by Kesh Ladduwahetty
Ward 3 has come under particular scrutiny recently for its egregious lack of affordable housing, as well it should. But the Mayor’s proposal to address the issue, which the DC Council has very slightly modified, has carefully avoided the 800-pound gorilla: racism. In failing to define the actual problem, they have failed to propose real solutions.
Mayor Bowser’s Housing Equity Report, published last fall, brought needed attention to the fact that Ward 3 is an outlier with regard to the amount of dedicated affordable housing found here. The report pointed out that “Rock Creek West” (which approximates Ward 3) hosts only 470 dedicated affordable units – defined as those restricted to households earning 80% or less of the Median Family Income (MFI). That compares with 6,960 units in “Mid-City” (approximately Ward 1) and 15,760 units in Far Southeast and Southwest (approximately Ward 8). While the statistics are undeniable, they hide the more meaningful reality: the racial imbalance in Ward 3.
Kesh Ladduwahetty
The Mayor’s report recommended building 36,000 new units of housing citywide, with 30% (12,000) being affordable at the 80% MFI level or below by 2025. The highest number of “affordable” units – 1,990 – are proposed to be in Rock Creek West. Much of the public debate around the proposal has centered on zoning and density. But these arguments miss the more important point of racial diversity. Since 70% of the new units would be market rate, our racial mix is not likely to change, given the correlation between income/wealth and race in the US. And since the report fails to specify numbers of affordable units by specific MFI brackets, even these would be at the 80% MFI level ($77,650 for a two-person household), which skews towards white families. Despite the high sounding language about equity and affordability in the report, the proposal is bound to further accentuate the racial imbalance in Ward 3.
To promote this wrong-headed policy, the Mayor calls for investing $4 million annually in the form of tax subsidies for real estate developments in four “high-need” areas, including Rock Creek West. The tax subsidies would start in Fiscal Year 2024, last 40 years and be available for developments with 350 or more units where 30% or more of the units are “affordable”. In other words, let’s forfeit $4 million in tax revenue to subsidize for-profit developers to bring white families to Rock Creek West!
On July 7th, the Council made a slight modification to the Mayor’s proposal, eliminating the requirement relating to the number of units, but did not change its basic nature: using the public treasury to subsidize profitable real estate developments that preserve the racial demographics of Ward 3, all under the rhetorical cloak of equity and affordability. Despite the PR ploys, however, people are not fooled. Amber Harding of the Washington Legal Clinic for the Homeless called the proposal a “developer giveaway.” At-Large Council member Elissa Silverman said during a Council housing committee meeting, “If we are going to put public money into these projects, I think we need deeper affordability to justify the incredible investment of our taxpayers’ dollars.”
We need a housing policy in our ward that is grounded in the historical and current reality of racial segregation and the displacement of Black DC residents, and promotes solutions that actually provide housing for Black families. Upper-income workers and families rely heavily on low-income service workers for everything from janitorial, food service and landscaping services to child care and health care. A study last year by the Coalition for Smarter Growth found that eight of the 20 most common occupations in DC pay less than $30,000, and not a single one of those occupations was between 50% and 80% of MFI.
We need to focus taxpayer subsidies to build housing below 50% of MFI, with specific targets at the zero to 30% level and 30% to 50% level. If private developers won’t agree to those terms, then we need an alternative developer. After watching the DC government fail to meet its own benchmarks for twenty years, continuing the same failed policy of subsidizing private developers means we’ll remain stuck with Upper Caucasia.
Kesh Ladduwahetty is a Sri Lanka immigrant who has lived in Ward 3 for 30 years. She is a graphic artist/designer who spends a great deal of time on political activism, primarily through DC for Democracy.
Leslie Steen says
Right on target. This measure in the budget will not achieve any racial equity. Housing experts have proposed that the new program be changed to reach a broader range of incomes. If it were serving an average of 60% of MFI, it could be combined with the federally funded Low Income Housing Tax Credit to serve 60% of MFI and locally funded tools to serve even lower incomes. With this change it could achieve housing serving 0-60% of MFI. This should be a requirement in Ward 3. Our Mayor and Council Members Mendelson, McDuffie and Bonds have been unwilling to accept the concept. Instead they choose to subsidize 80% of AMI at enormous cost (do the math: 115 units costing $4 million per year for 40 years serving). What is going on here? This is not racial or income equity. Its time to get real about racial and income diversity in Ward 3.
Kate Dell says
Kesh is spot on about how our mayor uses tax payer dollars to support private developers’ projects. Also the basis for eligible income is skewed towards higher wage earners. Let’s pay people a real livable wage and create a more level playing field.
Barbara Lappin says
It seems to me that people who could benefit from affordable housing are not always people of color. To assume so could be a racist comment unto itself, if not horribly patronizing! It may even be insulting to the many financially well off people of color and folks who have worked and saved to buy a home in an area in which they can afford.
Working to buy your own home gives pride in ownership. It’s not just black persons who cannot afford to live in DC. In my experience diversity of color or ethnicity in a community does not mean diversity or disparity in financial equity. Often black and white people in a community community are in dispute with other black and white folk over financial issues. It had nothing to do with race and everything to do with income. Affordable housing what does that mean?
With this attitude of deserving a home because you are low income would be a deterrent from being independent of the system and self sufficient. Why bother getting ahead by working hard.? You could kick back and apply for low income housing. It’s a road to a cyclical self fulfilling prophecy fed by white concupiscence for a skewed sense of philanthropic sainthood. There must be a better way.
Barbara Kraft says
Kesh, thank you for speaking out on this issue. Everyone deserves a home. It represents, for me at least, security, privacy, freedom and my family’s highest value asset. It is in our interest as Ward 3 residents that we live in a diverse, welcoming neighborhood. Making room for people who may not have family wealth or professional incomes enriches our experience and is proof of our common humanity, and of the values we embrace as residents of the nation’s capital.
George Hofmann says
If there is an 800 pound gorilla in the room there are a couple of lesser ones too:in the way of affordable housing in Ward 3:
1. the high cost of land
2. the predominance of single-family homes
Both contribute to making it difficult to move forward
Barbara Kraft says
George, thanks for your comment. Yes, you’re true. There is public land in Ward 3 however, and there is land that belongs to churches and other institutions that the owners/trustees could use for other purposes, including affordable housing. Some formerly large congregations near the Wharf and Navy Yard have swapped some of their real estate to affordable housing developers in exchange for structural improvements. The trick of course is to keep the resulting units affordable.
Barbara
Leslie Steen says
Today the National Low Income Housing Coalition issued an excellent comprehensive report .documenting the systemic shortage of affordable housing and what they call the “housing wage,” the wages needed to afford rents. Working hard – two and three jobs – is not enough to afford housing, especially in the neighborhoods where African Americans historically have been excluded through overt government policy. If you have any doubt about the need for affordable housing, this report should explain it. The report covers the entire country but has specific data on Washington, DC. We are one of the worst in the country. Take a look:
https://reports.nlihc.org/sites/default/files/oor/OOR_BOOK_2020.pdf
As regards the wealth gap and historic housing discrimination against African Americans that is one of the causes of their disproportional need for affordable housing, i will have to find another scholarly source documenting our history.
David Cristeal says
Thank you Kesh for re-starting this conversation. Expanding housing options – rental and ownership -including more affordable housing in Ward 3 is one way to address racial and economic equity. OK, the current tax abatement proposal is substandard and may need adjustment (60% rents instead of 80% rents as Leslie Steen suggests). But what will help is community support and efforts to get the City to invest a proportion of its Housing Production Trust Fund (HPTF) and combining them with other City financial and land use tools. The Housing Production Trust Fund is the City’s primary tool to produce housing for low wage working households. Half (50%) of the HPTF is to help finance units for households earning less than approximately $25k to $40k/year. 40% of the HPTF goes to units for households earning $25k to $65k; the balance, or 10% are for households earning up to approximately $70k-$100. There are other housing finance programs, rental assistance, that also help low wage families. There are several ways to help: 1. Let the City Council, including Council member Mary Cheh, that you support these programs. 2. Contact your ANC and let them know you support these programs. ANC 3F passed a resolution to this effect. 3. Support other efforts that allow the expansion of housing affordability, including the update to the Comprehensive Plan. 4. There is an effort afoot by a group called Ward 3 Vision to have community conversation(s) this fall on this very issue, and how various City policies, including land use planning and housing affect it, Feel free to contact me for more information: 3f01@anc.dc.gov
Barbara Kraft says
Re Leslie’s comment, I heartily recommend this video about Richard Rothstein’s The Color of Law: https://www.segregatedbydesign.com/
Leslie Steen says
Yes, The Color of Law by Richard Rothstein is an excellent book worth reading.
Neil Berger says
I believe that the housing voucher program has in effect made it possible for many more low-income residents to move into more affluent neighborhoods in Washington, DC. Sedgwick Gardens on Connecticut Avenue is a recent case in point.
As far as greater racial diversity in any ward, including Ward 3, one has to question the sincerity of a resident who moves into a a predominantly white or black neighborhood and believes that new housing should be constructed to diversify the demographics. After all, there are many more diverse areas where such residents could choose to live that offer vibrant growth.
Many of us chose to pay more to own a house or property in more expensive areas for the quality of life, the convenience of transportation, and the safety and security. What needs to be discussed are many uncomfortable realities that our housing activists need to face. Why should we underwrite builders so that they can build so-called affordable housing and subsidize low-income residents so that they can live in the same expensive neighborhoods at taxpayer expense? Where is the incentive to improve oneself and move up in the world?
Affordability is a relative term. Low-income is also relative. What is occurring is the squeezing out of middle-class residents in favor of the low-income and the high-income residents. Social justice applies to all people, at all social levels, if it is to be social and just.
G. Nickels says
My husband and I have lived in Ward 3 for nearly five years and on our many walks we often see families of color bounding out of the doors of their beautiful houses. We live in a really nice building and have many nationalities present, and many African Americans neighbors. I have to agree with a previous comment that I think it is an economic issue today, not a racial one. Anyone can live in Ward 3, if they can afford to. That being said, there are different price points, and some are quite modest, if you care to find them.
Green Eyeshades says
Three days after this opinion was posted, the New York Times editorial board concluded an editorial with these thoughts:
“Affordable housing is in desperately short supply. Roughly one in four low-income households spend more than half their income on rent, leaving little cushion for any loss of income. Even before the coronavirus struck, more than half a million Americans were homeless, many of them forced to sleep on the street. Even the most generous proposals before Congress would leave that harsh reality largely unchanged. They would address the immediate crisis, but not the enduring crisis.
“That is an appropriate priority for now, but in the coming months, Congress ought to take the lessons of this crisis, and the last one, and act to ensure every American has access to affordable housing. There is no justification for providing aid to people facing eviction during a public health crisis, but not to those who face eviction during an ordinary July.
“Food stamps are available to every American who demonstrates need, because people need food. Housing aid ought to be available on the same terms, because people need shelter, too.”
The editorial pointed out that the pandemic did not cause the gaps in our national safety net for housing. The opinion posted here highlighted how a supposedly fair-minded Mayor could release a report (before the pandemic) that suggested that only 30% of new housing should be affordable. (“The Mayor’s report recommended building 36,000 new units of housing citywide, with 30% (12,000) being affordable at the 80% MFI level or below by 2025.”) Now that we are in the middle of a pandemic, and heading for a Second Great Depression, we must demand that the Mayor withdraw her report and reissue it to protect District residents from the coming economic disaster.
Even before the pandemic, the Mayor’s report seemed blind to the critical need for affordable housing. Why should the District subsidize the construction of housing that isn’t affordable? Why shouldn’t all new housing be required to be affordable? Why do we allow the word “affordable” to be applied to housing that can be afforded only by families making over $77,000 per year?
But now, in the middle of this pandemic, that report should be thrown out. We can do better.
Green Eyeshades says
link to NY Times editorial:
https://www.nytimes.com/2020/07/23/opinion/coronavirus-evictions-rent.html
Green Eyeshades says
Racial and financial discrimination against tenants is a continuing disgrace in the District:
https://dcist.com/story/20/07/23/dc-sues-landlords-property-managers-section-8-housing-vouchers/
The Attorney General’s newest lawsuits target landlords in all of DC’s Wards except 2, 3 and 6, according to DCist.
Barbara Kraft says
These Brookings research pieces are interesting:
https://www.brookings.edu/blog/up-front/2020/02/27/examining-the-black-white-wealth-gap/, and https://www.brookings.edu/research/devaluation-of-assets-in-black-neighborhoods/
Kesh Ladduwahetty says
I am pleased that my op-ed inspired so many comments! I’m particularly glad to see so many Forest Hills residents agree with the need for racial diversity, and very much appreciate the great resources recommended here.
I am not entirely surprised — but still very saddened — at the few commenters who make the “pull yourselves up by your bootstraps” argument to oppose housing subsidies for low- and middle-income families. I would think that by now, we would all have learned a little more about the racist history of this country to understand that it was centuries of exploitative and discriminatory policies — not the refusal or inability to work hard — that explain the income and wealth gaps among the races.
Carren Kaston says
I too would like to thank Kesh for her opinion piece, and also to express support for many of the followup comments, particularly these: “It seems to me that people who could benefit from affordable housing are not always people of color” (Barbara Lappin) and “What is occurring is the squeezing out of middle-class residents in favor of the low-income and the high-income residents” (Neil Berger) and ” Why shouldn’t all new housing be required to be affordable? Why do we allow the word “affordable” to be applied to housing that can be afforded only by families making over $77,000 per year?” (Green Eyeshades). It’s important for everyone to know that so far, ANC 3F has refused to support the rent control reform movement, when rent control is the ultimate affordable housing tool available now. And the housing Resolution submitted to the City Council by ANC 3F, as created the the ANC’s Housing and Neighborhoods Committee, deliberately ignores consideration of a sizable number of Ward 3 residents who are of moderate or modest income and whose income, employment, and ability to pay the rent have been terribly impacted by the pandemic. The focus of ANC 3F and its Housing Committee is solely on programs for very low-income people (programs tenants need to be in housing crisis to access) and “affordable” housing that will be affordable, as noted in the comments, to very few people of modest income. In other words, so far the interests of ANC 3F do not serve the needs of many, many of the tenants in the area and the ward. Far more courageous and clear-sighted are the commissioners of Ward 4D, led by Chair Renee Bowser (no relation to the mayor), who on July 15 sent a housing Resolution to the City Council advocating for reforms in the rent control bill that would benefit many renters in the ANC’s area. They are serving their neighborhood.
Carren Kaston says
If you would like to encourage ANC 3F commissioners and ANC 3F’s Housing Committee to support measures that help a broader swath of the area’s tenants in the here and now, then please email the people below and ask them to take positions and actions that would support renters of modest income. It’s one thing to focus on what will be constructed at some time in the future for tenants at this, that, and the other income level, or to talk abstractly about tax assessments and land use of future construction. But that does nothing for the many tenants in urgent situations now.
Even now, it would be helpful for ANC 3F to submit a rent control reform Resolution to the City Council similar to the Resolution submitted by ANC 4D — to show the Council that we don’t think the unchanged old rent control bill rushed through passage just now for the next 10 years is adequate without substantial reforms. Even now, our ANC could submit a Resolution urging the Council to offer short-term support for tenants of modest income who haven’t yet defaulted on their rents and aren’t yet about to be evicted or homeless, but who are struggling to pay rent especially because of the pandemic. All of the city’s current programs require renters to be in crisis first. Short-term assistance, at least, could be made available by the city postponing funding for other items in the budget. But the city needs to hear that ANCs, which are closest to the people and the neighborhoods in the legislative chain that culminates in the City Council, care about these things.
Here are the emails of people to reach out to:
On ANC 3F’s Housing Committee: George Hofmann georgehofmannpainter@gmail.com
On the ANC’s Housing Committee and these people are also ANC 3F Commissioners:
Cristeal, David (SMD 3F01) 3F01@anc.dc.gov
Andrea Molod amolod58@gmail.com
Chair of ANC 3F: Monika Nemeth 3F06@anc.dc.gov