D.C. Mayor Muriel E. Bowser (D) on Thursday announced several new initiatives to build nearly 2,000 new units of affordable housing west of Rock Creek Park, an area that contains some of the District’s wealthiest neighborhoods — but where new construction of affordably priced units has lagged.
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Bowser’s push comes as her administration explores new ways to accomplish its mission to build 36,000 housing units by 2025, 12,000 of them affordable to families making up to 80 percent of the region’s median family income, which is about $103,000 for a family of four. Deputy Mayor for Business and Economic Development John Falcicchio offered an update on that initiative Thursday: 20,251 new homes have been built so far in the city, he said, 3,578 of which are affordable.
But none of those newly constructed affordable units are located in Rock Creek West, one of the District’s 10 planning areas that already contained the smallest share of dedicated affordable housing in the city (about 470 units, less than 1 percent of D.C.’s total). Bowser’s administration set a goal in 2019 to add 1,990 new affordable units there, the biggest increase of any planning area.
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On Thursday, Bowser acknowledged the city has a ways to go to meet its goal in Rock Creek West, where her administration says historical discriminatory land use, zoning and financing practices have impacted housing opportunities and caused the displacement of Black residents in particular. Today, Rock Creek West, which includes most of Ward 3, has the highest concentration of White residents in the District.
“All of the other planning areas have advanced in some way with some units delivered. We haven’t advanced at all in Rock Creek West,” Bowser said. “Our job for the last seven years has been to focus on how we can create more affordable housing for Washingtonians … and it’s also our challenge to make that happen across all eight wards of Washington, D.C.”
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Bowser is targeting several areas to address the shortcoming of affordable units west of Rock Creek Park, like redeveloping publicly and privately owned land at the Chevy Chase Library and Community Center, the vacant Lord & Taylor site in Friendship Heights and the Marriott Wardman Park hotel, among others.
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Inclusionary zoning and the District’s latest Comprehensive Plan, approved by the council this year, will also allow for more housing construction along major corridors west of Rock Creek Park, said Andrew Trueblood, director of D.C.’s Office of Planning. He added that tax abatements and financial subsidies through the city’s Housing Production Trust Fund also enable the District to bolster its affordable housing supply.
Bowser this year announced a record $400 million investment into the Housing Production Trust Fund, the city’s primary tool for financing affordable housing. A report from the city’s inspector general found, among other things, that the city failed to meet a legal requirement to use a portion of the funds on housing for families at the lowest income thresholds.
Officials also announced two new initiatives Thursday: the city is accepting requests for proposals for a “Cash 2 Covenant” pilot program, offering financial incentives to multifamily property owners with vacant units in Rock Creek West to place an affordability covenant on their property. A similar proposal was introduced earlier this year by Council member Robert C. White Jr. (D-At Large) and funded by the council in the fiscal 2022 budget. White is running against Bowser in the 2022 Democratic mayoral primary.
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Falcicchio said units covenanted through the program must remain affordable for at least 15 years at or below 80 percent of the area median family income, with the incentive determined by affordability, among other factors.
The city is also soliciting requests for applications from churches, mosques and synagogues that are interested in developing affordable housing.
Drew Hubbard, interim director for the D.C. Department of Housing and Community Development, said faith-based institutions own about 1,450 vacant parcels of land in D.C., which if used strategically could produce upward of 6,000 new homes.
“Many faith-based institutions own real estate throughout the District, many in the same planning areas with the most ambitious housing goals, but lack the resources and knowledge to jump into this space,” Hubbard said. “This is really looking at helping faith institutions … getting that support to make the decision to contribute to affordable housing in this city.”