Photo by Travis on Flickr.

The Gray Administration has had a poor track record of building affordable housing when selling public land. Kenyan McDuffie is trying to set a higher bar, but Gray is trying to gut the bill by proposing a giant loophole that would render the bill virtually toothless. Will Muriel Bowser hold firm or let the loophole in?

What’s this bill about?

When DC does a deal to develop public land, it’s typically required that the project include affordable housing for low-income residents. Mayor Gray, however, has pushed for much less affordable housing than his predecessors Adrian Fenty or Anthony Williams did.

Councilmember Kenyan McDuffie (Ward 5) wants to enshrine a threshold into law. Under his bill, 20-30% of rental housing (more near transit, less elsewhere) would have to go to people making 30-50% of Area Median Income, or about $30,000-50,000 for a family of three. If the building is condos, they could go to people making 50-80% AMI or approximately $50-78,000 for a family of three.

Sometimes that level of affordability isn’t feasible. If a piece of public land isn’t worth so much, maybe nobody can afford to build there if they have to provide that much affordable housing. Accordingly, McDuffie’s bill allows for DC’s independent CFO to evaluate the deal and determine if there needs to be a waiver.

What is the loophole?

Gray, however, is proposing cutting out the CFO. The Gray administration wants the mayor’s office to decide when there needs to be a waiver instead of involving the CFO.

But this means that the mayor could essentially ignore the law at will. And if he or she does that, the whole process will be a black box to the public, just like it is today, which is one of the main things the McDuffie bill fixes.

In current land deals, the Deputy Mayor for Planning and Economic Development gets a number of proposals for developing a piece of public land, then picks one without explaining why. Often that decision goes against the wishes of the local Advisory Neighborhood Commission or other local leaders, and while officials shouldn’t have to always go with the ANC’s recommendation, it’s often a big mystery why they chose something else.

We don’t know if one of the proposals yielded more public money than another, or if the mayor’s office thinks one’s amenities are better than another’s. And we don’t know if and when the mayor is giving up affordable housing without good cause.

Deputy Mayor Jeffrey Miller says the requirement could lead to less affordable housing, rather than more, if the land value doesn’t support the required housing. But this is why the CFO (or the Council, for that matter) can grant a waiver.

Miller also says the requirement could get in the way of providing other amenities like libraries or parks. But this is in some sense the whole point: DC needs to commit to actually building affordable housing. Other amenities are important, too, but if there isn’t a way for lower-income residents to live in the neighborhood, then building other amenities only boosts the value of more expensive areas without addressing inequality.

Where’s Muriel Bowser?

Bowser, who looks likely to become the next mayor, supported the bill in committee, but suddenly seems open to what she calls “administrative tweaks” to the bill. Advocates fear she is going to opt for this loophole big enough to swallow the whole bill.

Certainly, if she is mayor, she might prefer to have free rein. Gray sounded like he’s pushing that idea when he said, “As a mayor, obviously, I would not be ecstatic about having legislation that ties the ability of the executive to function, as a general proposition … I realize the huge importance of being able to have flexibility to get things done.”

But the whole reason councilmembers are voting for this bill is because the mayor hasn’t done what they think is necessary or appropriate. Bowser would only appreciate the value of a loophole if she’s interested in exploiting it at times the CFO wouldn’t let her. If she did that, she’d be breaking promises to create affordable housing.

There’s no good reason for her to water down the bill. It would only send a message that maybe the public can’t trust her commitments on affordable housing. Since she surely means to follow through on her promises, she should keep the loophole out.