Posts about HousingRSS
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To start addressing displacement, let’s start with better reporting on gentrification
A recent National Community Reinvestment Coalition (NCRC) study confirms what everyone living here can feel: Washington, DC, has gentrified more intensely than any other city. It's great that our paper of record is reporting on this kind of research, but the Post and other local outlets need to step up their game. Keep reading…
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Gaithersburg illustrates how school capacity tests make sprawl worse
Several years ago Gaithersburg adopted an ordinance to ensure that infrastructure keeps up with growth. It seemed like a good idea at the time. Unfortunately, the law turned out to be counterproductive, as it damaged the city’s ability to grow in the right places. Keep reading…
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Did Silver Spring build enough housing to stay affordable? Sort of.
In 2013, I looked at rents in Silver Spring to see if building tons of new homes could help keep our community affordable. Five years and about 1,700 new apartments later, did it work? Sort of. Keep reading…
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Single-family homes take up a lot of space in the District
This map from the DC Policy Center shows what an overwhelming amount of the District's housing stock is comprised of single-family homes. Most of the housing outside of downtown DC consists of low-density buildings, illustrated above in purple, its new report “Taking Stock of the District’s Housing Stock” shows. Keep reading…
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A Columbia Heights rent strike highlights abuses low-income tenants face in DC
As the neighborhood has transformed around them, residents at 1454 Irving St NW, most of whom are elderly immigrants from Central America and the Caribbean, have suffered from long-term neglect that threatens their health and safety. Keep reading…
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Now more than ever, DC must comply with fair housing rules
Housing in DC is as unfair as it is expensive. There’s a clear discrepancy between the parts of the city with the strongest schools, plentiful amenities like grocery stores and health services, and frequent and reliable transit, and where the most housing—and the most affordable housing—is and is built. Keep reading…
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Buying a home in DC isn’t impossible, and other takeaways from GGWash’s panel
Millennials, the much-maligned but largest living generation, have had a rough go of it. From graduating into a depressed job market to a crippling student loan burden to astronomical housing prices in high-demand cities like DC, there are many factors that combine to make homeownership a difficult proposition for the 22-to-38 demographic. Keep reading…
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Reston’s routine zoning update is on ice for now, following an outcry
Reston's debate over a routine but nonetheless controversial zoning change may be over for now, as the Fairfax County Board deferred action on the matter earlier in March. Opponents feared the update would lead to Reston changing too much, but the zoning rule at the heart of the debate was never meant to address the issues many thought it did. Keep reading…
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This Brightwood congregation built affordable housing for their community
The Emory Fellowship, a United Methodist Congregation in Ward 4, has been holding their Sunday worship services in a nearby school for more than two years. It was a hardship they knowingly undertook when they decided to build affordable housing for the surrounding community. Keep reading…
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Virginia just passed a law that removes a barrier to building more housing
While the public attention has been focused on his high-profile blackface scandal, Virginia Governor Ralph Northam quietly signed an important housing law on February 21. SB1373 will have a direct impact all over Virginia on the cost and availability of a house, the average person's biggest and most important purchase. Keep reading…
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What housing does the District’s workforce need?
Increasingly, DC's workforce is comprised of either high-income or low-income jobs, with few middle-income jobs available. Among DC’s most common occupations, 40% are low wage jobs that do not pay enough to cover DC’s high housing prices. Keep reading…
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DC’s affordable housing fund is falling further behind
Washington, DC’s Housing Production Trust Fund (HPTF) does not have enough funding to keep up with rising costs, according to a new report from the DC Fiscal Policy Institute. The report states that higher construction costs mean that the HPTF has lost about a third of its purchasing power since 2015. Keep reading…
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Our property tax system rewards neglect and punishes investment in struggling neighborhoods
Here's a startling fact I've learned about new development in many struggling older cities. I had to be told this several times, by several credible sources, before I really believed it, because it just didn't seem possible: There are whole cities where every single private development project receives some sort of tax abatement or incentive. Keep reading…
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Four things accessory apartment opponents said at Montgomery County’s hearing, and why that’s wrong
We’ve written a lot lately about accessory apartments like English basements and granny flats—why they're an important affordable housing tool, how to build them, and how onerous regulations could be changing in Montgomery County. The council is expected to vote later this month. Keep reading…
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The DC Council may cut property taxes, but many want higher taxes to pay for affordable housing
The DC Council votes Tuesday on legislation to cut residential property taxes, barely a week after Mayor Muriel Bowser publicly tested support for tax increases on expensive properties. Both proposals were presented as options to expand housing affordability. Keep reading…
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An updated Crummell School plan swaps 32 apartments for more green space
More than 50 Ivy City residents and other community members gathered at Bethesda Baptist Church on February 11 to hear the latest proposed developments for the historic Crummell School site. A bill introduced in late 2017 that received a hearing in June would lease an approximately 100,000-square-foot plot of city land to a development team for 99 years at the rate of $1 per year. Keep reading…
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What would a Green New Deal for DC look like?
The Green New Deal, the economic and environmental plan most prominantly championed by New York Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, has sweeping ideas for a change in national policy. But what would a more localized Green New Deal for DC look like? Keep reading…
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Accessory apartments in Montgomery County: Still looking for the secret sauce
While thousands of words have been devoted to writing about accessory dwelling units (ADUs) on GGWash, we have yet to see a Renaissance of this housing type in our region. Why not? The answer varies between jurisdictions, but in Montgomery County, Councilmember Hans Riemer is tinkering with the policy works to see if he can improve output. Keep reading…
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How segregation in American cities shifts from day to night
After World War II, white Americans moved to suburban communities that explicitly barred black people, while many men continued to commute to their jobs in the city. But advances in civil rights, including the Civil Rights Act of 1964, meant that workplaces became increasingly diverse. Keep reading…
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Lessons from an unlikely community organizer in River Terrace
In 2005, Malissa Freese took an eye-opening trip in search of a new home. Coming off DC’s Interstate 295, she hit the block of Benning Road NE that houses a Pepco facility and made a left turn on Anacostia Avenue into River Terrace, a cul-de-sac neighborhood that sits along the Anacostia River (where, full disclosure, this writer grew up). Keep reading…