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Last month, we reviewed several tools the District uses to prevent or mitigate displacement of households. This final article in this series focuses on tools that the District has developed since the release of the Housing Equity Report in 2019.
On May 10, 2019, the Mayor issued the District’s first-ever Mayor’s Order that set a production goal of 36,000 new housing units, including 12,000 units dedicated as affordable to households with lower incomes. To date, the District has produced 79% of the units towards the Mayor’s overall production goal.
 The Mayor’s order also required a review of how existing affordable housing is concentrated in some areas due to past discriminatory practices such as land use decisions, financing, restrictive covenants, and urban renewal. These practices in high-cost areas of the city limited affordable housing opportunities for low-income, and Black and Brown residents, and increased displacement pressures that forced them to move over time and concentrate in lower cost areas of the city.
The Housing Equity Report was the first step toward implementing the Mayor’s Order. The report set goals to reach a minimum of 15 percent dedicated affordable housing within each of the District’s 10 planning areas by 2050. The report emphasized the need for affordable housing in high-cost areas where residents have strong educational and economic outcomes but where there is limited affordable housing. The 2021 Comprehensive Plan incorporated the Housing Equity goals to ensure the goals became part of the long-term vision of the District as an inclusive city.
Producing Affordable Housing
The District is strengthening its tools for producing affordable housing in several ways, including: increasing the budget for the Housing Production Trust Fund (discussed in last month’s article); expanding Inclusionary Zoning requirements; and enacting tax abatements. In 2021, the DC Zoning Commission expanded the existing inclusionary zoning program to require new development to set aside up to 20 percent of their residential floor area for affordable rental or ownership units when developers seek a zoning change that allows additional density, known as a zoning map amendment.
The District is implementing new tax abatement programs to incentivize developers and property owners to create even more affordable homes, especially in areas where few such homes exist. The High-Area Needs Tax Abatement (HANTA) incentivizes developers to build new affordable housing units in Rock Creek West, Rock Creek East, Capitol Hill, and Upper Northeast. These areas were identified in the Housing Equity Report as having fewer dedicated affordable units than other areas of the District. Increasing the supply of affordable units in these areas is expected to reduce displacement pressures. For property owners in Downtown, the Housing in Downtown (HID) Tax Abatement provides incentives to create affordable units in another critical part of the city.
Protecting Households
The District has launched several initiatives that protect households and connect residents to the resources they need to remain in their homes. Since 2019, District government has developed the Front Door portal to match current and prospective homeowners with more than 50 District resources. The District also engaged with historically marginalized groups (i.e. lower income, Black and Brown residents) through the Upward Mobility Action Plan and the District’s Comeback Plan. Both plans recommend steps to make it easier to access District housing resources, allowing more residents in these marginalized groups to sign up for these programs and meet their housing needs.
One example of a resource that protects households is the Homeowner Assistance Fund. The Fund was introduced in 2021 and uses federal money to help homeowners make mortgage payments and pay other housing costs. For example, homeowners can use money from the fund to pay utilities such as gas and water (maximum $4,000), past-due payments of homeowners’ insurance (maximum $100,000), and past-due mortgage payments (maximum $100,000).
Preserving Housing Opportunities
In 2022, Mayor Bowser launched the Black Homeownership Strike Force to create recommendations towards a goal of 20,000 new Black homeowners by 2030. The Mayor is supporting the Strike Force by committing $10 million towards a Black Homeownership Fund. In October 2022, the Strike Force released the Black Homeownership Strike Force Report, which proposed recommendations for increasing Black homeownership rates and several uses for the Black Homeownership Fund. Additional efforts to preserve homeownership include the soon-to-launch Heirs Property Assistance Program, which will provide grants to help low-income residents pay for the legal services needed to transfer ownership of a property between family members.
As we conclude this series, the District looks to develop an anti-displacement strategy. If you have thoughts or feedback on the series or the District’s anti-displacement efforts, please email us at planning@dc.gov or call us at 202-442-7600. We encourage readers interested in learning more about displacement in the District and other jurisdictions to explore the resources in our previous articles linked below:
Toward a Strategy to Combat Displacement: Background and Context
Toward a Strategy to Combat Displacement: Measuring Displacement
Toward a Strategy to Combat Displacement: The District’s Affordable Housing Tools Part I
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