CHANGES TO DC BUDGET SCHEDULE AND DDS BRIEFING

In today's DDS forum, Andy Reese announced that the mayor's budget release to the council will be slightly delayed, to April 5.  As a result, DDS will have only a short window to brief on its proposed budget, and that briefing will be on April 6 at noon.  The hearing before the DC council's Facilities committee on April 8 will now be for public witnesses only, and a separate hearing on April 23 has been scheduled for government witnesses.

Also at the March 27 forum, Brian McKie of the Department of Human Services went over the looming changes, especially work requirements, which will begin affecting SNAP (Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program) benefits in May and TANF (Temporary Assistance for Needy Families) in October.  The slides from this presentation will be on the DDS website, here, next week, but there are likely to be questions about the very complex (and discouraging) changes, so people are encouraged to consult the Department of Human Services website at https://dhs.dc.gov/ and to use the call center at 202-727-5355.

Also in today's forum, there was a briefing about how ranked-choice voting will work beginning in the June primaries.  Again, the slides will be available here next week.

In light of all this complex information from today's forum, it's nice to look back on yesterday's great DDAM capstone event at DDS - here's one photo including the mayor, Andy Reese, and Donna and Ricardo Thornton

and two more at this link, showing award recipient council member Brianne Nadeau and accomplished violinist Braxton St. Hill.  Sorry I couldn't include all the great speakers and performers!

Full Agenda of Disability-related Events this Month and Next

This year's Developmental Disability Awareness Month events have been rich and exciting - I enjoyed the Lifeline/Project ACTION! gathering on March 14, learned a great deal from the panelists at the "Her Story" event on March 18, and was so happy to attend the DD council meeting in person the following day. (Check out the DD council website here.)

There's more to come!  This Thursday from 3-5 p.m. will be the capstone DDAM event at DDS headquarters, with the mayor and other dignitaries in attendance.  And on Friday, March 27, we'll have the regular DDS forum, on Zoom, where there will be a presentation on ranked-choice voting and updates on various benefits programs. Charlisa Payne (charlisa.payne2@dc.gov) can answer any questions you might have about either of these.

But hard on the heels of DDAM is budget season, and the mayor will be issuing her top-line budget on April 1, with the DDS briefing before the council coming on April 8.  There will also be a DDS budget briefing sometime before the 8th, so keep your eyes open for that.

I've also been asked by Yetta Myrick of DC Autism Parents to share this flyer about conversations starting this Wednesday, with respect to the need for greater accessibility of DPR locations and programming to all people with disabilities.  Please try to participate in at least one of these!

DDS performance review: Remote Supports and Waitlist Delay

The DDS performance review took place as announced last Thursday.  There were many witnesses for both ODR and DDS, and the DDS portion of the hearing didn't begin until early afternoon, lasting beyond 5 p.m.!  There clearly is growing interest and attention to all sorts of issues affecting DC's disability community.

The testimony of DDS Director Andy Reese is here, and my own is here, but there were many other witnesses and you can hear the entire hearing at this link.  The Facilities Committee video is about the tenth on the list (2/26/26) and testimony concerning DDS starts about 3 hours and 20 minutes into the video.  I don't have copies of others' testimony to share, but there were other important speakers, including ODR  interim director Peter Stephan.  It's always worth listening to the question-and-answer portion, which in many ways is the most interesting part of the hearing.  

But to provide the most important DDS headlines, Andy Reese announced another delay in implementation of a waitlist for services, seemingly until the fall, and he promised more details in his budget testimony later this spring.  He and others also spoke encouragingly about the remote-supports pilot program, now getting under way, as a promising route to greater independence among people receiving supports as well as a potential source of cost savings.  I, too, am looking forward to the remote-supports rollout, but I'm aware that some of the cautionary notes about implementation sounded by Jimi Lethbridge of the Quality Trust (who sadly is about to retire!) near the end of the hearing do need to be heeded.  There also was an interesting give-and-take between council member Lewis George and Shannon Austin during the Q and A for DDS, which I though was helpful in laying out the background and perspectives of the new RSA head.

Now things will move forward toward the mayor's issuance of her proposed budget early next month.  A lot is riding on the uncertainty around our tax season and how much revenue will actually be available.  I hope you'll stay on top of further developments and make sure to let your views be known when the DDS budget hearing is scheduled.