DC Mayor Vincent Gray's Promise of Affordable Housing




This article about mayor Gray's "effort" to create affordable housing appeared in today's City Paper: http://www.washingtoncitypaper.com/blogs/housingcomplex/2013/03/12/gray-task-force-unveil-proposals-for-affordable-housing/ . In began to send an e-mail response to my associates here in DC; but, then it occurred to me that my e-mail was, in essence, a blog post. So, after reading the article, read my post below.....

Gray has committed to the creation of 10,000 units of affordable housing by 2020 (5 years after the term that he's serving ends, with there being uncertainty as to whether or not he'll win in 2014 or be able to complete a second term, being in his 70"s).

While I commend his "effort", his math is way off. $100M for 10,000 units comes out to $10,000 per unit, with the cost of creating a single apartment unit in DC exceeding $100,000. The article says that it would take $500M to $1 billion to keep his promise. I also made that point during the March 5th Press Conference on Poverty which took place in the Wilson Building (City Hall). One of the people quoted in the article called it "a wonderful down payment". So, we'll take it for what it's worth.

I take issue with this quote though: "Our vision is simple and aspirational: The District of Columbia is a city that provides housing that is affordable for all who wish to live and work here," I'm left to wonder how many of the jobs in DC pay considerably lower than $30/hr ($60,000/yr.) which is the amount required to live in DC where the rent averages $1,600/month. Is Gray going to make housing affordable for every McDonald's employee and carpenter's helper? After all, such jobs contribute to the life of the city.

The answer may be encrypted into the article, though it's not hard to find if you're paying attention -- and doing the math. Mayor Gray plans to create 3,000 units of market-rate housing every year through 2020. he plans to create 10,000 units of affordable housing by 2020. That means that in the seven years that it takes to create 10,000 units of affordable housing, he will have created 21,000 units of market-rate housing. So, the low-wage worker is still being squeezed out of DC -- at the end of the workday, after they've contributed to the life of the city.

I qualify my last statement with a few facts. Over 7,000 of DC's 620,000 residents (about 1 in 90) is homeless. About 70,000 people were recently on the DC Housing Authority's wait list. At least 100,000 families in the city are rent-burdened, paying more than one-third of their income in rent. At least 50,000 of those families are extremely rent-burdened, paying at least half of their income in rent. Recent stats have indicated that a net gain of about 1,100 new residents per month (13,200 per year) are moving to DC which means that there is a lot of high-end development taking place in addition to the 3,000 units per year that Gray is proposing.

So, whether you compare Gray's 1,428 units of affordable housing per year to the thousands of market rate units going up every year or to the large and growing number of needy, homeless and rent-burdened people, it's just a drop in the bucket. But as I said earlier, we'll take it for what it's worth.

All of this talk about affordable housing raises the question: "How do we define the ambiguous phrase 'affordable housing'" Many of the homeless and housing advocates will tell you that you shouldn't need to spend more that 30% of your income on rent. But that still doesn't answer the question of what income bracket mayor Gray will cater to with this pot of money. his budget director said (off the record) on March 5th that the mayor is focused on helping those that make 30% or less of the AMI (area median income) which stands at around $110,000 in the DC Metro area right now. But his statements were not reflected in the article. Let's hope that he's right.

Here is the Fairbudget Coalition's list of recommendations on how gray should spend the $100M: http://washingtonlegalclinic.wordpress.com/


Comments

Tiago said…
There are a lot of buildings projects around the world to deal with this problem, but most of them failed because doing this is not as simple as it looks. After every big business is always the corruption risk, because someone may do a fortune if he knows the right guys. Many projects are never concluded specially if the opposition removes the current government in the next elections. And many other problems. Nevertheless I have seen really helpful apartment in buenos aires, in Río de Janeiro and in East Europe; I believe that if 1 of 10 projects came up wrong, it still worth make the project.
July 6, 2013 at 2:03 PM
Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

DC Mayor Muriel Bowser & Donald Trump: "Tearing it Down" Like 2 Peas in a Pod ('buridiocy")

Now that Donald Trump is occupying the White House (as our first "non-president"), many people have taken to expressing their fears on social media. Others, like myself, want to understand what types of damage he'll do and to see what we can do in the way of a "pre-emptive strike" -- like those that Bush 43 initiated against Saddam Hussein in a "buridiotic" war to stop him from using the WMD's that he didn't have in the first place. Though it might seem to be an impossible feat, I've been able to find a method to Trump's madness. In short, he's the "developer/mayor-in-chief". He seems to support the fascistic policies that have become all too common among local governments in the "Untied" States and he'll use the federal government to enforce them and bring about more of the same. Imagine a mayor and a developer working together to operate a tank and you've got the Donald. For some years now, various A...
Read more

She's Come This Far By Faith: Mother of 37, Grandmother of over 50 Turns 80 Soon

Image
************************************************************************ You read the title correctly.  My mother, Joanne Elizabeth  (Tedesco)  Sheptock and my Father, Rudolph Peter Sheptock, Sr  (who never changed "Sr" to "I" when my nephew was born),  raised 37 children.  They had seven biological children and  adopted 30 . My brother Jonathan (whose first name is my middle name) passed away in 2007 as my eldest sister Mary Grace sat beside him in the hospital. In addition to 36 surviving sons ad daughters,  my mother has at least 46 grandchildren, 11 grandchildren and many sons- and daughters-in-law  (me having asked most recently around Thanksgiving 2015). She spends her days keeping up with  over 100 people . Dad died on September 13th, 2000, with my older brother Robert having taken a leave of absence from his job at Shands Hospital in Gainesville, Florida to help care for Dad in his last days. It also helped that Mo...
Read more

DC Mayor Thinks Homeless Woman "CHOSE" To Die In Front Of Shelter

I usually don't blog just 2 days apart; but, certain recent developments in the case of the homeless woman who died in front of a homeless shelter warrant me blogging so close together. As it turns out, the Washington Post and the Washington Times have covered the story (which can be found on-line) and the family of the deceased might sue DC Government and/or the shelter in court. Furthermore, DC Mayor Adrian Fenty is on record as saying that the woman "chose" to forgo shelter and sleep outside. (I doubt he ever met her.) As the Washington Post article stated, the deceased was recorded on audio tape just 2 days before her death stating why she was not in the shelter (though I'm not sure as to whether or not it was as detailed as what she told me). Below is my June 9th post, which is followed by some "Additional Comments" about this wrongful death..... June 9th: This will, no doubt, prove to be the single most emotion-provoking blog post that I've...
Read more