The Wells Fargo Foundation announced Wednesday a $10 million grant to the National Center for State Courts to give out to states to strengthen eviction diversion efforts and the District will get $605,847 as of its allocation.
The grant was unveiled at the Historic DC Courthouse in northwest Washington. The District is a beneficiary of the grant with eight other states.
Courts were picked for the program through a competitive application process reviewed by the Eviction Diversion Advisory Council, which includes state Supreme Court chief judges, state court administrators, and a Wells Fargo Foundation representative. Each court will use the grant funding to hire staff to implement holistic, sustainable, and community-driven strategies for solving eviction problems.
“By equipping courts with the needed resources and strategies to prevent avoidable evictions and promote housing stability, we’re working to permanently change how courts approach housing problems in a sustainable way that fairly supports all parties,” said National Center for State Courts President Mary C. McQueen.
Bill Daley, vice chairman of public affairs at Wells Fargo, concurred.
“With this kind of collaboration, we believe communities, like Washington, D.C., will lead the way in transforming the eviction process and achieve better outcomes for people’s lives and livelihoods,” Daley said.
D.C. Court of Appeals Chief Judge Anna Blackburne-Rigsby said the city’s portion of the grant presents a tremendous opportunity to build on programs developed during the coronavirus pandemic.
“With the commitment and contributions from the National Center for State Courts and Wells Fargo Foundation, the D.C. Courts remain as committed as ever to do what we can to keep people in their homes during these turbulent times,” the judge said.