When applications reopen in April for the Emergency Rental Assistance Program, 8,500 will be accepted instead of 3,500.

Street Sense Media asked local experts who shape housing and homelessness policy about their predictions for the coming year.

After nearly four years, the last of D.C.’s hotels for medically vulnerable people experiencing homelessness is closing. It is unclear where some of the remaining residents will go.

Applications reopen in January. 3,500 will be accepted each quarter.

Young people exiting foster care are at a high risk of homelessness. These Family Unification Vouchers are federally funded, but for years the District only used approximately 80% of its allotment.

About 1,200 people already connected to a housing voucher funded in FY 2022 were still waiting to move into housing as of Aug. 1. Housing providers attribute staffing challenges and government bureaucracy.

The ERAP program ran out of money after six months due to high demand. Its budget will not be renewed until the next fiscal year begins, in October.

The unspent funds are returned to HUD.

Forty to 100 people age out of foster care each year in DC. And for the last four years, at least 75 federal housing vouchers have gone unused.

The city will lose a total of 787 beds over the next year between two shelters closing for renovations and the end of the PEP-V program.