The District has long been a leader in low-income housing policy. Now it could become a model for creating new housing supply while also extending more affordability across a variety of income levels and across the entire city. Last Spring, Mayor Muriel Bowser pledged to create 36,000 new housing units by 2025. Her administration just released the first report in what will be a series of reports—collectively called the Housing Framework for Equity and Growth—that chart a course for achieving this goal. The first report:
- Supports market rate residential development and continued investing in important public services, facilities and amenities in areas with existing high concentrations of affordable housing.
- Identifies opportunities to improve housing production, especially in areas growing slower than the rest of the city.
- Sets specific housing production goals in different parts of the city based on regional needs, as well as the Mayor’s 36,000 housing by 2025 goal.
- Sets equitable distribution goals across the city.
We applaud Mayor Bowser for issuing this courageous plan. Our city needs more housing, which will take the pressure off of housing prices for everyone.
The D.C. Policy Center also released a report this week exploring whether a new land value tax would increase density and expand the housing supply. The report finds that it would, but only in already-dense neighborhoods. In less dense neighborhoods, zoning restrictions would get in the way.
