D.C. needs 36,000 new housing units. This is my plan to get us there.
By 2025, Washington, D.C., needs to add 36,000 new units of housing.
Our city’s population is the highest it has been in four decades. Amazon is on its way to the region. And stemming the displacement of longtime residents, especially residents of color, continues to be one of our city’s most pressing challenges.
When I first came into office, I doubled the District’s annual commitment to our Housing Production Trust Fund to $100 million a year — more per capita than any other jurisdiction in the nation. And we didn’t just squirrel it away — we got the money out the door and into projects that helped us build or preserve more than 7,200 units of affordable housing in four years.
But to meet our housing goals, we have to continue to think bigger and bolder.
In my most recent budget proposal, I increased our investment in the trust fund to $130 million. I also increased our investment in our Housing Preservation Fund to $15 million, which will leverage an additional $45 million. And I created a new $20 million Workforce Housing Fund that will support our middle-income residents like teachers and first responders — those who make a decent salary, but still struggle to make ends meet — and also help insulate them from an influx of highly paid Amazon workers. Amazon has said HQ2 employees will make an average of $150,000.
Now, our families need the D.C. Council to support those investments.
And we’re not stopping there.
Last week, I was proud to sign the District’s first Mayor’s Order on housing. The order, which serves as a roadmap to meeting our housing goals, directs District agencies to analyze housing trends and needs and to identify policies that incentivize the production of housing, remove regulatory obstacles and preserve existing affordable units.
To better address systemic barriers to housing, the order also directs my Office of Planning to create housing targets by neighborhood. Four years ago, we created a citywide solution to end homelessness. We have more work to do, but our plan is working; since implementing the plan, homelessness has decreased 22 percent. Now, it is time for us to take a similar citywide approach to solving our housing crisis. We know: Citywide challenges require citywide solutions.
But solving our housing challenges must be an all-hands-on-deck effort. D.C. needs 36,000 units of housing by 2025, but the region also needs to add 240,000 units.
To make that happen, we need developers and employers in D.C., Maryland, and Virginia to support local and regional housing initiatives. We need everyone — property owners, developers and the business community — working together to increase opportunities for low-income residents to live in high-opportunity neighborhoods.
Together, we need to be bold, we need to be fair and we need to make tough decisions that are focused on equity and inclusivity. When all of our residents have access to safe and stable housing, our entire region will benefit. We have before us the opportunity to be a national leader on increasing access to affordable housing; together, let’s do the right thing and seize it.
