Home

Sign up for SOME's monthly newsletter

Affordable Housing

I’ve never really had to sleep outside. But I’ve lived places where I know I wasn’t wanted. But what was I supposed to do? I had nowhere else to go. – Topaz M., SOME Client

Independence Place

Client at SOME's Anna Cooper House

The District is in the grips of an affordable housing crisis. An ever-growing number of individuals and families are at risk of homelessness. Many have been driven out of our community because they cannot find an affordable place to live.

  • In the past four years, at least 12,000 affordable units have disappeared from the market.
  • About 25,000 households are now on the District's waiting list for public housing assistance.
  • Rental costs in D.C. are unaffordable for nearly two-thirds of renting households.

Since 1979, SOME has been purchasing and renovating properties to provide affordable housing to homeless and other very low-income people in the District. We currently provide safe, affordable places to live for approximately 540 men, women and children.  We are developing additional housing, with a goal of housing about 2,700 people by 2014.  

D.C. Government Response

In 2004, the District drafted a strategy for ending homelessness in D.C. by 2014. One of its major goals was to develop 6,000 new units of affordable, supportive housing for homeless people and other very low-income people at risk.

Two years later, an expert task force issued a report outlining a comprehensive housing strategy for the District. It recommended, among other things, that the District give priority to preserving at least 30,000 existing affordable housing units and add at least 19,000 units that would be affordable on a long-term basis.

Extremely slow progress has been made toward these goals. Meanwhile, the affordable housing crisis costs the District at least $30 million a year in stop-gap services.

For the Fiscal Year 2009 budget, SOME and our coalition partners have developed a comprehensive set of recommendations for setting the District on course to meeting its 2014 goals. They are detailed in the Fair Budget Coalition's FY 2009 budget report. While the Mayor's proposed budget includes a new affordable housing initiative, it fails to provide adequate funding for certain existing key programs, including the Local Rent Supplement Program.

For affordable housing, we are advocating:

  • A $15 million increase for the Local Rent Supplement Program. Without this increase, many new affordable housing projects will come to a standstill. Indeed, the program may not be able even to continuing supporting all the units it is now subsidizing.

  • Continuation of a higher funding level for the Housing Production Trust Fund. The Housing Production Trust Fund provides a critical source of cost-effective support for the construction of new affordable housing. A higher funding level willhelp jump-start progress toward the District's 2014 housing goals.

  • Additional funding to provide permanent, supportive housing for homeless people. We expect that the Mayor will request such funding to fulfill his November 2007 commitment. The Mayor's proposed budget provides funding for a new housing program for chronically homeless individuals and families. This is a worthy initiative, since is has the potential to improve housing for several hundred chronically homeless people a year. It is, however, a very limited response to the affordable housing crisis, since it will produce no new affordable housing for other extremely low income D.C. residents. There are also questions about whether the proposed funding for the initiative will be adequate and about what kinds of facilities and support services will be made available.

We also continue to advocate for:

  • Mandatory inclusion of affordable housing in developments on land purchased from the District. Private sector developers benefit from the District's disposal of excess real estate and from a wide range of District services. They should be required to play a role in helping the District meet its established affordable housing goal.

  • Implementation of the District's inclusionary zoning policy. The D.C. Zoning Commission has adopted a policy under which new housing developments generally will have to include some units that moderate to low income residents can afford.The City Council has passed legislation to implement this policy. Implementing regulations enforcement mechanisms are needed to make it effective. Proposed regulations to implement enforcement were finally issued in April 2008. Final regulations are not expected to take effect until early 2009.

Resources

Facts & Figures

Recent SOME Testimony

Additional Resources

 

 

©2004 SOME. All rights reserved.
71 'O' Street, NW, Washington, D.C. 20001
phone: 202.797.8806 | fax: 202.265.3849 | web@some.org
Privacy Statement