FACING FACTS

Drug Strategies

Facing Facts

Appendix

The Context of Drug Abuse Problems
in Washington, D.C.

Demography. Washington, D.C., which covers 68 square miles, is home to 523,000 people. Urban flight and a high mortality rate have reduced the city's tax base. Washington's population has dropped significantly since it peaked at 800,000 in the 1950s. Many former city residents now live in Maryland and Virginia suburbs. However, the District's population decline is slowing and renewed growth is expected to begin by 2005.(134)

The city is racially and ethnically diverse. Almost two-thirds of residents are African American; one-third are white (including 7 percent of residents who identify as Hispanic, but are included in these categories); while 3 percent are Asian or Native American.(135)As new population growth occurs over the next decade, the percentage of African American residents is expected to decline gradually, while the percentage of white and Hispanic residents rises. Indeed, the number of Hispanic and Asian residents has increased 26 percent since 1990.(136)

Sixty percent of city residents live in wards where one racial group (either African American or white) outnumbers the other by at least six to one (Wards 3, 4, 5, 7 and 8). Hispanic residents are also geographically concentrated; 61 percent live in Wards 1 and 2, and Hispanics comprise no more than 8 percent of residents in any of the other wards. Even in areas where Hispanics are most concentrated in the District (24 percent of residents in Ward 1), they remain a minority.

Washington, D.C. is a wealthy city, but its wealth is distributed unevenly. Although per capita income is 44 percent higher than the national average, one in six city residents lives in poverty,(137)and one in four children lives in extreme poverty (family income less than half the federal poverty level). Fifty percent of families with children are headed by single parents. One in seven teens aged 16 to 19 neither attends school nor works -- 55 percent higher than the national average.

Income gaps often correspond to racial divisions in the city. Areas in which poverty rates exceed 30 percent are inhabited almost exclusively by African Americans. The $64,800 median household income in Ward 3 (where 80 percent of residents are white) exceeds the city's median income ($39,800) by 63 percent. In contrast, Ward 8, the city's poorest, is 90 percent African American with a median household income of $26,300.

Public Image. Washington, D.C. is a federal city, the capital of the world's oldest democracy. Home to world-renowned political, historical and cultural institutions, the District attracts more than 20 million visitors a year. In the 1980s, the city gained notoriety following the onset of the crack cocaine epidemic and an unprecedented surge in homicides. The city's reputation for drug abuse and violence continues to dominate its national image. In a 1998 nationwide survey, seven in 10 Americans rated drug abuse as a serious problem in the District.(138)Half of D.C. residents say that drug dealing and drug abuse among youth are serious problems in their neighborhoods,(139) compared to 27 percent of Americans overall.(140)

The District of Columbia is often singled out as the source of drug problems throughout the greater metropolitan area because drug trafficking is thought to be concentrated in the city. However, city health and criminal justice officials note that residents of surrounding suburban communities play an active role in sustaining local drug markets, often purchasing illicit drugs as well as alcohol while they are in the city.(141)

Local Economy. The District of Columbia's economy depends primarily on tourism and government employment. In 1997, visitors spent $4.2 billion in the District, a 20 percent increase over 1995.(142) Nearly 615,000 people work in the city (including nonresidents), but since1994 the unemployment rate among D.C. residents has been 60 percent higher than the national average, and double that of the surrounding region.

One in three people who works in the District is a federal government employee. Washington area firms garner $23 billion in federal government contracts annually, supporting jobs for 200,000 workers in the region. However, only 3,000 of those jobs are in the District and two-thirds of those are filled by suburban commuters.(143) Service industries such as medicine, education, professional organizations and legal services account for 70 percent of private sector jobs in the city. Wholesale and retail sales jobs comprise another 13 percent. The city's 19 colleges and universities enroll 78,000 students and include the city's two largest private sector employers, Georgetown University and The George Washington University.

Fiscal Constraints. The D.C. government administers and funds welfare, public health and public safety. The revenue most states use to help fund these programs (including property, business and commuter taxes) is significantly restricted in the city. For example, 41 percent of the total assessed property value in the District is exempt from property taxes, primarily because the land belongs to the federal government. In 1997, people employed in the city but residing elsewhere took home $21.4 billion -- 60 percent of the income earned in the city. Congress does not permit the D.C. government to collect taxes on non-resident earnings, although commuter taxes are legal in every state.(144)

Federal Authority in the District. The Constitution gives Congress ultimate authority to govern the city, although District residents do not have voting representation in Congress. [FOOTNOTE: Nor is Congress particularly attuned to the characteristically urban issues that confront D.C. residents. Fewer than one in six members of the 106th House of Representatives represents an urban district. Among Republicans, the House majority party, only nine of 223 members represent urban districts, and none of the 10 Republicans serving on subcommittees with jurisdiction over D.C. represents an urban district.] The Home Rule Act of 1974 created a locally elected government with legislative authority, including an elected Mayor, D.C. Council and School Board. However, Congress preserved its constitutional authority over legislation enacted by the D.C. government, including the city's budget. In April 1995, with the District government unable to pay its bills, Congress created the District of Columbia Financial Responsibility and Management Assistance Authority (better known as the Control Board), consisting of five Presidential appointees empowered to write the city budget, hire and fire personnel, and direct some city agencies.

The 1997 National Capital Revitalization and Self-Government Improvement Act (known as the Revitalization Act) provided a measure of financial relief by transferring the District's pension shortfall to the federal government; increasing the federal contribution to D.C. Medicaid payments by 40 percent; and transferring court costs and most prison system costs to the federal government. At the same time, however, Congress ended the annual federal payment to the city, worth $660 million each year since 1995. Overall, the Revitalization Act is expected to save the District $170 million a year from 1999 through 2002. The new law also transferred authority over nine major city departments (including Corrections, Public Works, Health, and Human Services) from the Mayor and Council to the Control Board. It also mandated significant changes in the local criminal justice system affecting corrections, the courts, parole, offender supervision and sentencing.

City Agencies. Several public agencies in Washington, D.C. administer programs that address alcohol, tobacco and other drug problems. The District of Columbia Addiction Prevention and Recovery Administration (APRA) provides publicly-funded drug abuse prevention and treatment services, and administers federal block grant programs. Initially under the authority of the Department of Human Services and now under the Department of Health, APRA's director has never been a cabinet-level official.

Law enforcement and criminal justice agencies play a significant role in the city's strategies to address drug abuse, including the Metropolitan Police Department, the Superior Court of the District of Columbia, the Trustees for Corrections and for the Court Services and Offender Supervision Agency, and the Office of the U.S. Attorney for the District of Columbia. Other agencies with important responsibilities related to alcohol, tobacco and other drugs include the Department of Human Services' Child and Family Services Agency (foster care) and Youth Services Administration (juvenile justice); the Department of Health's Administration for HIV/AIDS and Preventive Health Services Administration; the Department of Consumer and Regulatory Affairs' Alcohol Beverage Control Division; the Office of Corporation Counsel; the Housing Authority; and the Public Schools' Student Intervention Services Branch.

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