Affordable Housing

Current Challenges:

Although the population of the District of Columbia is approximately 580,000, more than 52,000 households are on the DC Housing Authority's waiting list for public housing assistance. In addition, other persons not on the waiting list have no housing alternatives. Homelessness in the District has increased for the fifth year in a row, to at least 9,360 persons, one-third of whom are in families and many of whom are working. In the past 4 years, at least 12,000 affordable housing units have disappeared from the market.

The need for a minimum of 6,000 net, new permanent, affordable housing units including supportive services has been identified as a priority in two important documents: Mayor Williams' 2004 Homeless No More Plan and the 2006 Comprehensive Housing Strategy Task Force Report. To date, implementation of this recommendation remains extremely limited.

The lack of stable housing for more than 10% (possibly more than 20%) of the District's population destabilizes the social structure of the entire District. This lack exacerbates other economic, educational, racial, social and health issues, and it costs the District at least $30 million annually in stop-gap services.

SOME's Responses to these Challenges:

SOME is an important nonprofit developer of affordable housing in the District. SOME's Advocacy & Social Justice Department works closely with SOME's Housing Development Initiative.

In addition, the Advocacy & Social Justice Department works with the Fair Budget Coalition, the DC Affordable Housing Alliance, the Coalition of Housing and Homeless Organizations, and Campaign for Mandatory Inclusionary Zoning to promote the development of the District as an inclusive and vibrant city.

Among current recommendations and initiatives that SOME endorses are:

1. Make affordable housing for extremely low income persons the priority for the District's Housing Production Trust Fund.
2. Implement and expand a new Rent Supplement Program that will allow 2,000 more households to live in affordable housing, and that will enable the development of additional units.
3. Require the District to include affordable housing in developments on District-owned land.
4. Implement a new Inclusionary Zoning law that will enable for-profit developers to increase the number of market-rate and below-market-rate units simultaneously. Inclusionary Zoning has been approved by the DC Zoning Commission and by the DC City Council as well. The program will require developers to price 10% of units in new or expanded residential projects for low- and moderate-income buyers, while allowing buyers to gain some profit when they sell their homes (an amendment adopted by the City Council on Dec. 19, 2006).

Information and Resources

SOME's Fact Sheets

• Housing and Living Expenses (pdf)

In the News

Local News

• "Low-Rent Program Predicts Losses: Rising Land Values Diminish Appeal of Section 8 Contracts "
  July 9, 2007, The Washington Post
• "Trust Fund Makes Headway, Report Says"
  April 20, 2007, The Washington Post
• "Families In District Struggling for Shelter"
  October 22, 2006, The Washington Post

National News

• "Affordable Housing "
  July 3, 2007, The New York Times
• "Without Housing: Decades of Federal Housing Cutbacks, Massive Homelessness and Poverty Failures, Western Regional Advocacy Project"
  November 14, 2006

Websites

• National Low Income Housing Coalition, an organization working to end the housing crisis, starting with the lowest income households.
• National Law Center on Homelessness and Poverty, serves as the legal arm of a nation-wide movement to end homelessness.
• Corporation for Supportive Housing, a national group seeking to end homelessness through permanent, supportive housing.

Reports

• Homeless No More: A Strategy for Ending Homelessness in the District of Columbia by 2014
  Mayor Anthony A. Williams, December 2004
• Homes for an Inclusive City: A Comprehensive Housing Strategy for Washington, DC
  Comprehensive Housing Strategy Task Force, January 31, 2006
• DC Affordable Housing Alliance Policy Briefs
  November 1, 2006

Testimony

• To the Committee on Housing & Urban Affairs Budget Hearing Regarding the Department of Housing and Community Development
  April 20, 2007
• To the Committee on Housing & Urban Affairs Budget Hearing Regarding the DC Housing Authority
  April 17, 2007
• To the Committee on Housing & Urban Affairs Oversight Hearing Regarding the Department of Housing & Community Development
  February 21, 2007
• Regarding the FY07 Budget: Housing Initiatives
  April 11, 2006