Media release
May 17, 2021
Contact Nick DelleDonne
703-929-6656
Social Housing Enters Pages of Comp Plan
DECAA Zoom – May 17, 7 pm
The District's affordable housing crisis has spurred renewed interest in social housing as an alternative to Mayor Bowser's #Build,Build,Build policy, which, it seems, will never provide housing for those who need it in DC – the very low-income residents. Alternatively, social housing has provided affordable housing in Europe for a hundred years, where the city builds the housing, the tenants manage it, and rent is limited to 30% of the tenant’s income.
Late last week, in a last push before the final vote on the Comprehensive Plan, the tenant activist coalition, TENAC, and Dupont East Civic Action Association (DECAA) met with DC Councilmembers with an objective of getting social housing mentioned in the Plan.
Meeting with Julia Koster, the staff-person shepherding the Comp Plan through the Council, TENAC and DECCA asked that social housing be included in the Plan, and, after some discussion, she agreed to add it in an appropriate place in the 1500-page bill to be considered with other models of housing.
In its series of meetings with Councilmembers, TENAC and DECAA found evidence of dissatisfaction with the Mayor’s reliance on developers to produce the housing DC needs. At-large Councilmember Robert White has assigned a staff-person to investigate social housing. Ward 4 Councilmember Janeese Lewis George drew attention last week proposing to set production goals at 40% of area median income, closer to the incomes of Black families who are being forced from the city for lack of family-sized affordable units. Council Chair Phil Mendelson has been emphatic that density does not yield affordability. Activists have noted that a minimum wage of $15 an hour, which failed in the Council, will produce an annual income of $30,000. Where can they live under the Mayor’s Plan? Teachers, police and fire personnel live outside the District they serve because of the cost of housing.
DECAA will consider Comp Plan changes and the Wardman Park Hotel conversion to affordable housing at its meeting, Monday 7 pm by Zoom. Here is the link https://us02web.zoom.us/j/82392919871?pwd=UnFBQURJU0ZaaktxeFVhQWIwODdLdz09
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