506 H-1.4 HOUSING AND NEIGHBORHOOD REVITALIZATION

506.1 Housing programs alone cannot create a livable, inclusive District. Linking housing programs to efforts to reduce poverty, improve schools, provide quality retail, and upgrade services, such as childcare and job training is an important part of attracting and retaining residents. Renovation of schools, libraries, health centers, parks and playgrounds, sidewalks and bike lanes, and other neighborhood amenities affect a community's social opportunities and can influence housing choice. These actions will attract new supply to a wider range of underinvested areas and broaden Washington, DC's affordability. Economic development initiatives can generate income and employment, which create the means to expand housing opportunities. These types of investments can help to affirmatively further fair housing choice across the District. Data on public safety, employment, income, education, and other variables can help guide investment to improve housing equity and the quality of life in all District neighborhoods.

506.2 Starting in 2000, the District targeted capital investments to several formerly underserved areas for economic and social recovery. Twelve areas were designated as Strategic Neighborhood Improvement Program (SNIP) areas, with accompanying investments in housing, schools, streetscape, parks, and other public facilities. One of the shared characteristics of these areas was the opportunity for infill development on scattered vacant and abandoned sites.

506.3 While SNIP is no longer active, its focused approach provided important lessons for neighborhood revitalization. For instance, total public investment in Columbia Heights included the Metro station, new and existing affordable housing, five new public spaces or recreation centers, and three new or totally remodeled public school facilities and targeted the reduction of vacant or underused properties. The Metro station is now the most heavily used outside of downtown. Home value appreciation since 2000 has been one of the highest in Washington, DC, and it has some of the highest market rate rents. The Columbia Heights neighborhood is also one of the most diverse neighborhoods, where approximately 18 percent of the housing supply is subsidized affordable rental housing; however, the area also experienced displacement of lower income Black and Latino residents.

506.4 Similar efforts have been made through the PADD Program, which acquires and disposes of vacant properties to private and non-profit developers through a land subsidy. The program requires that 30 percent of the new units created in each bundle of properties are sold to households at or below 60 percent of the MFI (see text box entitled Home Again/Property Acquisition and Disposition).

506.4a Text box: Home Again/Property Acquisition and Disposition

The Department of Housing and Community Development's (DHCD) Home Again Initiative, which became PADD in 2008, was launched in January 2002

with the goal of creating homeownership opportunities for persons of all incomes. PADD is responsible for acquiring and disposing of vacant and abandoned properties in the District, as well as stabilization of the vacant properties it owns. Initially, the program focused on nine neighborhoods with a higher average of such vacant and abandoned properties: Columbia Heights, Ivy City/Trinidad, Near Northeast, Shaw/LeDroit Park, Rosedale, Deanwood, Marshall Heights, Anacostia, and Bellevue. PADD is working to dispose its current inventory. As it does, it should strategically acquire vacant buildings and land.

506.4a1 Text Box: The New Communities Initiative

New Communities Initiative (NCI) is a District-led initiative that has the potential to reduce crime, improve neighborhood schools and health services, and create economic opportunities for affordable housing residents. The initiative is a partnership between the District government and the private and nonprofit sectors to produce new housing, reduce violent crime, and create a healthy environment for families in some of Washington, DC's most vulnerable neighborhoods.

506.4a2 NCI is using District local and capital funding sources, tax exempt bonds, low-income housing tax credits, federal funds, and private investment to create mixed-income housing opportunities in these areas. One-for-one replacement of older publicly assisted housing units with new affordable units is necessary to avoid displacement and the net loss of affordable units. In addition, the initiative attempts to use surrounding public and private parcels to build the replacement affordable housing first and minimize temporary displacement of residents from their neighborhood. Market rate and moderate-income housing units are included in each project to cross-subsidize the affordable units and create a mix of incomes and unit types in each project.

506.4a3 NCI seeks to advance many community development and housing goals, such as promoting affordable housing across all incomes and household sizes, furthering fair housing opportunities, and preserving affordable housing. NCI aims to eliminate substandard housing and provide public housing residents with affordable replacement housing in the new community as it is redeveloped.

506.4a4 Planning for the first new community (Northwest One) started in 2004. The first component, completed in 2011, was the new Walker Jones Elementary School, and the first three buildings of replacement housing were completed in 2011, 2013, and 2014. A major portion of the remaining project received predevelopment approvals in 2016. In the end, the Northwest One New Community Plan will replace more than 500 units of subsidized housing in this neighborhood with a total of 1,500 units of mixed-income housing.

506.4a5 Three additional communities (Barry Farm, Lincoln Heights/Richardson Dwellings, and Park Morton) were added and are in various stages of review and

completion. Over the next 10 years, a total of 10 mixed-income developments will provide new community amenities, such as schools, libraries, and recreation centers in each neighborhood. When completed, the four projects within NCI will upgrade 1,500 affordable units within larger mixed-income communities totaling 5,000-6,000 new units.

506.4a6 In implementation, NCI projects have taken significantly longer than anticipated and not always aligned with the expectations of the affected communities or commitments of the initiative to redevelop communities with older public housing into mixed income neighborhoods while avoiding the displacement of residents and a net loss of affordable housing.

506.4a7 The first demolition for Northwest One began in 2008, while the anticipated completion of the last stage with over half of the affordable replacement units is set for 2023. While providing around 1500 units to replace the original 520 units, a third of which are affordable to low-income or extremely low-income households, respectively, and a third of which are market rate, the District was not able to meet its displacement goals and instead showed that its commitment to existing low-income residents must be stronger.

506.4a8 The District rescinded on the commitment to build first at Barry Farm and residents were moved for demolition that began in 2019. The build first commitment currently remains in place for Lincoln Heights/Richardson Dwellings and Park Morton. Although a 2014 evaluation found that building first would be costly and slow for Park Morton, the District is continuing to seek ways to avoid a full relocation of the community's residents prior to rebuilding. The three projects have resulted in the relocation of nearly 1,000 households to temporary housing. This creates an imperative for the District to cultivate continued community connections for displaced residents and remove all obstacles to returning, such as tenant eligibility screening.

506.5 On a much larger scale, the District of Columbia Housing Authority (DCHA) has rebuilt entire communities through the federal HOPE VI Program, which is now called the Choice Neighborhoods Program, replacing deteriorating public affordable housing projects like the Frederick Douglass and Stanton Dwellings with new mixed-income neighborhoods like Henson Ridge. More recent sites within the Choice Neighborhoods program include Kenilworth/Parkside, which received local planning approval in 2016. Similar efforts have been proposed through NCI (see text box entitled The New Communities Initiative). HOPE VI redevelopments often resulted in the original residents moving to other communities and the new developments having fewer affordable units than the prior properties. The policies for Choice Neighborhoods and NCI place more emphasis on minimizing displacement, ensuring a right to return, and one-for-one replacement of affordable units, although the polices are not yet showing different

results.

Federal funding, not only neighborhood revitalization efforts but also routine maintenance of public housing and other dedicated affordable housing, has fluctuated but remained far below the minimum needed for capital repairs and improvements for decades. This creates an increasingly difficult challenge for the District to meet the housing needs of extremely-low-income households. DCHA is working to repair or redevelop approximately 2,600 affordable housing units with immediate critical needs and establish a longer-term plan for the remaining capital needs within its portfolio of publicly assisted housing, as described in the August 2019 Working Draft of Our People, Our Portfolio, Our Plan. To support DCHA's 20-year Transformation Plan, the District can contribute resources to supplement federal shortfalls; enhance existing policies, tools, and programs for resident protection and engagement; and support the capacity of DCHA to use proven and emerging approaches for housing production, preservation, public housing operations, and other housing opportunities.

506.6 Policy H-1.4.1: Restoration of Vacant Housing

Target neighborhoods with a higher presence of vacant and abandoned buildings and make the restoration of vacant housing units a major government priority. Where restoration receives public funding, ensure that a substantial share of the renovated units are made available to persons with disabilities or are deeply affordable.

506.7 Policy H-1.4.2: Opportunities for Upward Mobility

Provide opportunities for residents of District-owned and District-assisted housing to achieve self-sufficiency and upward mobility. Specifically, explore mechanisms for residents of District-owned and District-assisted housing to become homeowners. At the same time, work to replace units purchased with new District-owned and District-assisted housing stock.

506.8 Policy H-1.4.3: Focusing Housing Investments

Direct housing improvement funds to neighborhoods with the greatest potential for sustained improvement, based on demographics, market forces, equity considerations that consider existing racial gaps in housing access and opportunity, historic and current barriers, the presence of neighborhood partners and anchor institutions, and similar factors.

506.9 Policy H-1.4.4: Public Housing Renovation

Public housing is a critical part of meeting the demand for affordable housing and preventing displacement. Continue efforts to transform underfunded public housing projects to create equitable mixed-income neighborhoods. An equitable mixed-income neighborhood is one in which residents describe the neighborhood as safe for them and responsive to their concerns and ideas. Inform and engage

the affected community throughout the redevelopment process. Target such efforts to locations where private sector development interest can be leveraged to assist in the revitalization, and support community programs and services that assist with creating and maintaining equity. Redevelopment of public housing must achieve all applicable strategies listed in 510.4a.

506.10 Policy H-1.4.5: Scattered Site Acquisition

Encourage the acquisition of individual properties on scattered sites for use as affordable housing to deconcentrate poverty, provide more opportunities to low-income persons to attend long-standing high-performing schools in their neighborhoods, and promote and support the integration of low-income households into the community at large.

506.11 Policy H-1.4.6: Whole Neighborhood Approach

Ensure that planning and new construction of housing is accompanied by concurrent planning and programs to improve neighborhood services, schools, job training, childcare, services for older adults, food access, parks, libraries, community gardens, and open spaces, health care facilities, police and fire facilities, transportation, and emergency response capacity.

506.12 Action H-1.4.A: Renovation and Rehabilitation of Public Affordable Housing

Continue federal and local programs to rehabilitate and rebuild the District's affordable housing units, including the Choice Neighborhood program, Rental Assistance Demonstration (RAD) Program, capital and modernization programs, the CDBG Program, and the District-sponsored NCI.

506.13 Action H-1.4.B: Home Again Initiative/PADD

Continue support for PADD as a strategy for reducing neighborhood vacancies, restoring an important part of the District's historic fabric, and providing mixed-income housing in neighborhoods with a significant presence of vacant or abandoned residential properties.

506.14 Action H-1.4.C: DCHA Improvements

Continue improving the operations of the District's existing publicly assisted housing, Housing Choice Voucher, and Local Rent Supplement Programs, including the Family Self Sufficiency program, voucher homeownership, the use of submarket rents to increase use of vouchers in high-cost neighborhoods, and the RAD Program as needed for financing capital needs. Support residents' aspirations and skill building, such as through coaching, resident hiring and workforce development programs.

506.15 Action H-1.4.D: Tax Abatement

Consider geographically targeted tax abatements and other financial incentives to encourage market rate housing with affordable housing that exceeds minimum 1Z

standards in areas where housing must compete with office space for land, similar to the former Downtown Tax Abatement Program. Abatements should consider the potential created by the conversion of existing office space to residential. The potential costs and benefits of tax abatements must be thoroughly analyzed as such programs are considered.

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Action H-1.4.E: Additional Public Housing

Support DCHA's planning goals for its public housing units by developing strategies to meet the needs of existing units and create additional units. Use subsidies from HUD under the public housing Annual Contributions Contract (ACC), RAD, and other sources. Identify methods to use DCHA and HUD programs and resources to acquire or develop additional publicly assisted housing dedicated to extremely-low-income households for the life of the building or in perpetuity.

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Action H-1.4.F: Non-Housing Investment in Areas of Concentrated Poverty

Make non-housing neighborhood economic and community development investments and preserve existing subsidized affordable housing in R/ECAP (as defined by HUD) to improve neighborhood amenities and attract private sector investment to expand housing supply.

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Action H-1.4.G: Co-Location of Housing with Public Facilities

As part of Facility Master Plans and the Capital Improvement Program, conduct a review of and maximize any opportunities to co-locate mixed-income, multi-family housing, emphasizing affordable housing, when there is a proposal for a new or substantially upgraded local public facility, particularly in high-cost areas.

SOURCE: District of Columbia Comprehensive Plan Act of 1984, effective April 10, 1984 (D.C. Law 5-76; 31 DCR 1049 (March 9, 1984)); as amended by District of Columbia Comprehensive Plan Act of 1984 Land Use Element Amendment Act of 1984, effective March 16, 1985 (D.C. Law 5-187; 32 DCR 873 (February 15, 1985)); as amended by District of Columbia Comprehensive Plan Amendments Act of 1989, effective May 23, 1990 (D.C. Law 8-129; 37 DCR 55 (January 5, 1990)); as amended by District of Columbia Comprehensive Plan Amendments Act of 1989 NCPC-Recommended Amendments, and Closing of Public Alleys in Square 669, S.O. 88-452, Act of 1990, effective May 23, 1990 (D.C. Law 8-132; 37 DCR 2213 (April 6, 1990)); as amended by District Government Land Use Temporary Amendment Act of 1994, effective October 1, 1994 (D.C. Law 10-190; 41 DCR 5360 (August 12, 1994)); as amended by Comprehensive Plan Amendments Act of 1994, effective October 6, 1994 (D.C. Law 10-193; 41 DCR 5536 (August 19, 1994)); as amended by District of Columbia Comprehensive Plan Act of 1984 Land Use Amendment Act of 1994, effective March 21, 1995 (D.C. Law 10-235; 42 DCR 30 (January 6, 1995)); as amended by Technical Amendments Act of 1996 effective April 18, 1996 (D.C. Law 11-110; 43 DCR 530 (February 9, 1996)); as amended by Second Technical Amendments Act of 1996 effective April 9, 1997 (D.C. Law 11-255; 44 DCR 1271 (March 7, 1997)); as amended by Comprehensive Plan Amendment Act of 1998, effective April 27, 1999 (D.C. Law 12-275; 46 DCR 1441 (February 19, 1999)); as amended by Technical Amendments Act of 1999, effective April 12, 2000 (D.C. Law 13-91; 47 DCR 520 (January 28, 2000)); as amended by Comprehensive Plan Amendment Act of 2006, effective March 8, 2007 (D.C. Law 16-300; 54 DCR 924 (February 2, 2007)); as amended by Technical Amendments Act of 2008, effective March 25, 2009 (D.C. Law 17-353; 56 DCR 1117 (February 6, 2009)); as amended by Comprehensive Plan Amendment Act of 2010, effective April 8, 2011 (D.C. Law 18-361; 58 DCR 908 (February 4, 2011)); as amended by Comprehensive Plan Amendment Act of 2021, effective August 21,

2021 (D.C. Law 24-20; 68 DCR 006918 (July 16, 2021)).