Charles Allen

In his time on the DC Council, Ward 6 Councilmember Charles Allen has championed legislative efforts around education, the environment, public transportation, campaign finance and election reform, public safety and criminal justice, and women’s health. His first bill, known as “Books from Birth”, has delivered more than 2.2 million free books to the homes of DC families with a child under the age of five, with a special emphasis on homes with lower literacy rates.

As Ward 6 Councilmember, he has worked to provide every student with a great neighborhood school, supported small businesses, pushed for safe and accessible transit, and advocated for affordable housing – and Ward 6 has created more new affordable housing than any other ward. In his time as Chair of the Council’s Committee on the Judiciary and Public Safety, Councilmember Allen has modernized the District’s elections by creating public financing for political campaigns, anti-“pay-to-play” contracting campaign finance reform, and automatic voter registration. He has also led the Council and the country in passing transformative criminal justice legislation, prioritizing meaningful rehabilitation and successful reentry as key to improving public safety. He has championed services for crime survivors, including by creating a continuum of care for sexual assault survivors, expanding hospital-based violence intervention, building a network of restorative justice programs, and reforming crime victims’ compensation.

In Council Period 25, Councilmember Allen is the Chair of the Council’s Committee on Transportation and the Environment. He is a member of the Committees on Business and Economic Development, Health, and Judiciary and Public Safety, as well as the Committee of the Whole. He also serves as Vice Chair of the Metropolitan Washington Council of Governments’ (COG) Board of Directors and is active with COG’s Transportation Planning Board.

Councilmember Allen graduated from Washington and Lee University and holds a Master of Public Health from the University of Alabama at Birmingham. He lives in Northeast DC with his wife, Jordi, their two children, and their dog, Olive. Most days he commutes on bus, metro, or bicycle.