As the next At-Large Councilmember, I will do everything possible to make DC the safest and most inclusive city in the nation. I will address the structural inequities that impact our systematically marginalized neighbors.

 

I would prioritize the following actions to protect our systematically marginalized communities:  

 

• Identify funding, and prioritize the development of communities that provide permanent supportive housing for LGBTQIA+ individuals, with a unique focus on the needs of seniors and youth. 

• Ensure that the Office of Human Rights is both funded and statutorily authorized to affirmatively pursue suspected instances of systematic discrimination.

• Provide administrative cost-sharing tools and reduce overhead costs to enable LGBTQIA+-serving nonprofits to spend a larger portion of their grant funding on full-time staff salaries instead of overhead. 

• Improve oversight of the DC Jail and the treatment of LGBTQIA+ incarcerated members and more aggressively monitor the performance of programs that exist to provide reentry services.

• Expand workforce and entrepreneurial opportunities for LGBTQIA+ youth and adults.

• Expand free and low-cost HIV/AIDS health prevention and protection.

• Authorize multi-year performance-based contracts to provide funding stability for high-performing community partners who provide services to vulnerable communities so they can predictably mobilize, serve, and expand to cover more service areas.