Report: D.C. Must Double Affordable Housing Spending To Meet Rising Costs | DCist

dcist.com/story/19/03/11/report-d-c-must-double-affordable-housing-spending-to-meet-rising-costs/
Report: D.C. Must Double Affordable Housing Spending To Meet Rising Costs
A report from the progressive D.C. Fiscal Policy Institute says the cost of housing construction and preservation is on the rise.D.C. Fiscal Policy Institute “D.C.’s housing challenges require a bold solution,” writes FPI policy analyst Doni Crawford. “Doubling D.C.’s Housing Production Trust Fund to $200 million in FY 2020 would make important progress.”
Crawford notes that even more funding is required to meet the needs of larger households and D.C.’s lowest-income residents. Subsidized housing for extremely low-income tenants requires more funding to fill the gap between rent revenues and costs associated with construction, maintenance or preservation. The analyst says D.C. has failed to meet its own goal to dedicate at least 40 percent of housing trust funds to very low-income families..
Mayor Bowser has issued a blanket call for the city to produce at least 36,000 housing units by 2025, with at least one third of them affordable. Her administration says it has helped produce more than 7,200 affordable units in the last four years. Many of those homes were not directly funded by city subsidies, but rather through inclusionary zoning requirements or a process called “planned unit development,” in which the city grants developers more density in exchange for affordable units.
A spokesperson for the Bowser administration was not available to comment by deadline.
Historically, the private sector has been hesitant to finance low-income housing because it’s viewed as a riskier, less profitable investment than market-rate development or homes for middle-income residents, often called “workforce” housing.
The city generally defines “affordable” as costing no more than a third of household income, but median household incomes are based on regional data, not neighborhood-specific incomes, which vary significantly.. The Washington region’s 2018 median family income is $117,200, according to the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development, so a deeply affordable unit would be within reach for a family earning $35,000 a year or less.
Some economists say building more housing — even if it’s market rate — can lower overall housing costs by satisfying demand. But some District activists reject that claim, and have blocked new development with legal challenges that stymie construction of both market-rate homes and affordable units.
The Fiscal Policy Institute applauds the mayor for investing in affordable housing. At the same time, analysts there have repeatedly called on her administration to increase its investment.
“Housing is 3 percent of the city’s budget, [but] I think most people would argue it’s way more than 3 percent of the city’s problems,” the think tank’s director, Ed Lazere, told WAMU in a 2018 interview.
Policy analyst Doni Crawford, who wrote the recent report, says the District’s affordable-housing crunch especially burdens people of color.
“The enduring legacies of structural and individualized racism … that for years prohibited Black families from equitably accessing the housing and employment markets, is further impacting all communities of color today,” Crawford writes. “Nearly 90 percent of extremely low-income, severely rent-burdened households in the District are headed by a person of color.”
The institute says the city could find more money for housing in its general fund, or tap into surplus funds by changing rules around when they can be spent. The think tank also backs a “mansion tax,” which would increase property taxes on the city’s wealthiest households.
In D.C., housing construction has been intense in neighborhoods such as NoMa and Brookland, but sluggish in other areas, according to a Brookings Institution analysis.Brookings Institution Other groups like the D.C. Policy Center and Coalition for Smarter Growth say the city should relax zoning rules to build more housing. Many neighborhoods outside the city’s urban core restrict development to single-family homes, so cheaper housing — like apartments — is harder to build. A 2018 analysis by the Brookings Institution found that most new construction has been clustered in a handful of areas.
But many residents in single-family neighborhoods — especially in the District’s wealthiest areas — oppose development, saying it increases traffic, cuts into parking and alters the “character” of neighborhoods.
Mayor Bowser has said housing needs to be more evenly distributed across the city to achieve her goal of adding 36,000 new units by 2025.
The mayor is expected to unveil her 2020 budget proposal this month.
This story first appeared on WAMU.

Mary Bolton 202-390-1208

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