Category: Affordable Housing

Letter to the Editor: Inclusionary zoning is working for renters

Posted on by Claire Zippel

While the program needs to be strengthened, inclusionary zoning is showing benefits. Moderately priced housing units are being integrated into nearly every new residential development. That means desirable neighborhoods such as Chevy Chase, Dupont Circle, 14th and U, and NoMa will be affordable for more people.

Inclusionary zoning is a work in progress, but it’s already delivering on its promise to make exclusive and rapidly changing neighborhoods more accessible for working-class and middle-class residents.

D.C. Council passes weakened affordable housing law; tempers flare before election

Posted on by Claire Zippel

Even an advisory opinion by the chief financial officer would be the first time the District would be required to give an outside party access to data on the disposition of public land. Cheryl Cort, policy director for the Coalition for Smarter Growth, said it was also important that the bill would make it District policy to first seek affordable housing whenever the development of public land is at issue. Whether the bill will be signed by Gray, however, is unclear.

Letter to Muriel Bowser in Support of DCHA’s Affordable Housing Proposal

Posted on by Candace Wilkinson

We support DCHA’s proposal for 1125 Spring Road to create 200 rental homes, 90% of which would be affordable. We support the proposed wide range of affordability, including deeply affordable units at 30% AMI that are so desperately needed as market pressure continues to eliminate more and more of the city’s most affordable stock. We also ask that some of the units be use for permanently supportive housing.

 

Testimony: DC Zoning Update on alternative language September 2014

Posted on by acustis

We support most of the proposed changes in the hearing notice for subtitle C, but specifically want to express opposition to the DC Office of Planning proposal to: “Remove the Priority Bus Corridor from the areas within which required parking may be reduced by up to 50% as a matter of right as originally advertised.” Instead, we support the alternative language: “In the Alternative: Retain the Priority Bus Corridor as an area within which required parking may be reduced by up to 50% as a matter of right, as originally setdown on September 9, 2013.”

CSG testimony to DC Zoning Commission on “alternative language”

Posted on by acustis

around in our city’s long decline and current rapid growth, this zoning update is urgently needed. We wish to reiterate our overall support for the ZRR. In particular, we wish to address some of the proposed changes to the language set down last year on September 9, 2013 contained in the hearing notice for September 8-11, 2014 hearings.

Support for Bill 20—707: Land Disposition Transparency Act of 2014

Posted on by acustis

We wish to testify in support of Bill 20-707, the Land Disposition Transparency Act of 2014. We have tracked public land dispositions for several years and applaud the significant public benefits that have been delivered as a result of them. As laudable as many of these public land dispositions are, the process for how a public subsidy is provided to a private development to accomplish public goals is opaque. The process has often left the public wondering if it received the best deal.

Support affordable housing in public lands, B20-594 & Amend bill to shorten affordability terms B20-604

Posted on by Nick Ruiz

Please accept these comments on behalf of the Coalition for Smarter Growth (CSG). The Coalition for
Smarter Growth is the leading organization working locally in the Washington, D.C. metropolitan region dedicated to making the case for smart growth. Our mission is to promote walkable, inclusive, and transit-oriented communities, and the land use and transportation policies and investments needed to make those communities flourish.

Amend B20-604, “Affordable Homeownership Preservation and Equity Accumulation Amendment Act of 2013”

Posted on by acustis

The “Affordable Homeownership Preservation and Equity Accumulation Amendment Act of 2013,” Council Bill 20-604, over time could reduce the amount of resources available for future housing needs by shrinking how much of the public’s investment in affordable housing is preserved. While the bill currently proposed would make several changes that would exclude many current affordable homeownership organization’s efforts, amendments to reverse these proposed changes have been agreed to by the key supporters of the bill with the Coalition for Non-Profit Housing and Economic Development (CNHED).