513 H-3.1 ENCOURAGING HOMEOWNERSHIP

513.1 Nationwide, about two-thirds of all households are homeowners. In the District, the 2000 census reported the homeownership rate was just 41 percent. After 2000, the homeownership rate slowly increased to 46 percent until 2006; then the national mortgage collapse caused sharp increases in foreclosures and many lost their homes. Homeownership has since declined and by 2017 stood at 42 percent in Washington, DC. Instability in the homeownership market and limited access to credit has caused many to select rental housing. These national factors are affecting all cities, but the District still has one of the lowest rates of homeownership in the country, well below Philadelphia (53 percent), Baltimore (45 percent), and Chicago (43 percent), although higher than the 32 percent rate in New York and the 34 percent rate in Boston. The ownership rate in the District has increased four percentage points since 1980, when 35 percent of Washington, DC's households were homeowners. Homeownership for white residents is 49 percent, but only 35 percent for Black residents and 30 percent for Latino residents.

513.2 Home prices create a significant obstacle to increasing the homeownership rate. In September 2015, only 38 percent of the homes on the market with two or more bedrooms were affordable to the median income family, and this does not reflect the significant disparity in median income by race, with white households at $143,150 and Black households at $35,563. While the recent increase in the supply of condominiums has improved homeownership prospects somewhat, the options for multigenerational families continue to be limited.

513.3 DHCD administers several programs to help residents purchase homes. These include PADD, which acquires tax-delinquent properties and bids them out to small developers who fix up the properties and sell or rent them primarily for affordable housing. It also includes the Home Purchase Assistance Program (HPAP), which offers interest-free and low-interest loans to qualified residents for the purchase of houses, condominiums, or cooperative apartments. The District also provides grants and deferred loans to government employees who are first-time homebuyers. These programs are an important part of the District's efforts to provide moderate-income housing for its residents (see text box entitled Meeting the Need for Moderate-Income Housing).

513.3a Text box: Meeting the Need for Moderate-Income Housing

As housing prices have outpaced income growth in many U.S. cities, housing advocates and policy makers have called for initiatives to provide moderate-income housing. Moderate-income housing refers to housing designed for people in professions that are essential to a community but do not offer sufficient wages to afford market rate housing. These professions include administrative support, clerical occupations, and service jobs, and account for one-third of the jobs in the

American workforce. In the District, Black residents hold the majority of service jobs, at 54 percent, highlighting the need to also address housing barriers from a racial equity perspective.

513.3b Even with two working parents in the service industries, a family would have a difficult time purchasing a home or renting a suitable apartment in the District. Janitors, schoolteachers, licensed nurses, police officers, childcare professionals, and other service workers have been priced out of the District market and many other markets across the country. New programs, such as employer-assisted housing and down payment assistance for public sector employees, are being pursued to provide more options and keep these essential workers in Washington, DC.

513.4 In 2013, Washington, DC piloted a partnership with three employers called the Live Near Your Work (LNYW) Program. The partnership matched a contribution made by employers to provide down payment assistance to encourage employees to live close to their work. Housing tends to be more expensive the closer it is to major job centers. The LNYW Program pilot demonstrated the value of the assistance toward encouraging employees to live closer to work. Evaluations of similar programs across the country have documented the savings in travel time and costs, improvement in employee quality of life, and benefits to the employers in terms of employee performance and turnover.

513.5 Policy H-3.1.1: Increasing Homeownership

Enhance community stability by promoting homeownership and creating opportunities for first-time homebuyers in the District. Provide loans, grants, and other District programs to raise the District's homeownership rate from its year 2016 figure of 39 percent to a year 2025 figure of 44 percent. These programs and opportunities should acknowledge and address the significant racial gaps and barriers to home ownership. Increased opportunities for homeownership should not be provided at the expense of the District's rental housing programs or through the displacement of low-income renters.

513.6 Policy H-3.1.2: First-Time Buyer Income Targets

Structure homeownership and down payment assistance programs to benefit working families with incomes between 50 percent and 120 percent of the MFI.

513.7 Policy H-3.1.3: Asset Development Through Homeownership

Support paths to homeownership that build and sustain equity and develop assets for the transfer of intergenerational wealth, especially for low- and moderate-income households.

513.8 Action H-3.1.A: HPAP Program

Maintain and expand the District's HPAP by periodically reviewing and

establishing appropriate amounts of assistance to continue advancing affordable homeownership for low-income households.

513.9 Action H-3.1.B: District Employer Assisted Housing Program

Strengthen the District government's existing Employer Assisted Housing (EAH) Program by increasing the amount of EAH awards and removing limitations on applicants seeking to combine EAH assistance with HPAP funds.513.10 Action H-3.1.C: New EAH Programs

Encourage major employers in Washington, DC to develop EAH programs for moderate- and middle-income housing, including:- • Private sector employee benefit packages that include grants, forgivable loans, and on-site homeownership seminars for first-time buyers;

- • Federal programs that would assist income-eligible federal workers who currently rent in the District;

- • Programs designed to encourage employees to live close to their work to reduce travel time and cost and increase their quality of life; and

- • Linking EAH efforts with performance-based incentives for attracting new employers.513.11 Action H-3.1.D: Individual Development Accounts

Invest in programs that support Individual Development Accounts that assist low-income persons to save for first-time home purchases.513.12 Action H-3.1.E: Neighborhood Housing Finance

Expand housing finance and counseling services for very low-, low-, and moderate-income homeowners, and improve the oversight and management of these services.513.13 Action H-3.1.F: Foreclosure Prevention

Develop public-private partnerships to raise awareness of foreclosure prevention efforts and to offer assistance to households facing foreclosure.513.14 Action H-3.1.G: Protect Homeowner Equity

Research, identify, and implement as appropriate tools to protect the equity of homeowners and help lower-income and older adult homeowners recover from volatile market forces and adverse events that threaten their equity and status as homeowners.

SOURCE: District of Columbia Comprehensive Plan Act of 1984, effective April 10, 1984 (D.C. Law 5-76; 31 DCR Comprehensive Plan

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)).