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Housing Plan Profile: Washington, DC

Plan title: Homes for an Inclusive City: A Comprehensive Housing Strategy for Washington, D.C., see also the website of the Department of Housing and Community Development.

Plan issued: April 5, 2006

Overview: This plan was written by the Comprehensive Housing Strategy Task Force, established by Mayor Williams in 2003 in response to the housing boom in Washington, and the Mayor's goal of increasing the City's population by 100,000 by 2020. The first half of this plan presents a detailed overview of development in the District of Columbia, including recent history and neighborhood-level trends, the District's role in housing production, impediments to production, and emerging opportunities.

Click here [PDF] to view a presentation on developing a comprehensive strategy delivered by Leslie Steen, Housing Chief for the District of Columbia.

Photo courtesy of District of Columbia Housing Authority

Selected Strategies:

Encourage development of "new neighborhoods" on large privately- and publicly-owned vacant and underutilized sites, particularly along transit corridors.
Support the formation of community land trusts run by public, private, non-profit, or community-based organizations, which would acquire and hold land and provide long-term leases to developers, targeting areas with high public investment or increasing property values and assuring "permanent affordability."
Modify or revise zoning restrictions to allow development of affordable or mixed-income housing, particularly on vacant or underutilized parcels, and facilitate development of accessory apartments, single room occupancy, and co-housing facilities.
Reduce fees for public services and building permits for developers of affordable housing.
Coordinate and streamline bureaucratic procedures to facilitate housing production and renovation through designation of a chief of housing, simplified application and review processes, and adoption of an updated housing code, the "Smart Housing Rehabilitation Codes."
Increase contributions to the Housing Production Trust Fund through: increasing the portion of dedicated deed tax from 15 to 20 percent; restoring the deed tax to 1.5 percent (from 1.1 percent) and dedicating the entire increment; reserving a small portion of the increase in revenue from residential real estate taxes over a base year for the Trust Fund; requiring linkage fees for some commercial-residential development; requiring commercial developers granted planned-unit development zoning to pay a fee to the Trust Fund.
Establish a mandatory inclusionary zoning requirement for new construction.
Provide pre-development, acquisition, and rehab subsidies to developers for acquisition and renovation of existing buildings to preserve or provide affordable housing, and augment funds to facilitate the purchase of land and other properties at greater scale in lower-income areas.
Expand the District's employer-assisted housing program for city government workers by increasing the amount of awards for downpayment and closing cost assistance and removing specified limitations; and encourage private employers to develop employer-assisted housing programs.
Develop legislation allowing the District to purchase and maintain the affordability of existing rental buildings at risk of condo conversion or upgrading to luxury apartments, and assisted, multifamily properties with expiring use contracts or where owners are choosing to opt out of contracts.
Preserve project-based Section 8 units by allowing an abatement of incremental increases in property taxes, and consider extending the abatement to allow full property tax relief.
Preserve the affordability of rental units undergoing conversion to condominiums by requiring a 20 percent affordable unit set-aside in all condo conversions and increasing assistance to tenants interested in purchasing their units.
Preserve the affordability of privately-owned rental units by providing rehabilitation grants and tax abatement to owners of existing buildings, to offset rehab expenses in exchange for a commitment to long-term affordability.
Stabilize existing neighborhoods and homeowners through creation of a grant or no-interest loan program to help low-income homeowners in historic districts with repairs or maintenance.
Create a partnership between the District's Housing Authority and private affordable housing providers to create 1,000 units of housing subsidized under the Annual Contributions Contract and local matching financial support.
Engage in an extensive public service announcement campaign focused on housing affordability and the advantages of an inclusive housing plan.
Offer density bonuses for affordable housing, and for all residential uses at transit stops and along major corridors, to increase capacity without large-scale rezoning.
Target and leverage housing investments by coordinating use of public money in areas with complementary support for developing schools, jobs, and other services and coordinating housing policy with the work of other departments and agencies.
Provide local rent subsidies and integrate special-needs housing throughout all types of housing throughout the City, including following recommendations in the Mayor's strategy for ending homelessness.
Increase the City's homeownership rate by providing a tax credit to low-income, long-term homeowners to help with home maintenance, supporting Individual Development Account programs and other homeownership programs, and revising the Home Again Initiative's disposition strategy, to target affordable homeownership in strong-market areas and market-rate homeownership in weak-market areas.
Increase homelessness prevention programs by improving discharge planning, providing short-term rent subsidies to returning offenders and youth leaving foster care, removing barriers to reentering offenders living in public housing, and strengthening an emergency rent, mortgage and/or utilities assistance program for very low-income families.

Financing Sources Identified:

Housing Production Trust Fund, funded by a percentage of the real estate recordation and transfer taxes, linkage fees (proposed), and planned-unit development zoning fees (proposed)
Federal housing program funds (Housing Choice Voucher, public housing Annual Contributions Contract, HOPE VI, Community Development Block Grant, HOME, McKinney Act funds)
Low-Income Housing Tax Credits
Taxable and tax-exempt bonds

Background:

Written by the Comprehensive Housing Strategy Task Force, established by Mayor Williams and the Council of the District of Columbia.

Lead agencies are the Department of Housing and Community Development, District of Columbia Housing Finance Agency, and District of Columbia Housing Authority; other public partners include the National Capital Planning Commission, District Department of Mental Health, Department of Corrections, DC Finance Agency, Anacostia Waterfront Corporation, Department of Consumer and Regulatory Affairs, Department of Transportation, Health Department, and District of Columbia Water and Sewer Authority.

A timeline is not identified for specific actions, although this is a fifteen-year "blueprint." Production goals and preservation goals are specified; the target population includes four income categories: Extremely low-income (below 30 percent of area median income (AMI)); Very low-income (30 to 60 percent of AMI); Low-income (60 to 80 percent of AMI); and Moderate-income (80 to 120 percent of AMI). Homeownership programs target households earning 50 to 120 percent of AMI.