in our education system designed to better serve students across the city. A recent report from the D.C. Policy Center suggests that those investments…
On January 31, 2020, the D.C. Policy Center’s report, 2018-19 State of D.C. Schools, was highlighted in an op-ed in the Washington Post: Our once-struggling public schools now are beacons of innovation and improvement for the nation. A new report by the D.C. Policy Center shows how far we have come. As…
Good morning, Chairman Allen and members of the Committee on the Judiciary & Public Safety. My name is Yesim Sayin Taylor and I am the Executive Director of the D.C. Policy Center, an independent, non-partisan think tank committed to advancing policies for a strong and vibrant economy in the District of Columbia….
On January 28, 2020, D.C. Policy Center Executive Director Dr. Yesim Sayin Taylor was quoted by the Washington Business Journal: Local real estate attorneys previously dubbed such a change “an administrative nightmare,” and it drew opposition from the D.C. Building Industry Association. Developers frequently rely on LLCs in acquiring and managing properties. Some worried…
On January 21, 2020, the D.C. Policy Center Education Policy Initiative Director, Chelsea Coffin, was quoted by Education Week: “I think [the expansion of pre-K] got a lot of momentum for families to stay,” said Chelsea Coffin, the director of the education policy initiative at the D.C. Policy Center, a nonpartisan think…
On January 21, 2020, the Director of the D.C. Policy Center Education Policy Initiative, Chelsea Coffin, was quoted by Education Week: “I think [the expansion of pre-K] got a lot of momentum for families to stay,” said Chelsea Coffin, the director of the education policy initiative at the D.C. Policy Center, a…
On January 17, 2020, the D.C. Policy Center’s report, 2018-19 State of D.C. Schools, was cited by Education Dive: A report on Washington D.C. public schools by the D.C. Policy Center finds enrollment has increased steadily since 2010, after decades of decline. Between school years 2014-2015 and 2018-2019, enrollment for pre-K through 12th grade…
On January 17, 2020, the D.C. Policy Center’s article, Predominately black neighborhoods in D.C. bear the brunt of automated traffic enforcement, was cited by The Philadelphia Citizen: My analysis of moving violation citations and crash data suggests that the racial geography of D.C. does play into the enforcement of traffic violations,” wrote…
On January 17, 2020, the D.C. Policy Center’s report, 2018-19 State of D.C. Schools, was cited by Politico: More parents choose D.C.’s public schools over other alternatives, though achievement gaps persist for students of color, according to a new analysis from the D.C. Policy Center. Read more: Morning Education | Politico Related:…
On January 16, 2020, the D.C. Policy Center’s report, Taking Stock of the District’s Housing Stock, was cited by Greater Greater Washington: Multifamily affordable housing units are more difficult to find, as only 31% of the available housing units in the District were “potentially” affordable to families of four, according to a 2018 report…
On January 16, 2020, the D.C. Policy Center’s report, 2018-19 State of D.C. Schools, was cited by WAMU: Enrollment is growing in D.C. public schools and students are scoring higher on standardized tests, but the city school system remains deeply segregated and achievement gaps between student groups persist, according to a report…
ABOUT THIS REPORT This State of D.C. Schools report is a systemwide overview of education in D.C. meant to help local residents, and especially parents of current and future D.C. public school children, better understand where D.C.’s traditional public and public charter schools have made progress. The report also addresses where targeted…
On January 14, 2020, the D.C. Policy Center’s article, How the region’s racial and ethnic demographics have changed since 1970, was cited by DCist: A new analysis published by the D.C. Policy Center visualizes just how the broader area’s demographics have changed over the past half-century or so. “In 1970, almost everyone lived in…
On January 14, 2020, the D.C. Policy Center’s article, How the region’s racial and ethnic demographics have changed since 1970, was cited by 730 DC: The gentrification #DontMuteDC fights is connected with the diversification of DC’s suburbs, a long process visualized and historicized by DC Policy Center. Read more: We’re #1 | 730 DC Related:…
Previously: How the D.C. area’s population density has changed since 1970; How household incomes in the D.C. area have changed since 1980; How the region’s racial and ethnic demographics have changed since 1970 In November, I found that the spatial distribution of wealth in the D.C. area has remained relatively constant over…
On January 13, 2020, D.C. Policy Center Fellow D.W. Rowlands’ article, How the region’s racial and ethnic demographics have changed since 1970, was crossposted at Greater Greater Washington. Read more: These maps show how racial demographics have changed in the region since 1970 | Greater Greater Washington
Previously: How the D.C. area’s population density has changed since 1970; How household incomes in the D.C. area have changed since 1980 Today, the Washington region is known for having very diverse suburbs, including Prince George’s County, the largest suburban county with a majority of Black residents in the country. However, 50…
On January 6, 2020, the D.C. Policy Center’s article, Physical activity and gym access by neighborhood in D.C., was cited by WAMU: Physical activity levels tend to vary widely throughout the city, with the lowest rates in Wards 7 and 8. In those two wards — which also have the most residents living below…
On January 6, 2020, D.C. Policy Center Executive Director Yesim Sayin Taylor was quoted by Bacon’s Rebellion: Thus, Northern Virginia has experienced an influx of corporate headquarters with no connection whatsoever to defense, intelligence or IT — Hilton Hotels, Volkswagen USA, and Nestle USA. Meanwhile, Maryland lost Discovery and had to fight…
On January 4, 2020, D.C. Policy Center Executive Director Yesim Sayin Taylor was quoted by the Washington Post: “When large headquarters move to the metropolitan area, they almost never consider Maryland and D.C.,” said Yesim Sayin Taylor, executive director of the D.C. Policy Center. “They invariably locate in Northern Virginia, and that’s…
On December 27, 2019, the D.C. Policy Center’s article, The best way to build a Purple Line link between Bethesda and Tysons, was cross-posted by Greater Greater Washington. Read more: Here’s the best way to build a Purple Line link between Bethesda and Tysons | Greater Greater Washington Related: The best way…
D.C.’s Planned Unit Development (PUD) process allows developers to gain additional height and density for a project (beyond what they could build matter of right) in exchange for delivering additional public benefits back to the community. The specific level and types of benefits are driven by a conversation with the community, generally…
On December 18, 2019, the D.C. Policy Center’s article, Physical activity and gym access by neighborhood in D.C., was cited by DCist: The divide between the District’s most active and least active neighborhoods is stark, as illustrated by data from the 500 Cities Project and analyzed by the D.C. Policy Center in 2017. The…
On December 10, 2019, the D.C. Policy Center’s article, Single-family zoning and neighborhood characteristics in the District of Columbia, was cited by DCist: Bowser has not proposed banning single-family zoning, which takes up three-quarters of all tax lots in the city, according to the D.C. Policy Center. “It would not be popular” in…
Over 35 years after the enactment of the Rental Housing Act of 1985, the number of rent-stabilized units in D.C. has held up relatively well. According to D.C. Policy Center estimates based on publicly available tax data and proprietary data from CoStar, D.C. currently has close to 75,000 rent-stabilized housing units spread…
On November 25, 2019, the D.C. Policy Center’s report, Access to schools that level the playing field for D.C.’s at-risk students, was cited by Greater Greater Washington: On July 9, 2019 At-Large Councilmember David Grosso introduced the Safe Passage to School Expansion Act, which would create an Office of Safe Passage and provide shuttle buses…
On November 22, 2019, D.C. Policy Center Director of the Education Policy Initiative Chelsea Coffin testified before the Committee of the Whole and the Committee on Education. Download this testimony. Read the underlying D.C. Policy Center article, “Access to schools that level the playing field for D.C.’s at-risk students”
Land is among the most valuable assets in the United States, and its value is a function of how we use land and what we build on it. According to one study, the value of all land in the lower 48 states is estimated at about 1.4 times the nation’s Gross Domestic…
On November 15, 2019, the D.C. Policy Center’s article, The impact of occupational licensing requirements in D.C., was cited by The DC Line’s District Links newsletter: REPORT – ‘The impact of occupational licensing requirements in D.C.’ D.C. Policy Center’s Yesim Sayin Taylor: “The District of Columbia has many factors in its favor making it…
On November 13, 2019, D.C. Policy Center Executive Director Yesim Sayin Taylor testified on B23-433: the “Rental Housing Act Extension Amendment Act of 2019” before the D.C. Council Committee on Housing & Neighborhood Revitalization. Download this testimony.
On November 13, 2019, Fellow D.W. Rowlands’ article on the region’s changing incomes was cross-posted on Greater Greater Washington. Read more: These maps show how incomes have changed in the region since 1980 | Greater Greater Washington
Although the spatial distribution of wealth in the D.C. area has remained relatively constant over the past 40 years, with the richest neighborhoods stretching to the northwest on both banks of the Potomac and the poorest neighborhoods inside the Beltway east of 16th Street NW, the number of very rich and very…
On November 12, 2019, the D.C. Policy Center’s article, D.C. is behind the rest of metropolitan area in business ownership rates for women, was cited in the Tysons Reporter links roundup, Tuesday Morning Notes: Women-Owned Businesses Booming in Falls Church — “Across the Washington metropolitan area, the highest rates of business ownership for…
The District of Columbia has many factors in its favor making it attractive to workers: high average wages, a variety of employer benefits, strong worker protections, and relatively short commute times. At the same time, the concentration of D.C.’s employment opportunities in high-skill, high-paying jobs means that there are few opportunities for…
On November 8, 2019, the D.C. Policy Center’s 2019 State of Business Report was cited by the Washington Blade: While the D.C. economy is stable and remains a strong employment center in the region, the city is struggling to retain the small and moderate size businesses generated during recent boom years. In…
On November 8, 2019, the D.C. Policy Center’s article, Growing labor demand in D.C. is driving up wages, was cited by Curbed DC: If you’re thinking about moving to D.C., think hard. Employment opportunities abound, but living costs are high. The weather can get brutally hot in the summer (don’t even get us started on…
On November 7, 2019, D.C. Policy Center executive director Yesim Sayin Taylor was interviewed on The Barras Report: See more: The Barras Report: DC Policy Center
On November 7, 2019, D.C. Policy Center executive director Yesim Sayin Taylor’s testimony to the D.C. Council was cited by WAMU: At one point during the hearing, economist Yesim Sayin Taylor contended that McDuffie and Allen’s bills would amount to little more than bandage solutions if larger changes aren’t made to the city’s business…
On November 6, 2019, D.C. Policy Center Executive Director Yesim Sayin Taylor testified on B23-404, B23-439, B23-438, and B23-432: the “Small and Local Business Assistance Amendment Act of 2019” (and related bills) before the D.C. Council Committee on Business & Economic Development. Download this testimony. Read the underlying D.C. Policy Center publication, 2019…
2018 was a record setting year for hate crimes in the District of Columbia, and the number reported continues to rise this year: 108 hate crimes were reported to the Metropolitan Police Department (MPD) during the first half of 2019, 30 percent more than the same period for last year.[1] About half…
On November 4, 2019, the D.C. Policy Center’s article, D.C. is hard to count. Here’s where officials could target efforts for the 2020 Census., was cited in The DC Line’s District Links newsletter: REPORT – ‘D.C. is hard to count. Here’s where officials could target efforts for the 2020 Census.’ D.C. Policy Center’s Mike…
There’s a lot riding on the 2020 Census. The federal government uses census data to allocate more than $6 billion in annual funding to the District of Columbia for Medicaid, schools, food assistance and dozens of other programs. Across the Washington metropolitan area, the same population totals and decennial count results further…
On October 29, 2019, fellow Sarah Shoenfeld’s article, The history and evolution of Anacostia’s Barry Farm was linked by the Washington Business Journal: For the activists pressing for the historic designation, a vote in their favor would represent a major victory in forcing the developers to better honor the property’s history — in 1867,…
On October 31, 2019, fellow Sarah Shoenfeld’s article, The history and evolution of Anacostia’s Barry Farm was linked by the Washington Business Journal: However, a majority of the nine-member board did signal that they’d be willing to approve that request, if the developers can’t rearrange their plans to better honor the property’s…
Today the D.C. Policy Center is launching the Wilkes Fellowship and the Wilkes Scholars program, which will support original research to be conducted by a current or recent graduate student in an area of current interest and importance to the Policy Center. Established by a generous gift from The Wilkes Company, the…
On October 31, 2019, the D.C. Policy Center executive director Yesim Sayin Taylor was quoted by Washington Business Journal: D.C. collects anywhere from $40 million to $65 million per year for its “ballpark fund” to afford those payments, budget documents show. Taxes on Nats tickets and concessions generate anywhere from $15 million…
About the Wilkes Fellowship The D.C. Policy Center is launching the Wilkes Fellowship program, which will support original research to be conducted by a current or recent graduate student in an area of current interest and importance to the Policy Center. Supported by a generous gift from The Wilkes Company, the Wilkes…
On October 31, 2019, the D.C. Policy Center’s report, Taking Stock of the District’s Housing Stock, was cited by Greater Greater Washington: Other worthwhile additions include: A strong acknowledgement that new construction has favored one-bedroom units over multifamily units (though it’s necessary to build more smaller units as well to free up family-sized…
October is National Women’s Small Business Month. Only 8 percent of business establishments in the District of Columbia with five or more employees are owned by women, as we wrote in the 2019 State of Business report. D.C. has lower shares of businesses owned by women than almost any other jurisdiction in…
On October 29, 2019, Executive Director Yesim Sayin Taylor’s article, Land Value Tax: Can it work in the District? was cited in a link roundup on The Hill is Home: An interesting blog post from the DC Policy Center on Land Value Tax and what difference it could make. Read more: Hill Buzz | The Hill…
On October 28, 2019, the D.C. Policy Center’s article, Made in D.C.: Which areas have the highest share of D.C.-born residents, was cited by the Washington Post: To be fair, recent census data shows that the majority of current D.C. residents are, indeed, transplants. Only about 28 percent of adults living in D.C….
This post originally appeared on the Urban Institute’s Greater DC blog. D.C.’s school choice policies allow families to send their children to schools outside their neighborhood boundaries, and more than three-quarters of D.C. students attend a school that isn’t their in-boundary or neighborhood school. Some of those students go to school…
On October 22, 2019, D.C. Policy Center executive Director Yesim Sayin Taylor was quoted by the Washington Business Journal: “Lots of people are saying ‘where’s the money to build it?’ But that’s far less important … because the resources are in the land,” said Yesim Taylor, executive director of business-backed think tank…
On October 22, 2019, the D.C. Policy Center’s article, Land Value Tax: Can it Work in the District?, was featured by Urban Turf’s links roundup: A DC land value tax would accelerate density where it exists, not where it doesn’t. — (Y.S. Taylor/DCPC) Read more: Tuesday’s Must Reads | UrbanTurf Related: Land Value Tax:…
How did we use the zoning standards to determine where zoning is restrictive or permissive? D.C.’s zoning standards are complicated. Each zone under the standards allow for multiple types of buildings. Some of the distinctions in building type have to do with use (is it a church or a house?), some with…
The idea of imposing a “land value tax” in the District pops up from time to time. Rick Rybeck at Just Economics has been promoting land value taxes for as far as I could remember. Both the 2013 Tax Revision Commission (here) and the 1997 Tax Revision Commission (here) gave consideration to…
The recent D.C. Policy Center report, Access to schools that level the playing field for D.C.’s at-risk students, examined where in the city at-risk students have the shortest commutes to “leveler schools”—schools with the very highest growth for at-risk students.[1] About a third of the population under 18 lives within a typical…
On October 15, 2019, the D.C. Policy Center’s report, State of Business 2019: Building a Competitive City, was cited by the Washington Business Journal: In D.C., the tax burden on businesses has long been a subject of consternation, playing a role in driving businesses to flee to the Northern Virginia suburbs in…
On October 10, 2019, Executive Director Yesim Sayin Taylor discussed community land trusts as a guest on the Kojo Nnamdi Show: The cost of living in Washington, D.C. is on the rise and longtime residents are getting priced out of their homes and neighborhoods. The Douglass Community Land Trust recently made its first property…
On October 4, 2019 the D.C. Policy Center-produced report, 2019 State of Business: Building a Competitive City, was cited by The DC Line’s District Links roundup: NEW – The DC Chamber of Commerce’s 2019 State of Business Report is out, produced by the D.C. Policy Center. The full 56-page report focuses on how the District…
On October 4, 2019, the 2019 State of Business Report written by the D.C. Policy Center was featured by the Washington Business Journal: According to a report prepared for the event by the business-backed D.C. Policy Center, the District added more than 5,000 new companies between 2010 and 2018, a 15% increase. But…
This article is adapted from the 2019 State of the Business Report, “Building a Competitive City: Strengths, weaknesses, and potential paths of growth for the District of Columbia,” prepared by the D.C. Policy Center for the DC Chamber of Commerce. INTRODUCTION: INTRA-REGIONAL DYNAMICS IN THE WASHINGTON METROPOLITAN AREA The Washington-Arlington-Alexandria,…
ABSTRACT The Washington metropolitan area is one of the top regions in the country for economic innovation, entrepreneurship, and high-growth firms. Within the metropolitan area, however, jurisdictions experience different economic outcomes because of the decisions they make that affect the flow of businesses, workers, and residents across their borders. These forces are…
On October 3, 2019, Executive Director Yesim Sayin Taylor was featured as a member of the 2019 class of Women Who Mean Business by Washington Business Journal: Back in her days working for the D.C. government, Yesim Sayin Taylor remembers thinking that the business community all too often came forward with the same repetitive…
On October 2, 2019, the the D.C. Policy Center’s report, Access to schools that level the playing field for D.C.’s at-risk students, was cited by USA Today: A new report on school access by the D.C. Policy Center shows hundreds of students can’t physically get to the school that would best suit…
On October 2, 2019, two D.C. Policy Center articles were cited by the Brookings Institution: The demolition of a public housing complex in the nation’s capital has sparked a fight over something more than displacement and gentrification: It has come to represent a larger struggle over the preservation of Black history, culture,…
On October 2, 2019, Education Policy Initiative Director Chelsea Coffin discussed the D.C. Policy Center report Access to schools that level the playing field for D.C.’s at-risk students, as a guest on the Kojo Nnamdi Show: About half of students in D.C. charter and traditional public schools are labeled “at-risk,” meaning they…
On October 1, 2019, coverage of the D.C. Policy Center’s report, Access to schools that level the playing field for D.C.’s at-risk students, was featured in Greater Greater Washington’s Breakfast Links roundup: Many at-risk DC students live far from help: Many DC neighborhoods with the highest concentration of at-risk students are without easy…
On September 30, 2019, the D.C. Policy Center’s report, Access to schools that level the playing field for D.C.’s at-risk students, was cited by Washington City Paper: New study explores how hard it is to travel to schools that help close the achievement gap for at-risk students. [D.C. Policy Center] Read more:…
On September 30, 2019, the D.C. Policy Center’s article, Access to schools that level the playing field for D.C.’s at-risk students, was covered by WUSA 9: Now, a new report by the D.C. Policy Center on school access shows hundreds of students can’t even get to the school that would best suit…
On September 30, 2019, the D.C. Policy Center’s report, Access to schools that level the playing field for D.C.’s at-risk students, was covered by DCist: Several public elementary and middle schools in D.C. have a strong track record of helping students classified as at-risk improve their learning outcomes—but many neighborhoods with the…
Test scores have improved for D.C. students in recent years, even taking into account demographic shifts in the city’s public school students.[1] However, achievement gaps persist by race and ethnicity, special education and English learner needs, and at-risk status. Access to high-quality schools—schools with strong academic outcomes and the student support systems…
Since the mid-2000s, the District of Columbia has experienced a population boom accompanied by rising housing values—and, in recent years, more students in public schools. In most cities with similar population growth, housing prices rise in tandem with the number of school-age children in neighborhoods with schools that are perceived as high-quality….
On September 18, 2019, the D.C. Policy Center Executive Director Yesim Sayin Taylor was quoted by the Washington Business Journal: Yesim Taylor, the executive director of the business-backed D.C. Policy Center, is similarly bullish on the legislation’s potential to help companies “facing ever-thinning margins and steep competition from electronic commerce.” But she…
On September 18, 2019, the D.C. Policy Center’s article, Twenty years after the Revitalization Act, the District of Columbia is a different city, was cited by DCist: But there is one other element of the court system that does have a connection to statehood: D.C. is the only jurisdiction where a U.S….
On September 18, 2019, the D.C. Policy Center’s report, Landscape of Diversity in D.C. Public Schools, was cited by Tulsa World: Columnist Ginnie Graham’s piece used a report issued by the National Women’s Law Center that analyzed dress codes and violations among 21 Washington, D.C. public schools and charter schools. A D.C. Policy Center report in…
On September 6, 2019, the D.C. Policy Center’s article, The history and evolution of Anacostia’s Barry Farm, was cited by Urban Turf: The Historic Preservation Review Board is expected to rule later this month on whether to grant landmark status to the remaining units at Barry Farm. Earlier this week, development partner…
On September 6, 2019 the D.C. Policy Center’s article, Building the ecosystem for Black women entrepreneurs in D.C., was cited by The DC Line’s District Links roundup: “Just 18 percent of all business establishments in D.C. are reported to be owned solely by women, and only 27 percent are owned by people…
On September 5, 2019, D.C. Policy Center Education Policy Initiative Director Chelsea Coffin was interviewed by Newsy: “I see it the most in housing developments that are ongoing in the pipeline. We really are seeing a lot more one- and two-bedroom units being built and not as much family housing.” Coffin said….
Black women across the U.S. are starting businesses at six times the national average. According to a 2018 report commissioned by American Express, there are 2.4 million businesses owned by Black women nationally, and Black women actually have higher shares of business ownership than Black men.[1] Yet at the same time, Black…
On September 4, 2019 the D.C. Policy Center’s article, D.C.’s disconnect between citywide enrollment growth and neighborhood change, was covered by Greater Greater Washington: A new report from the DC Policy Center shows that school-aged populations and school enrollment in the District’s neighborhoods are “decoupling.” While demand for high-quality schools has historically driven…
On August 29, 2019, the D.C. Policy Center’s article, Made in D.C.: Which areas have the highest share of D.C.-born residents, was cited by Streetsense: In the 1950s, the Southwest part of D.C. underwent huge gentrification that forced 23,000 people to be relocated into public housing east of the Anacostia River, said…
On August 29, 2019, the D.C. Policy Center’s article, Income inequality and economic mobility in D.C., was cited by the Guardian: Muthiah’s organization serves roughly 400,000 individuals in the DC region, about a third of whom are children, and she said her group has witnessed the effects of growing inequity in the…
On August 28, 2019, the D.C. Policy Center’s Chelsea Coffin authored a commentary published by The DC Line: The 2019-20 school year will mark the 12th enrollment increase in a row for DC’s traditional public and public charter schools. This year, the city’s schools are expected to add 2,800 students to classes…
The D.C. Policy Center report “D.C.’s disconnect between citywide enrollment growth and neighborhood change” examines changes in enrollment, school-age population, and housing values, finding that although these three are growing in parallel for the city, they are not linked neighborhood by neighborhood. Download the report as a PDF here. The District of…
On August 21, 2019, the D.C. Policy Center’s article, Discriminatory housing practices in the District: A brief history, was cited by DCist: She asked a friend to call the company back with a Capitol Hill zip code instead. When the customer service representative approved the request for service, Morgan decided to alert…
On August 17, 2019, the D.C. Policy Center’s article, Transportation is more than traffic: Measuring the impact of development on walkability, was cited by Planetizen: “In June, the D.C. Department of Transportation published new guidelines for reviewing the transportation impacts of major real estate developments,” according to an article by D. Taylor Reich. “These new guidelines…
On August 15, 2019, the D.C. Policy Center’s article, Transportation is more than traffic: Measuring the impact of development on walkability, was cited by Streetsblog CAL’s links roundup: Transportation is more than traffic: Measuring walkability (D.C. Policy Center) Read more: Today’s Headlines | Streetsblog CAL Related: Transportation is more than traffic: Measuring…
On August 15, 2019, a version of the D.C. Policy Center’s article, Transportation is more than traffic: Measuring the impact of development on walkability, was crossposted at Greater Greater Washington. Read more: These new development rules are made for walking | Greater Greater Washington Related: Transportation is more than traffic: Measuring the impact…
D.C. has expanded the way it evaluates developments’ impact on walkability. What does that mean, why does it matter, and how could the evaluation be even more nuanced? Major real estate developments change the walkability of a neighborhood. Not only do new developments create new destinations that people walk to, they…
On August 13, 2019, the D.C. Policy Center’s article, How the D.C. area’s population density has changed since 1970, was cited by Curbed DC: The population density of the D.C. region has gone up but also spread farther out during the past half-century, according to a recent analysis of U.S. Census Bureau data by…
On August 13 2019, a map from the D.C. Policy Center’s article, The history of Deanwood’s local foodscape, was cited by Greater Greater Washington: Map reprinted from DC Policy Center: “Grocery stores operating in Deanwood between 1925 and 1960. This map was created based on stores that were reported in the Overbeck oral history interviews…
On August 12, 2019, Executive Director Yesim Sayin Taylor’s visualization of housing types and density in Ward 3 vs Ward 6 was cited in a link roundup on UrbanTurf. Read more: Monday’s Must Reads | UrbanTurf Related: D.C. single family neighborhood density: Ward 3 versus Ward 6 | D.C. Policy Center
On August 9, 2019, the D.C. Policy Center’s article, A decade of demographic change in D.C.: Which neighborhoods have changed the most?, was cited in the Washington Post: Yet Washington is also the most rapidly gentrifying metropolitan area in the United States. Since 2000, 22 percent of D.C. census tracts have seen a large…
On August 8, 2019, the D.C. Policy Center’s article, D.C. single family neighborhood density: Ward 3 versus Ward 6, was crossposted by Greater Greater Washington. Read more: See the difference density makes in these two parts of the District | Greater Greater Washington Related: D.C. single family neighborhood density: Ward 3 versus Ward 6…
On August 8 2019, the D.C. Policy Center’s article, Goodbye to Chocolate City, was cited by a Center for American Progress report, Systemic Inequality: Displacement, Exclusion, and Segregation: Nowhere are the effects of gentrification more noticeable than the nation’s capital, Washington, D.C. Between 1970 and 2015, Black residents declined from 71 percent of…
On August 1, 2019, the D.C. Policy Center’s article, Single-family zoning and neighborhood characteristics in the District of Columbia, was cited in Greater Greater Washington: Conveniently, where the framework element says you should build, and where it says you should conserve character, roughly tracks with where in the city you are legally…
On July 26, 2019, Fellow D.W. Rowlands’ article on the region’s changing population density was cross-posted on Greater Greater Washington. Read more: These beautiful maps show how the region’s population density changed since 1970 | Greater Greater Washington
On July 30 2019, Executive Director Yesim Sayin Taylor’s visualization of housing types and density in Ward 3 vs Ward 6 was cited in a link roundup on The Hill is Home. Read more: Hill Buzz | The Hill is Home Related: D.C. single family neighborhood density: Ward 3 versus Ward 6 | D.C….
On July 30, 2019, the D.C. Policy Center was cited in Streetsense: The D.C. Policy Center says that Naloxone is safe and easy to use. In fact, it is being used in other states to help reduce the opioid-related fatalities. Every day, over 130 Americans are dying due to a drug overdose….
On July 30, 2019, the D.C. Policy Center’s article, Goodbye to Chocolate City, was cited by EATER: Over countless happy hours, brunches, and love affairs with men who almost always attended Howard University, I became something of an adult in the five years I spent living in what was then lovingly known…
Ward 3 and Ward 6 both include some of the most highly-valued residential neighborhoods in the District. Both are predominately composed of single-family homes, as shown in the maps above, yet the look and feel of each ward is strikingly different. Most of Ward 3 (shown in blue in the chart below)…
On July 26, 2019, the D.C. Policy Center’s article, Implementing the NEAR Act to reduce violence in D.C., was cited by Washington City Paper: Invest in a community-based approach—namely the Neighborhood Engagement Achieves Results (NEAR) Act. Rachel Usdan of Moms Demand Action’s D.C. chapter and April Goggans, the core organizer for Black Lives Matter DC, independently…
Historical distributions of population in the D.C. metro area D.C.’s population growth has slowed since the 2009 boom ten years ago, but the population still continues to climb. In December, the U.S. Census Bureau announced that D.C.’s population reached 702,455, officially passing the 700,000 mark. As District Measured has noted, D.C.’s…
On July 23, 2019, the D.C. Policy Center’s article, The Great Sort: Part III, was cited by City Observatory: The exit of upwardly mobile black households from majority black neighborhoods has increased economic polarization according to David Rusk of the D.C. Policy Center. Similarly, the relatively low prices of homes in majority black…
On July 18, 2019, the D.C. Policy Center’s article, Single-family zoning and neighborhood characteristics in the District of Columbia, was cited by Washington City Paper: To increase housing supply in D.C., rethink single-family zoning. [D.C. Policy Center] Read more: District Line Daily: House is not a Home | Washington City Paper Related:…
On July 18, 2019, the D.C. Policy Center’s article, Single-family zoning and neighborhood characteristics in the District of Columbia, was cited by Washington City Paper: To increase housing supply in D.C., rethink single-family zoning. [D.C. Policy Center] Read more: District Line Daily: House is not a Home | Washington City Paper Related:…
On July 17, 2019, the D.C. Policy Center’s article, Single-family zoning and neighborhood characteristics in the District of Columbia, was cited by Curbed DC: As the District advances changes to its long-term framework for development, a new report by a local think tank is calling for changes to the city’s zoning rules that would make way…
Last December, Minneapolis did away with single-family zoning, permitting three-family homes in each lot, abolishing parking minimums, and allowing high-density buildings along transit corridors. In March, Seattle upzoned many of its neighborhoods, including eliminating single-family zoning in some areas. Then came Oregon, which, in late June, passed legislation to eliminate single-family zoning…
On July 10, 2019, the D.C. Policy Center’s article, Implementing the NEAR Act to reduce violence in D.C., was cited by DCist: After a Supreme Court decision last year overturned a federal law that largely banned sports betting, states across the country lined up to set up their own legal programs and…
On July 9, 2019, the D.C. Policy Center was cited by WUSA 9: Southeast D.C. has more people renting homes or apartments than any other quadrant, according the think tank D.C. Policy Center. The region was also hit hard during torrential flooding on Monday — but what happens if you’re a renter…
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In 1867, the federal government purchased a 375-acre site in Anacostia, later known as Hillsdale, and as Barry’s or Barry Farm (more recently as Barry Farms) for the settlement of African Americans after the Civil War. The isolated community was self-contained by design, requiring residents not only to demand the installation of…
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE CONTACT: Aimee Custis Director of External Relations aimee@dcpolicycenter.org (202) 223-2233 ext. 306 July 8, 2019 WASHINGTON, D.C. — The D.C. Policy Center announced today that it is embarking on a major research project on regional business patterns and overarching competitive dynamics in the Washington metropolitan area. The research, a…
Last week, we published an analysis of employment trends in the region based on administrative data firms file with the Unemployment Insurance program, known as the Quarterly Survey of Employment and Wages (QSEW). This analysis showed that in 2018, the District outperformed the surrounding jurisdictions in employment. On June 21, the Bureau of…
On June 25, 2019, the D.C. Policy Center’s article, Concentrated Poverty – The Critical Mass, was cited by Greater Greater Washington: The Washington, DC, metropolitan area is consistently ranked as one of the most well-off in the country. Some rankings have even found that half of the top 10 highest-income counties in the country surround the…
On June 20, 2019, the D.C. Policy Center’s article, Implementing the NEAR Act to reduce violence in D.C., was cited by WAMU: But passage was never a certainty. There’s a long history of attempts in D.C. to legalize gambling in one form or another, and they have largely been derailed by community…
Recent reports increasingly point to a slowdown in the Washington regional economy, slower hiring in the District, and stronger private sector employment in the city. A deeper dive into jurisdictional differences across the metropolitan Washington area show that the District’s role in the region as an employment center is indeed growing. When…
On June 18, 2019, Fellow Ethan Finlan’s article on Metro’s ridership crisis was cited by Curbed DC: Another reason Blue, Orange, and Silver line trains can be crowded: scheduled repair work. Four Blue Line stations in Virginia are currently shuttered for repairs through September 8. A 2018 report by the D.C. Policy Center, meanwhile, found…
On June 18, 2019, the D.C. Policy Center’s article, Predominately black neighborhoods in D.C. bear the brunt of automated traffic enforcement, was cited by Our Streets MPLS: Washington D.C. adopted Vision Zero in 2015. The City went into Vision Zero with black residents making up 70% of traffic related arrests, despite making…
On June 5, 2019, D.C. Policy Center Director of the Education Policy Initiative Chelsea Coffin testified on PR23-0193, The “Master Facilities Plan Approval Resolution of 2019” before the Committee of the Whole and the Committee on Education. Download this testimony. Read the underlying D.C. Policy Center essay “Enrollment still expected to increase…
On June 6, D.C Policy Center Executive Director Yesim Sayin Taylor was quoted in a Washington Business Journal article on the Bowser Administration’s newly announced health commission: “I’m not sure if this is the most efficient way for the District to move forward, trying to breathe life into hospitals that aren’t breathing…
The D.C. Council spent a significant amount of time discussing health access, especially access to hospitals, during budget deliberations this past month. We wondered: how does access to pharmacies—one of the simplest and most basic form of health care—vary across the city? Pharmacies are an important link between hospitals, doctors, and patients. Pharmacies can expand the reach of preventative services in communities with less access to…
On June 3, 2019, Curbed D.C.’s Andrew Giambrone covered the D.C. Policy Center analysis of pharmacy access: Obtaining medication and other healthcare products at traditional pharmacies appears to be more difficult east of the Anacostia River than west, according to a new report by local think tank D.C. Policy Center (DCPC). Citing…
On May 30, 2019, D.C. Policy Center Executive Director Yesim Sayin Taylor was quoted in a The DC Line commentary on the 2019 D.C. budget: “That was just a distraction, however. Legislators didn’t address the fundamental problems with Bowser’s 2020 budget proposal. They supported her decision to increase taxes in a budget document…
On May 29, 2019, D.C. Policy Center Executive Director Yesim Sayin Taylor was quoted in a DCist article on tax abatements for small D.C. businesses: “Both Sankofa and Players Lounge “mean something for the customers,” says Yesim Sayin Taylor, the executive director of the D.C. Policy Center. “I think that’s one of…
In May 2019, a D.C. Policy Center map of the types of housing stock in D.C. from the report Taking Stock of the District’s Housing Stock was published in ULI Washington’s Increasing Housing Supply and Attainability: Read more: Increasing Housing Supply and Attainability: Improving Rules & Engagement to Build More Housing | ULI…
On May 23, 2019, D.C. Policy Center’s report, Landscape of Diversity in D.C. Public Schools was cited in a commentary on The DC Line on school segregation: “As we mark the 65th anniversary of the Brown v. Board of Education decision that ruled racial school segregation unconstitutional, a new study from the Civil Rights Project at the…
On May 22, 2019, D.C. Policy Center Executive Director Yesim Sayin Taylor was quoted in a Washington Post article on affordable housing funding in the 2019 D.C. budget: “Yesim Sayin Taylor of the D.C. Policy Center, a centrist think tank, said rental vouchers can be looked at as an operating subsidy for…
On May 21, 2019, the D.C. Policy Center’s article, A decade of demographic change in D.C.: Which neighborhoods have changed the most?, was cited by American Renaissance: Unlike WMATA, Washington is getting whiter. The new arrivals are mostly urban professionals who overwhelmingly liberal (Hillary Clinton got 91 percent of DC’s vote in 2016). They may…
On May 17, 2019, Education Policy Initiative Director Chelsea Coffin’s appearance on a panel at the Bolling 65th Anniversary Community Event was cited by The DC Line: May 17, 2019, marks the 65th anniversary of the Supreme Court’s landmark rulings in Brown v. Board of Education and Bolling v. Sharpe, a challenge to school segregation…
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE May 20, 2019 CONTACT: Chelsea Coffin, Director, Education Policy Initiative (202) 223-2233 chelsea@dcpolicycenter.org WASHINGTON, D.C. – Released today, an updated report using new data from 2018 indicates that despite the District of Columbia’s slowdown in population growth, enrollment is expected to continue to increase, as births have stabilized…
Population growth in the District of Columbia is slowing and migration patterns are changing. Population growth in 2018 was 2,400 lower than the previous year (growth of 6,764 in 2018 compared to 9,116 in 2017).[1] While D.C.’s growth used to be driven in part by domestic migration, the District’s current population gains…
In an excerpt from her new book Black Food Geographies: Race, Self-Reliance, and Food Access in Washington, D.C., Dr. Ashanté M. Reese examines the history of the majority-Black Deanwood neighborhood of Washington, D.C. to unpack the structural forces that determine food access in urban areas. Based on extensive ethnographic fieldwork, Reese not only documents racism and residential segregation in the nation’s capital but also tracks the ways transnational food corporations have shaped food availability.
On May 17, 2019, D.C. Policy Center was cited in a WUSA 9 article on food access in Wards 7 and 8: “Food deserts make up about 11% of DC’s total area and are mostly concentrated in Wards 7 and 8 according to DC Policy Center.” Read more: Mars Food announces $115k grant to…
On May 16, 2019, Fellow Randy Smith’s report on urban heat islands in D.C. was cited by WAMU: In 2015, the D.C. Policy Center studied a satellite image that showed neighborhoods with little tree cover like Ivy City and Trinidad recorded temperatures of 102 degrees, while areas like Rock Creek Park recorded 76 degrees….
On May 16, 2019, D.C. Policy Center Executive Director Yesim Sayin Taylor was quoted in a Washington Business Journal article on the District’s Qualified High Technology Company tax credit program: “Yesim Taylor, the executive director of the D.C. Policy Center, agreed that the current credit was outdated and largely ineffective, saying it began…
On May 15, 2019, Fellow Randy Smith’s report on food equity in D.C. was cited by WUSA 9: In 2017, a report by the D.C. Policy Center found that the overwhelming majority of the city’s food deserts were east of the Anacostia, with more than half located in Ward 8 alone. A food…
On May 14, 2019, the D.C. Policy Center’s article, The Great Sort: Part III, was cited by City Observatory: The varied racial pattern of urban location by education has important implications for understanding neighborhood change. In part, it fits with a stereotypical view of gentrification, fueled by well educated young whites. But…
On May 13, 2019, the D.C. Policy Center’s report, Landscape of Diversity in D.C. Public Schools, was cited by The DC Line: The Banneker community of high-achieving black and Latino scholars, whose students are chosen from a highly selective citywide application pool, was pitted against another community — the growing and improving by-right elementary…
On May 7, 2019, D.C. Policy Center Executive Director Yesim Sayin Taylor was quoted in a Washington Business Journal article on reactions to Mayor Bowser’s proposed tax increases: “Yesim Sayin Taylor, a close watcher of the budget process as the executive director of the D.C. Policy Center, believes that Bowser’s team is using…
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE May 6, 2019 CONTACT: Yesim Sayin Taylor, Executive Director (202) 223-2233 contact@dcpolicycenter.org WASHINGTON, D.C. – The D.C. Policy Center is pleased to announce that Aimee Custis has joined the Center’s staff as Director for External Relations. In her new role, Ms. Custis will oversee the D.C. Policy…
On May 2, 2019, Executive Director Yesim Taylor’s report on D.C.’s housing stock was cited by WAMU: In her proposed 2020 budget, D.C. Mayor Muriel Bowser has called for the creation of an unprecedented $20 million “workforce housing” fund that would subsidize homes affordable to middle-income professionals like teachers, social workers, first…
On May 1, 2019, the D.C. Policy Center’s article, Twenty years after the Revitalization Act, the District of Columbia is a different city, was cited by DCist: The District once had its own parole board. That changed with the National Capital Revitalization and Self-Government Improvement Act of 1997, in which the city traded an annual…
On May 1, 2019, The District’s Proposed Fiscal Year 2020 Budget is a Harbinger of Great Fiscal Reckoning by D.C. Policy Center Executive Director Yesim Sayin Taylor was cited by Greater Greater Washington in its Breakfast links news roundup. Read more: Breakfast Links | Greater Greater Washington Related: The District’s Proposed Fiscal Year…
On April 26, 2019, D.C. Policy Center Executive Director Yesim Sayin Taylor testified on the proposed Fiscal Year 2020 budget for the District of Columbia before the Committee of the Whole. Download this testimony. Read the underlying D.C. Policy Center essay “The District’s Proposed Fiscal Year 2020 Budget is a Harbinger of…
On April 25, 2019, Deputy Director of Policy Kathryn Zickuhr’s report on racial inequities in fines and fees in D.C. was cited by Curbed DC: A pending bill authored by Ward 5 D.C. Councilmember Kenyan McDuffie would require the District government to explicitly consider racial equity when evaluating “programs, policies, and practices,” starting…
On April 25, 2019, D.C. Policy Center Deputy Director of Policy Kathryn Zickuhr testified on B23-0038, “Racial Equity Achieves Results Amendment Act of 2019,” before the Committee on Government Operations. BILL SUMMARY – As introduced it requires the Office of Human Rights and the Department of Human Resources to develop and provide…
On April 24, 2019, D.C. Policy Center Fellow Brent Cohen’s 2017 article on the implementation of the Neighborhood Engagement Achieves Results (NEAR) Act was cited by the DC Fiscal Policy Institute: The Neighborhood Engagement Achieves Results Act (NEAR Act) takes a different approach to public safety, seeking to address the root causes…
On April 24, 2019, D.C. Policy Center Fellow Randy Smith’s analysis of food deserts in D.C. was cited by the Washington Post: A 2017 study by the D.C. Policy Center found that 80 percent of food deserts in the District — where residents do not have easy access to groceries — were…
On April 24, 2019, D.C. Policy Center Deputy Director of Policy Kathryn Zickuhr testified on B23-0097, “Access to Public Benefits Amendment Act of 2019,” before the Committee on Human Services. BILL SUMMARY – As introduced it extends the opt out from denying TANF benefits to certain drug felons to other locally-funded public…
The headlines from the proposed Fiscal Year 2020 Budget for the District of Columbia include $127.9 million in net new revenue, largely—but not entirely—raised from commercial real property. The administration rationalized these new taxes as asking the real estate sector to share the “upside,” and pay for investments in housing affordability in…
On April 23, 2019, D.C. Policy Center Fellow Randy Smith’s analysis of food deserts in D.C. was cited by WAMU: “Our mission is to provide accessible, affordable, sustainable, healthy food for the communities that don’t have good access to grocery stores,” says Clarice Manning, a member of the Community Grocery Cooperative and…
On April 23, 2019, Mapping Segregation in D.C. by D.C. Policy Center Fellow Sarah Shoenfeld was cited by The Hill is Home in the Hill Buzz link roundup. Read more: Hill Buzz | The Hill is Home Related: Mapping segregation in D.C. | D.C. Policy Center
For the past several years, Mapping Segregation in Washington DC has been documenting the historic role of real estate developers, citizens associations (white homeowner groups), and the courts in segregating the city. Our work has been focused on documenting properties subject to racially restrictive deed covenants, which barred the sale or rental…
On April 22, 2019, D.C. Policy Center Fellow Randy Smith’s analysis of food deserts in D.C. was cited by the Washington City Paper: In practice, the program is relatively straightforward. First, a patient obtains a prescription from their AmeriHealth Caritas healthcare provider. Then they bring their prescription to the pharmacy inside the Giant, where a…
In recent years, jurisdictions across the country have increasingly turned to fines and fees[1] both as a policy mechanism and as a way to generate much-needed revenue, especially after the budget crunch from the Great Recession.[2] However, unlike taxes, fines and fees are usually the same for everyone, regardless of their income…
On April 22, 2019, an editorial by the Washington Post Editorial Board cited a preliminary analysis of business movements by D.C. Policy Center Executive Director Yesim Sayin Taylor. Read more: Businesses need predictability to thrive. That’s not happening in D.C. | Washington Post
On April 17, 2019, D.C. Policy Center Senior Fellow David Rusk’s article on D.C.’s changing demographics was cited by CityLab: In Shaw, though, gentrification isn’t some false boogieman sowing anxieties among native Washingtonians. It’s a very real thing. Those two studies measure gentrification differently, but both singled out Washington, D.C., as ground…
This article is adapted from “Teachable Moment: ‘Blockbusting’ and Racial Turnover in Mid-Century D.C.,” which originally appeared in Washington History, Vol. 30, No. 2 (Fall 2018), published by the Historical Society of Washington, D.C., and is reprinted and adapted with permission. Many of the documents discussed in this article can be viewed…
On April 6, 2019, an editorial by the Washington Post Editorial Board cited a commentary by D.C. Policy Center Executive Director Yesim Sayin Taylor (published in the DC Line) on the Mayor’s proposed budget and the state of the District’s economy. Read more: The economy in D.C. has ‘yellow flashing signals.’ Will…
On April 4, 2019, the D.C. Policy Center’s report, Taking Stock of the District’s Housing Stock, was cited by Greater Greater Washington: This map from the DC Policy Center shows what an overwhelming amount of the District’s housing stock is comprised of single-family homes. Most of the housing outside of downtown DC…
On April 3, 2019, D.C. Policy Center Executive Director Yesim Sayin Taylor was quoted in a Washington Business Journal article on reactions to Mayor Bowser’s proposed tax increases: “Our current tax policy protects current homeowners, but penalizes future growth,” said Yesim Sayin Taylor, the executive director of the D.C. Policy Center. “But it…
This article is adapted from “‘A Strictly White Residential Section’: The Rise and Demise of Racially Restrictive Covenants in Bloomingdale,” which originally appeared in Vol. 29, No. 1 (Spring 2017) of Washington History: Magazine of the Historical Society of Washington, D.C., and is reprinted and adapted here with permission. You can also…
On April 2, 2019, D.C. Policy Center Yesim Sayin Taylor’s commentary was published in The DC Line: Relying on short-term revenue fixes to pay for spending increases doesn’t bode well for fair and competitive tax policy. Yet this is one of several troubling aspects of Mayor Muriel Bowser’s budget proposals now under…
Relying on short-term revenue fixes to pay for spending increases doesn’t bode well for fair and competitive tax policy. Yet this is one of several troubling aspects of Mayor Muriel Bowser’s budget proposals now under review by the DC Council. The expenditure projections tell us a lot about the future shape of…
Out-of-school time programs in D.C. In 2016, an estimated 33,400 children and youth attended subsidized afterschool programs in the District of Columbia, and at least 15,000 children and youth participated in subsidized summer programs. These estimates are from a report the D.C. Policy Center published in October 2017, “Needs Assessment of Out-of-School Time…
This report describes the current funding landscape of out-of-school time (OST) programs in the District of Columbia. It explores where funding for OST programs comes from, where funds are distributed, and how these funds are used. The report also explores the potential fiscal needs of expanding OST programs, opportunities that are available to expand and better use existing funds, and bottlenecks that might impair expansion efforts.
A March 28, 2019 article by WAMU on D.C.’s school lottery system cited Education Policy Initiative Director Chelsea Coffin’s report on the landscape of diversity in D.C. public schools: And for as much as the lottery is touted as a fair way to assign seats, the reality is that D.C.’s schools remain heavily…
The evolving federal workforce and its changing role in the D.C. economy It’s no secret that the federal government is a major employer in the Washington, D.C. area, and it likewise has an outsized effect on the District’s economy. The five-week partial federal government shutdown that ended earlier this year cost…
On March 27, 2019, D.C. Policy Center Fellow Randy Smith’s analysis of food deserts in D.C. was cited by Curbed DC: The DCFPI report also critiques the District’s tax incentives for grocery stores to move into underserved areas, saying these incentives cost $29 million in revenue from 2010 to 2017, with only three…
On March 22, 2019, D.C. Policy Center Executive Director Yesim Sayin Taylor was quoted in an article by Peter Jamison in the Washington Post on D.C.’s economic outlook and Mayor Bowser’s proposed budget. Read more: Are boom days over for the D.C. budget? | Washington Post
Last night, Mayor Bowser announced that her budget proposal would increase deed recordation and transfer taxes on commercial property valued at $2 million or more, in order to generate an estimated $80 million for affordable housing in the District. The chart below shows the history of deed tax revenue in D.C. since…
This article is the seventh and final post in a series focusing on circumferential transit in the Washington, D.C. region. Read part one, part two, part three, part four, part five, and part six. While extensions to the Purple Line and rail transit along the Beltway are popular ideas for improving transit within and across the D.C….
On March 19, 2019, the seventh and final article in Fellow DW Rowlands’s series on suburb-to-suburb transit was cross-posted on Greater Greater Washington. Read more: For circumferential transit in the District, try crosstown bus lanes | Greater Greater Washington
This article is part six in a series focusing on circumferential transit in the Washington, D.C. region. Read part one, part two, part three, part four, and part five. Maryland’s suburban areas have a dearth of transit connections, but better rapid bus service could help link many parts of Prince George’s and Montgomery counties. As I discussed in…
On March 15, 2019, the sixth article in Fellow DW Rowlands’s series on suburb-to-suburb transit was cross-posted on Greater Greater Washington. Read more: Here’s where rapid bus service could best connect Maryland’s suburbs | Greater Greater Washington
On March 14, 2019, The DC Line published a profile of Executive Director Yesim Sayin Taylor : Taylor spent nearly a decade in the CFO’s office with no intention of changing jobs, but then Tony Williams and some of the trustees of the Federal City Council recruited Taylor to launch the D.C. Policy…
This article is part four in a series focusing on circumferential transit in the Washington, D.C. region. Read part one, part two, part three, and part four. While Maryland’s Purple Line is the biggest suburb-to-suburb transit project in the region, Virginia also has a number of corridors that are good candidates for this kind of connection. Northern Virginia…
On March 8, 2019, the fifth article in Fellow DW Rowlands’s series on suburb-to-suburb transit was cross-posted on Greater Greater Washington. Read more: Northern Virginia needs better suburb-to-suburb transit. Here’s where rapid bus service could help. | Greater Greater Washington
On March 6, 2019, D.C. Policy Center Executive Director Yesim Sayin Taylor testified before the Committee of the Whole and the Committee on Education on the “State Superintendent of Education Hanseul Kang Confirmation Resolution of 2019.” Read her testimony here.
This article is part four in a series focusing on circumferential transit in the Washington, D.C. region. Read part one, part two, and part three. While the idea of a Purple Line extension to Tysons Corner garners a lot of excitement among transit advocates and political leaders in the region, those in Prince George’s County tend to favor…
On March 6, 2019, the fourth article in Fellow DW Rowlands’s series on suburb-to-suburb transit was cross-posted on Greater Greater Washington. Read more: Why it makes sense to extend the Purple Line to Largo, but not to National Harbor | Greater Greater Washington
On March 5, 2019, the D.C. Policy Center’s article, Tax practices that amplify racial inequities: Property tax treatment of owner-occupied housing, was cited by The DC Line: Evans, a supporter of increasing the homestead deduction, concurred with Todd that the move would benefit the middle class. He said Mendelson recognized that there…
On March 4, 2019, D.C. Policy Center Fellow Randy Smith’s analysis of food deserts was cited in a Washington City Paper article on a program that addresses food insecurity among expectant mothers: There are stretches of barren blocks in the District, bereft of grocery stores that sell fresh produce and protein. According…
On March 1, 2019, the third article in Fellow DW Rowlands’s series on suburb-to-suburb transit was cross-posted on Greater Greater Washington. Read more: The best way to build a Purple Line link between Bethesda and Tysons Corner | Greater Greater Washington
This article is part three in a series focusing on circumferential transit in the Washington, D.C. region. This one deals with the possibility of extending Maryland’s Purple Line across the Potomac River to Tysons Corner. Read part one and part two. Although the Purple Line between Bethesda and New Carrollton isn’t expected to open…
On February 27, 2019, the second article in Fellow DW Rowlands’s series on suburb-to-suburb transit was cross-posted on Greater Greater Washington. Read more: Our region needs better suburb-to-suburb transit, but a Metro loop isn’t the best option | Greater Greater Washington
This post is part two in a series focusing on circumferential transit in the Washington, D.C. region. Read the first post here. The Washington region has a dearth of transit connecting its suburban areas, as I wrote in my first post in this series. Some people have latched onto the idea of extending the…
By Laura Wilson Phelan and Lee Teitel After centuries of exclusion and segregation within the American education system, major policy efforts in the last 60 years have focused on desegregating schools in terms of getting a diverse set of students into school buildings. In some American cities today, desegregation also occurs…
On February 21, 2019, the first article in Fellow DW Rowlands’s series on suburb-to-suburb transit was cross-posted on Greater Greater Washington. Read more: Part 1: Why the Washington region needs better suburb-to-suburb transit | Greater Greater Washington
On February 21, 2019, D.C. Policy Center Executive Director Yesim Sayin Taylor was cited in an article by Morgan Baskin in the Washington City Paper on lead paint remediation in D.C.: D.C.’s housing stock is, in a word, old. The U.S. Census Bureau’s 2013 American Housing Survey shows that the median housing…
The Washington, D.C. region has one of the best transit systems in the U.S. But even when it’s working perfectly, its radial layout does a poor job connecting non-downtown destinations. In a series of posts beginning today, I’ll lay out the case for better suburb-to-suburb transit. Despite Metrorail’s recent ridership meltdown, our…
The D.C. Policy Center is hiring! The D.C. Policy Center is seeking an energetic and organized External Relations & Development Associate to help raise the D.C. Policy Center’s profile with local media and policy circles, and provide internal capacity for our ongoing fundraising efforts. This position will report to the Executive Director,…
On February 18, 2019, Contributing Fellow Canaan Merchant’s article on family-friendly biking was cross-posted on Greater Greater Washington. Read more: How bikesharing could be more family-friendly in DC | Greater Greater Washington
On February 15, 2019, the D.C. Policy Center’s article, Implementing the NEAR Act to reduce violence in D.C., was cited by D.C. Councilmember Brianne K. Nadeau in the Local Opinions section of the Washington Post: That’s why I am calling on the mayor and my colleagues on the council to fully invest…
On February 14, 2019, the Better Bike Share Partnership published a post about D.C. Policy Center Contributing Fellow Canaan Merchant’s article on family-friendly bikeshare: Over the past few years, bike sharing has become a familiar sight in most American cities. But despite some age diversity in who rides bike share, there’s a…
D.C. is still a pioneer in bikesharing, but more must be done for it to be a part of families’ car-free transportation options Capital Bikeshare was one of the first successful bikesharing systems set up in the United States, and is still one of the largest systems in the country. Now the…
On February 12, 2019, Education Policy Initiative Director Chelsea Coffin’s article on diversity in D.C. schools was cited in a link roundup on The Hill is Home. Read more: Hill Buzz | The Hill is Home Related: Racial and ethnic diversity over time in D.C.’s schools | D.C. Policy Center
On February 6, 2019, D.C. Policy Center Executive Director Yesim Sayin Taylor testified before the Committee of the Whole on “The Department of Consumer and Regulatory Affairs: What Issues Should the Committee Pursue?” On January 22, Chairman Mendelson, together with nine other members of the D.C. Council, reintroduced the Department of Buildings…
One key finding of the recent D.C. Policy Center report “Landscape of Diversity in D.C. Public Schools: What Does School Diversity Look Like in D.C.?” was that racial and ethnic diversity is low in the city’s public schools,[1] even considering the composition of D.C.’s students – individual schools were less diverse than the public…
On January 30, 2019, a D.C. Policy Center report on the connections between neighborhood characteristics and boundary school enrollment rates was cited in a commentary by Maya Martin Cadogan: As DC parents finalize their school preferences before upcoming lottery deadlines, it’s worth resurfacing a recent study by the D.C. Policy Center. It found only…
On January 29, 2019, D.C. Policy Center Executive Director Yesim Sayin Taylor was quoted in an article about transit deserts: Consider: In 2005, according to statistics, some 3.1 million workers nationwide commuted for 90 minutes or more one way, as Blough does, but that number had nudged up to 4 million by…
On the surface, D.C.’s economy is thriving. But this is not the case for all residents. D.C. is among the most racially segregated cities in the country, which could be one reason why so much of the prosperity in the Northwest never seems to make it to the Southeast. Housing, education, and…
D.C. Policy Center Fellow Shirin Arslan’s analysis of opportunity costs among startups in D.C. was featured on the U.S. Census Bureau’s Longitudinal Employer-Household Dynamics Program’s website. Read more: D.C.’s Startup Scene, Part II: Opportunity Costs | D.C. Policy Center
On January 22, 2019, D.C. Policy Center Fellow Randy Smith’s map of food deserts was cited in UrbanTurf’s coverage of a report on the impact of Dollar Stores on food deserts. Read more: Which Came First, the DC Food Desert or the Dollar Store? | UrbanTurf Related: Food access in D.C is…
D.C. Policy Center Fellow Becky Strauss was quoted by The George Washington University’s American Communities Project in an article on place-based approaches to poverty: There is no clear roadmap for how the District will solve the problem. “It’s sort of surprising how little we know about closing the inequality gap in cities,”…
On January 9, 2019, the D.C. Policy Center’s article, Implementing the NEAR Act to reduce violence in D.C. was cited by WAMU: There has been plenty of movement in recent years in D.C. on criminal justice issues: the D.C. Council passed the NEAR Act, which adopts a public-health approach to reducing violence, decriminalized fare evasion on…
On January 8, 2019, a WAMU article cited the D.C. Policy Center’s 2018 report on the District’s housing stock. D.C. needs more housing — and fast. That’s the message Mayor Muriel Bowser is sending as she starts her second term in office, saying that housing construction will have to ramp up significantly over…
On January 7, 2019, a D.C. Policy Center analysis of food deserts was cited by a Greater Greater Washington post on a partnership between Lyft and Martha’s Table to provide low-income residents in Wards 7 and 8 with low-cost rides to the grocery store. Read more: Lyft is offering low-cost rides to grocery stores…
The D.C. Policy Center symposium on racial equity in housing outcomes was cited in a roundup of cross-sector collaborations from Shelterforce: In Washington, DC, an ongoing affordable housing crisis, coupled with longstanding racial inequities in employmentand income, have resulted in dramatic demographic changes in many neighborhoods that were previously disinvested in, and were predominantly Black….
On January 4, 2019, D.C. Policy Center Executive Director Yesim Sayin Taylor was cited in a Wall Street Journal article on the city’s spike in homicides in 2018: The city has improved by many measures. Over the past 10 years, the number of employed residents rose 32%, the jobless rate fell by…
Executive Director Yesim Sayin Taylor interviewed on the Important, Not Important podcast in an episode released January 1, 2019: In Episode 50, Quinn & Brian discuss: How D.C. and LA are dealing with urban heat issues. Our guests are Yesim Sayin Taylor and Molly Peterson. Yesim is the founding Executive Director of…
On December 31, 2018, a CityLab article on Amazon’s HQ2 hunt cited an analysis by D.C. Policy Center Executive Director Yesim Sayin Taylor: The choice was also a relief, for some. With only 25,000 workers each, the new HQs will be more glorified office expansions than full-fledged satellite campuses. Their housing markets…
On December 27, 2018, the D.C. Policy Center was cited in a Forbes article, “Food Deserts Get a Lyft With Low Cost Rides.” A major hurdle for people living in food desserts is transportation and Lyft has taken another step in trying to fix that. The ride hailing service has teamed up…
On December 21, 2018, Greater Greater Washington covered a new report from the D.C. Policy Center on economic and racial diversity in D.C. public schools and public charter schools: D.C.’s racial, ethnic, and socioeconomic demographics are changing, but are these demographic changes reflected in D.C.’s public schools? A new report from the D.C….
How easy is it to get a seat at D.C.’s most diverse schools? This blog post examines the relationship between diversity scores and waitlists as a follow up to the D.C. Policy Center report, Landscape of Diversity in D.C. Public Schools. Racial and ethnic diversity in D.C.’s traditional public and public charter…
Executive Director Yesim Sayin Taylor was interviewed for a December 18, 2018 article in the Washington Post about Metro ridership: David Alpert, founder and president of the civic group Greater Greater Washington, said the fare increases also hurt those who have to take a combination of a bus and a train…