The District has fallen far short of its affordable housing goals and poor leadership and data tracking are just as much to blame as the recession, a new report says.
Five years after the creation of a task force charged with setting those goals, the city’s low-income population is “facing even more unaffordable housing costs” as more higher-income households move into the city, according to a new Brookings Institution report, which recommends solutions such as raising property taxes and overhauling the city’s affordable housing database.
“I think sometimes people tend to think the District has changed — there’s more development, household income is trending upwards, they think that issues of poverty are being reduced in that process. And that’s simply not the case,” said Benjamin Orr, the report’s co-author.
At 43 percent, more than two in five District households have incomes below $50,000 and struggle with the city’s high cost of living, the report said. And the vast majority of households with incomes less than $20,000 annually are paying more than 30 percent of their income on housing.
| How to catch up on affordable housing |
| Upgrade database: The city database tracking affordable housing is improved but its accuracy is still in question. The deputy mayor for Planning and Economic Development should be charged with standardizing the data and ensuring it is updated regularly. |
| Better agency coordination: If the District doesn’t want an affordable housing chief, the deputy mayor’s office should coordinate housing information from the city’s multiple agencies |
| More reliable funding: 1) dedicate one-third of property tax revenue collected due to increased property values toward housing trust fund or 2) increase property taxes by 5 percent and dedicate half of increase to fund. Include clause so low-income residents not disproportionately taxed versus higher-income households. |
| Source: Brookings Institution |
The drop in home sales means less money to fuel affordable housing, which draws its revenue from the sale and transfer of properties. Meanwhile, the reduced home prices are not enough to make homes affordable to those with low incomes and median rents continue to rise.
A Comprehensive Housing Strategy Task Force formed in 2006 was charged with ensuring that 19,000 new affordable housing units were built and doubling the then-$84 million budget for affordable housing by 2020. But inconsistencies managing in the deputy mayor of Planning and Economic Development’s affordable housing database and the recession’s toll on home sales yielded little progress in five years, the Brookings report says.
A spokesman for the economic development office said Deputy Mayor Victor Hoskins participated in a discussion at Brookings upon the report’s release and that the office is “committed to properly tracking all District efforts related to affordable housing unit creation and retention.”
Orr said affordable housing would be better funded through property values instead of relying on “wildly unpredictable” transfer taxes. The report suggest diverting one-third of property tax revenue toward affordable housing or raising property taxes by 5 percent, with half the increase funding affordable housing.
“There are a number of ways you could do it … the point is that the city really needs to find more reliable ways to fund affordable housing programs,” Orr said.
The report also says city leaders at times “did not show the political will” in addressing housing. Orr noted an affordable housing chief was appointed in 2007 by then-Mayor Adrian Fenty but “given little authority and resigned a year later.” The post has not been filled since.
Editors’ note: the first two paragraphs have been edited for clarity.
