Affordable DC
A Housing Strategy for Production, Permanence, and Pathways to Ownership
Washington, DC is in a housing emergency. New construction collapsed 79% in a single year. Getting a building permit can take two years. Rents keep climbing. Investors are choosing Virginia and Maryland because DC's process is too slow, too expensive, and too unpredictable.
But this is not just charts and spreadsheets. It is the senior in Petworth choosing between medication and rent. It is the family in Deanwood stuck on a waitlist since their kid was in diapers — she's in middle school now. It is the small business owner in Shaw losing workers because no one can afford to live within an hour of the job.
For too long, DC's housing debate has been trapped in a false choice: build more versus protect what we have. We reject that. Washington needs both production and permanence. Affordable DC delivers both.
Download PDF: [Affordable DC One-Pager]
The Bottom Line
Production: 50,000 new homes across every ward by 2032
Affordability: 36,000 of those homes affordable — counted honestly and verified publicly
Permanence: legally binding affordability protections on publicly funded housing — permanently
Accountability: A forensic audit of DC's housing agency in the first 100 days, a public project dashboard, and quarterly reports to the Council
Equity Map: annual public reporting on where affordable housing exists and where it does not
Timeline: legislative package introduced in Year 1
What Counts as "Affordable" in Affordable DC
Affordable DC stops playing games with the word "affordable." A unit only counts toward the 36,000 if it meets one of two tests when people actually move in.
Test A: Guaranteed Affordable
Units with legally binding rent or price restrictions
Units supported by housing vouchers
Community Land Trust homes (where a nonprofit owns the land permanently to keep housing costs stable)
Publicly owned social housing
These units are affordable by design and by enforcement.
Test B: Affordable-by-Outcome
Market-rate units count only if they meet all three conditions:
Price test: the actual rent or sale price at move-in falls within published affordability limits for that unit size
Cost-reduction test: The unit was built under at least one reform that lowered construction costs (faster permits, no required parking garage, updated building codes, or office conversion)
Equity Map verification: The move-in price is checked against published thresholds
The Housing Emergency
The data is unambiguous:
83% — Drop in building permits for apartments and condos from 7,234 (2022) to 1,239 (2024)
$2,325 — Median asking rent in DC (early 2025) — and climbing at 2.7% year-over-year
45% — Of DC renters spend more than 30% of their income on housing
~39,000 — Families on the public housing and voucher waitlist — closed to new applicants since 2013. In over a decade, fewer than 1,000 have been housed.
20.4% office vacancy — An estimated $12 billion in lost property value
This is not part of a broader regional trend. While DC's construction collapsed, Northern Virginia and suburban Maryland continued to build. The nation as a whole saw a 25% decline in apartment construction. DC's was three times worse.
Builders and lenders have said publicly that DC's regulatory environment is pushing capital out of the District. Every month we fail to act, the crisis deepens.
Build More. Build Faster.
50,000 new homes means fixing the bottlenecks that make housing slow and expensive.
Right now, getting a building approved in DC takes 18 months or longer. That delay adds tens of thousands of dollars per unit in costs that get passed on to renters and buyers and drives investment to Virginia and Maryland. We will fundamentally change how DC approves and builds housing:
Cut permitting timelines by running reviews simultaneously instead of one agency at a time, with clear deadlines at every stage — not the sequential, agency-by-agency process that kills deals today.
Create a Housing Accelerator Office within DMPED — one point of contact, one timeline — to move projects from application to groundbreaking.
Guarantee 20-business-day approval for by-right projects that meet existing zoning and building code requirements.
Allow smaller multi-unit buildings everywhere: duplexes, triplexes, fourplexes, and small apartment buildings — the housing types that built DC's most beloved neighborhoods and that current rules ban in most of the city.
Eliminate parking minimums near Metro — parking mandates add $30,000–$50,000 per unit in construction costs that get passed directly to renters. Lower costs = lower rents.
Modernize building codes: allow single-staircase residential buildings up to six stories and create clear rules for converting offices to housing - reducing construction costs.
Publish a public project dashboard showing every residential project in the pipeline, its current stage, time in review, and the responsible agency.
We will publish an annual production plan that allocates the 50,000-unit goal by ward, by housing type, and by delivery method — so progress is measurable and every part of the city carries its share.
Smarter Affordability Rules for New Buildings
DC currently requires developers of larger buildings to set aside 8–12.5% of apartments at below-market rents. This system produces approximately 250 to 300 affordable units per year. That is not enough. And enforcement is underfunded — $1.1 million with just 9 staff to monitor 2,600+ units, most of which don't even submit required annual compliance reports.
Affordable DC launches a reform pilot that gives developers a choice:
Option A: Build affordable units inside the new building under current rules
Option B: Pay a slightly higher property tax rate on the building, with every dollar of the difference going to fund affordable apartments in existing buildings in the same neighborhood
No one opts out. Everyone contributes. The difference is efficiency.
The Urban Institute studied this approach and found it could increase affordable unit production from roughly 250 to 380 units — a 50%+ increase — without reducing total housing production. In expensive neighborhoods like in upper Northwest, locking in an affordable apartment in an existing building costs approximately $846 — compared to about $1,598 per month through traditional new-construction requirements. The same dollar goes nearly twice as far.
The pilot would launch in 2 to 3 high-opportunity neighborhoods, run for three years with a full evaluation, and expand citywide if it delivers more affordable units without reducing total production.
Affordable Apartments in Existing Buildings
New construction is slow and expensive. Existing buildings are already there.
When a developer opts into the reform pilot's Option B, the revenue flows into a dedicated fund. That fund pays building owners in high-opportunity neighborhoods to commit a portion of their apartments to affordable rents. Covenants are recorded on the property deed with a 15-year minimum term — and higher subsidies are available for longer terms.
New construction rents in DC run for $1,000 or more per month above older building rents in the same neighborhood. Existing buildings are already permitted, already built, and already occupied. They represent the fastest way to create affordable housing in neighborhoods that currently have none.
This is different from vouchers. Vouchers follow the tenant. Under this program, the affordability stays with the building. When a covenanted tenant moves, the next tenant in that unit also pays affordable rent. The affordability stays in the neighborhood.
Every participating building is listed in a public database with rent levels, compliance status, and annual reviews. An independent audit is published every two years
Office-to-Anything Conversions
DC's downtown office vacancy is a $12 billion problem. It can also be a housing solution.
With 20.4% vacancy and 79 buildings more than half empty, DC has a massive surplus of commercial space that is not coming back as offices. Remote and hybrid work is permanent. Federal workforce reductions are accelerating the trend. Downtown currently has only 13% residential use by square footage. Thriving mixed-use downtowns typically have 30–40%.
DC already leads the entire nation in adaptive reuse — creating 5,820 new apartments from former office spaces from 2021 to 2024, more than New York City. But current programs are just a start. Affordable DC accelerates conversions by:
Creating a Downtown Conversion Overlay Zone that makes residential by-right, eliminating the special approvals that currently add 12–18 months to conversion timelines
Expanding tax incentives with bigger breaks for projects delivering affordable units, cultural space, or community facilities
Creating a Conversion Fund to provide financing for developers converting empty offices
Updating building codes with rules written specifically for conversions that maintains safety while recognizing existing structure constraints
Prioritizing mixed-use conversions that rebuild a functioning downtown: cultural venues, maker spaces, small business incubators, workforce training centers, daycare facilities, and community health clinics. Not everything needs to be apartments.
Tax Relief to Keep Building
DC construction permitting dropped 83% between 2022 and 2024. New housing starts hit their lowest level in 15 years. The market is telling developers to build elsewhere. Targeted tax relief will help bring them back.
Property tax reductions for projects that include affordable apartments or convert office space to housing, adapted from proven models in Portland, Oregon and Washington State:
10-year property tax reduction for projects where at least 10% of units are affordable
12–20 year reductions for projects with deeper affordability (affordable to households earning 30–50% of the area median income) or in high-priority conversion zones
Sunset clause: relief phases out as the market recovers, calibrated to vacancy rates and production metrics
Every affordable apartment created under this program carries a permanent, legally binding affordability covenant
This is not a giveaway to developers. It is an exchange: the city reduces the tax bill on buildings in return for affordable units with permanent covenants. The city forgoes short-term tax revenue on buildings that might not be built at all without the incentive, and gains permanently affordable housing in return. When the market recovers, the sunset clause phases out the relief.
"Affordability doesn't end when you sign the lease or close on a home. It's about whether you can still afford to live there five years from now — after the assessment goes up, after the boiler breaks, after utility rates climb. A housing plan that ignores the cost of staying is only solving half the problem." — Gary Goodweather
Keep It Affordable. Permanently.
Affordable DC treats permanent affordability like infrastructure — built once, shared forever.
Community Land Trusts. A community land trust is a nonprofit that owns land permanently and leases it to families who own their homes on that land. Because the land is removed from the speculative market, housing costs stay stable no matter what happens to property values in the neighborhood. When a family sells, a resale formula ensures the next buyer also pays a below-market price. The family builds real wealth. The home stays affordable. No expiration date.
DC's Douglass Community Land Trust has already proven the model works — including a Brookland home appraised at $950,000 listed through the trust at $410,000, permanently removed from the speculative market. A national study found that 99% of land trust homes avoided foreclosure over a 30-year period across 4,000 homes in 20 states.
Consider the math: a home valued at $555,000, made affordable at 50% AMI, requires an initial investment of about $393,000. Under a traditional expiring covenant, that investment disappears after 40 years and the home reverts to market rate. Under a CLT, the initial subsidy is a one-time investment. Over three generations, a single land trust investment preserves affordability that would otherwise require $1.5–2 million in repeated subsidies. Community Land Trusts are not a program. They are infrastructure.
Social Housing. Publicly owned, permanently affordable, mixed-income housing — a teacher, a bus driver, and a young professional in the same building. The city retains ownership. Rents are based on what families earn, not on what the market demands. Market-rate units in the same building help cover costs. Vienna houses 60% of its residents this way. Denver voters approved a dedicated fund for social housing in 2023. Montgomery County runs a version regionally. Social housing is not experimental — it is proven infrastructure, and American cities are building it now.
Section 8 to Equity. A first-of-its-kind program creating a pathway from renting with a housing voucher to owning a home through a community land trust. Long-term voucher holders — stable families who have rented in the same home for years with no way to build wealth — receive homeownership preparation, and their rental subsidy converts to mortgage support for a CLT home. The family builds wealth. The home stays affordable. The public investment grows instead of expiring.
Public Land for Public Good. When the District disposes of surplus land for residential development, community land trust ownership is the default. Affordability covenants on public land are permanent — not 15 years, not 40 years, but in perpetuity.
From Renting to Owning
TOPA — the Tenant Opportunity to Purchase Act — was enacted in 1980 with a worthy goal: give tenants the first opportunity to buy their building when it's sold. But an independent study by the D.C. Policy Center found that 95% of the apartments that go through this process remain rentals. What remains is a process that does not effectively give tenants a path to ownership. TOPA also disproportionately burdens small landlords with delays of up to 420 days on building sales.
Affordable DC replaces the status quo with an Ownership Agenda that delivers what tenants actually want: stable housing, real buying power, and real pathways to ownership.
Cooperative Conversion Program: A dedicated fund providing purchase financing, bridge loans, and hands-on support to tenant groups buying their buildings as cooperatives. Professional support from day one — legal counsel, financial structuring, property management training.
DC Homebuilding Act: DC doesn't have a shortage of homes for sale by accident. It has one by policy. We will reform the rules that make it nearly impossible to build condominiums in DC — replacing a system that invites lawsuits with one that requires upfront inspections, warranty protections, and expanding down payment assistance for first-time condo buyers.
Tenant-to-Owner Collaboration Program: Structured partnerships between existing tenants and building owners to redevelop aging rental properties into ownership housing. Owners get faster permits and tax incentives. Tenants get relocation support, a guaranteed right to come back, and first opportunity to buy.
Tenant protections stay strong: Legal representation during building sales, advance notice and relocation support, affordability protections on all publicly funded buildings, and a 30-day first opportunity for registered cooperative and land trust organizations to make an offer
Lower the Cost of Staying in Your Home
Every housing debate in DC focuses on whether people can afford to move in. That's the right place to start. It's the wrong place to stop. For DC's 170,000 homeowner households, the biggest ongoing threat is the property tax bill that climbs every year, the repairs they can't afford to make, and the utility costs that eat up more and more of their income
DC's residential property tax rate of $0.85 per $100 of assessed value is among the lowest in the region. But home values have surged. A home purchased for $350,000 a decade ago may now be assessed at $600,000 or more — and the tax bill has risen with it. The current rule limits tax increases to 10% per year, but 10% compounding over a decade still doubles what you owe. Meanwhile, the program that cuts property taxes in half for seniors and disabled homeowners has seen enrollment decline from nearly 24,000 beneficiaries to approximately 19,000, even as the senior population has grown.
Long-term residents — disproportionately Black homeowners, seniors, and families east of the river — are being taxed out of homes they own outright.
Improvement Protection Credit. Fix your roof, upgrade your insulation, add accessibility features — and your property tax assessment will not increase for five years as a result. After five years, the value phases in gradually over three additional years. No separate application needed — the city identifies qualifying improvements automatically through existing permit records
Stronger Homestead Protections. Increase the standard homeowner tax deduction from $89,850 to $120,000 and tie it to home value growth so it doesn't lose value over time. For people who have owned and lived in their home for 10 or more years, cut the annual cap on tax assessment increases from 10% to 5%.
Bigger Tax Credits for Working Families. Raise DC's existing income-based property tax and rent credit from $1,425 to $2,000, increase income ceilings to $80,000 (non-senior) and $110,000 (senior), and index both to CPI. Fund targeted outreach through DHCD and Serve DC so more eligible residents actually receive the benefit.
Small Landlord Tax Relief. Owner-occupants of 2–4 unit buildings who maintain at least half of rental apartments at affordable rents receive a 25% property tax reduction on the rental portion. This keeps naturally occurring affordable housing in the market instead of losing it to institutional investors who renovate and raise rents to market rate.
Utility Cost Reduction. Weatherization fast-track for the lowest-income homeowner households. Green improvement incentives that lower monthly bills. Rental property energy disclosure so tenants can evaluate total cost of occupancy before signing a lease.
A housing strategy that builds 50,000 new units while losing existing homeowners to tax displacement is not an acceptable strategy.
Transparency and Accountability
You cannot manage what you do not measure.
DC's housing agencies have failed residents too many times. A federal review in 2022 condemned DC's public housing authority for systemic failures. Council-allocated community land trust funding was never disbursed. Affordability enforcement is underfunded at $1.1 million for 2,600+ units with most properties not even submitting required compliance reports. This plan means nothing without accountability.
Audit of DC's Housing Agency within the first 100 days — examining how Housing Production Trust Fund dollars have been allocated, which projects delivered, and which did not. Results published in full.
Affordable Housing Equity Map published annually with ward and neighborhood targets — showing which areas are meeting commitments and which are contributing near-zero. Every policy in this plan references the Equity Map for targeting.
Public Housing Pipeline Dashboard — every project name, location, unit count, permitting stage, timeline, and funding source — updated monthly and presented to Council quarterly.
Automatic Escalation Triggers — if construction, conversion, or affordability delivery fall below published thresholds, the plan requires escalation.
What We Will Accomplish
More homes built in DC than any administration in a generation
Permanently affordable housing in every neighborhood
Real pathways from renting to owning for families
A city where improving your home doesn't price you out of it
Common Questions
"Building more housing won't help affordability."
Every serious study of housing markets confirms that supply constraints drive up costs. DC permitted 83% fewer multifamily units in 2024 than 2022. Rents rose. Production alone is not sufficient — which is why this plan pairs supply with permanent affordability tools: community land trusts, social housing, covenants that never expire, and verified affordability outcomes. But without production, affordability is impossible at scale.
"Does the IZ reform pilot let developers buy their way out?"
No. The tax rate is calibrated so the affordability contribution is equivalent to on-site IZ. The difference is efficiency: in high-cost neighborhoods like Rock Creek West, the Urban Institute estimates existing building covenants deliver affordable units at roughly half the per-unit cost of new-build set-asides — approximately $846/month vs. $1,598 for a 1BR at 60% AMI. Everyone contributes. The city gets more affordable housing per dollar.
"Are you weakening tenant protections?"
No. Tenants retain Right to Counsel, notice rights, relocation protections, and anti-displacement covenants on all publicly funded buildings. What changes is that we replace a process where 95% of transactions don't produce ownership with programs that do: cooperatives, condominiums, tenant-owner partnerships, and Section 8 to Equity.
"Office conversions are too expensive."
They are expensive. But DC already leads the nation in adaptive reuse — 5,820 units converted from 2021 to 2024, more than New York City. As office values decline, conversion economics improve. And the cost of leaving half-empty buildings to bleed commercial tax revenue while our housing shortage deepens is higher.
"Property tax relief benefits wealthy homeowners."
The Improvement Protection Credit, assessment cap reduction, and Schedule H enhancement are all targeted to moderate- and lower-income homeowners. The homestead deduction applies only to owner-occupants, not investors. The small landlord relief requires affordable rents as a condition. These are anti-displacement tools, not wealth transfers.
"Community Land Trusts can't scale."
DC's Douglass CLT has already proven the model works — including a Brookland home that was appraised at $950,000 and listed through the trust at $410,000, permanently removed from the speculative market. Houston is building the largest CLT in the country. What's been missing in DC is sustained public investment — not proof of concept.
"This will cost too much."
The cost of inaction is higher. When housing production collapses, the city loses property tax revenue, construction jobs, and residents. When families are displaced, the city loses workforce stability, school enrollment, and community continuity. A single CLT subsidy preserves affordability over three generations that would otherwise require $1.5–2 million in repeated subsidies. This plan is an investment in fiscal health.
"Is the 36,000 affordable target realistic?"
18,000 are guaranteed through income-restricted mechanisms: IZ reform, CLTs, social housing, and production tax relief. The other 18,000 are market-rate units made affordable because the city removed the costs that made them expensive — verified through a published three-part test at first lease-up. If verification shows the pass-through isn't working, guaranteed targets increase proportionally. The commitment is to 36,000 affordable homes.
What's Next
This page is a high-level overview. The full policy proposal — with more details, fiscal analysis, technical appendices, and accountability frameworks — will be made available for download in the coming weeks. We will continue refining Affordable DC with residents, tenants, tenant leaders, housing experts, builders, and advocates across every ward so it holds up under scrutiny and delivers measurable results.