Red Tape Ties Up D.C.'s Unemployed

DOES cannot be sure which training providers are most effective because it does not have software that would let it collect such data, though such a system is being developed, Hardy said.

Other cities place restrictions on which training providers can receive government money. For example, for New York City job training providers to be eligible to receive students through that city's one-stop centers, 75 percent of the people who enter the training must graduate and 50 percent must get a job.

In the District, by contrast, the only requirements for training providers are that they are not debarred from contracting with the District, are accessible to those with disabilities and meet seven other criteria that don't speak to their effectiveness in getting trainees a job.

"Money is being doled out to people to get training with no accountability for the results," Lang said.

'Simply Not Acceptable'

Bobb, in an interview in his office in December, walked behind his desk and pulled out a poster-size map of the District with color coding indicating that many census tracts, especially east of the Anacostia River, have jobless rates of 20 percent or more.

"The way things have been," he said, "are simply not acceptable."

Bobb said that, starting in the 2007 budget year, he intends to create three new "employment czar" positions, one for each of the high-unemployment wards of the city -- Wards 7 and 8, both east of the Anacostia, and Ward 6, which includes Southwest Washington and Capitol Hill.

These people would be city employees who would have the task of coordinating the myriad private and public programs dealing with joblessness in each neighborhood. They might officially work for the DOES, he said, but would be authorized to deal directly with Bobb, the city's No. 2 official after the mayor, if they face bureaucratic obstacles. Bobb was appointed by Mayor Anthony A. Williams (D), who plans to step down in January 2007; the next mayor could have different priorities.

In addition, the D.C. Council this month approved legislation to tighten requirements that employers who benefit from city contracting or financing hire District residents or contribute to a fund to provide further job training.

The Workforce Investment Council also is considering rules that would bar any training providers who do not meet minimal standards, such as placing 50 percent of their trainees in a job, said Executive Director Keith D. Mitchell.

These proposals, if enacted, would begin to address the lack of accountability and coordination. But even Lang and Bobb acknowledge that the problems are so deep that these efforts are only a start, a sentiment shared by those who deal with the problems firsthand.

"Money is a very important thing," said the Rev. Lionel Edmonds, the pastor at Mount Lebanon Baptist Church in the Shaw neighborhood, where unemployment is at 15 percent. "But throwing money at the problem without dealing with the root cause of unemployment, it's like spitting into the ocean."

Staff writer Andrea Caumont and database editor Dan Keating contributed to this article.