While Mayor Muriel Bowser’s administration is well on its way to achieving its affordable housing goals, there remains the question of whether each ward in the District is taking on an equal share of the newly constructed and renovated units, as promised.
For a cadre of Southeast residents, that’s far from the case.
“We want to see the city make good on its promise to provide affordable housing equitably across all eight wards, and that’s not happening,” said Nikki Waddell, a D.C. parent who has lived in Anacostia for a decade.
Earlier this year, Waddell and three other Anacostia residents filed a housing discrimination complaint with the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) alleging that the District government perpetuates racial and economic segregation by “funding, supporting, and approving” the construction of new affordable housing in majority-Black neighborhoods.
Waddell told The Informer that the complaint, filed in May, follows years of demands for market-rate housing in Anacostia, located east of the Anacostia River. She said those calls have gone unanswered since at least 2018 when the District funded the construction of Maple View Flats, a $50 million development project.
Maple View Flats, located on Martin Luther King, Jr. Avenue SE, brought 100% affordable housing units, but neighbors didn’t receive any of the retail and amenities they were told would follow. Without mixed-income housing, Waddell and others contend that Anacostia won’t be able to attract economic activity that can create opportunities for residents and drive down crime.
“We want a better quality of life, and that comes with more amenities and higher income earners to increase jobs and improve the neighborhoods,” Waddell said, emphasizing that she’s not against affordable housing, only the oversaturation of affordable housing where she lives and in other pockets of the District.
“If you continue to concentrate [most of] the affordable housing in this neighborhood, the cycle will continue,” Waddell said. “The city’s building all high-density, income-capped housing in areas originally zoned for single-family homes and they’re taking away opportunities for us to increase the green space. It’s a concrete jungle.”
The Clash between Housing Affordability and Market Forces
In 2012, the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Texas ruled that the Texas Department of Housing and Community Affairs violated the “disparate impact” clause of the Fair Housing Act when it unintentionally allocated the majority of low-income housing tax credits for development projects in majority-nonwhite areas of Dallas.
In 2015, the Supreme Court, in a 5-4 decision, upheld the lower court’s decision while limiting application of “disparate impact” out of regard for the Fair Housing Act and the free-market economy. Four years later, as leaders in major cities continued to mull the conflict between housing affordability and market forces, Bowser kicked off her second term with an announcement about her housing production goal of 36,000 new housing units and 12,000 affordable housing units by 2025.
As seen on the Office of the Deputy Mayor for Planning and Economic Development (DMPED)’s “36,000 by 2025” dashboard, the District has constructed 35,666 units since 2019.
Within that time, 9,771 new affordable units, the majority of which were newly produced, also entered the market. The majority of that affordable housing (2,449 units) appeared in the Far Southeast and Southwest. Midcity (1,478 units) and Far Northeast and Southeast (1,103 uniits) represented the second and third highest concentration of new affordable housing.
Meanwhile, Rock Creek West, which includes the upper Northwest neighborhoods of Friendship Heights and Chevy Chase, currently has 230 units of new affordable housing — the lowest share out of what has been produced since 2019. That amount represents less than 12% of the target that DMPED set to achieve 15% housing affordability in the Rock Creek West planning area.
In recent years, housing advocates in Ward 3, which includes Rock Creek West, have demanded the increase of affordable housing in those communities, which are heralded for accessible transportation, quality schools and proximate employment opportunities. In the coming months, affordable housing will most likely come up in discussions about the Nebraska Avenue campus of Department of Homeland Security.
While the Chevy Chase Small Area Plan, approved by the D.C. Council in 2022, represents an attempt by the Bowser administration to meet its 2,000 affordable housing unit goal, there remains a question of how to include a large swath of affordable housing with Ward 3’s high land value. [Nina Albert, deputy mayor for planning and economic development, told The Informer that 45 out of the 150 units to be built on the Chevy Chase site will be affordable.]
On July 18, calls for affordable housing erupted outside of 2 Wisconsin Circle NW during “The Future of Friendship Heights & Chevy Chase,” an event hosted by commercial real estate news outlet Biznow. While Biznow hosted panel discussions on the penthouse level, members of Chevy Chase Voice converged in the lobby area of the office building in opposition to Biznow’s decision to charge $135 for admission to the daylong event.
As D.C. Councilmember Matt Frumin (D-Ward 3) and others spoke on a panel that morning, security guards at the site kicked protesters out of the lobby area and into the street near Friendship Heights Metro Station.
Subsequent efforts to speak to Frumin fell short, protesters said.
The lack of transparency, as Chevy Chase Voice co-founder Sheryl Barnes described it, spoke to what she called ongoing efforts to push small, independent retailers out of Friendship Heights and further marginalize low-income District residents. The Biznow event, she told The Informer, didn’t provide community members any opportunity to weigh in on the need for affordable housing.
“Friendship Heights is the ideal area for social housing but they are remodeling office space,” said Barnes, a resident in Advisory Neighborhood Commission 3/4G, a jurisdiction with the greatest share of rent-controlled residential buildings in the District, according to the D.C. Policy Center.
Barnes formed Chevy Chase Voice to organize against overdevelopment and single-source contracting of public land for luxury housing.
“Equal distribution of affordable housing works. The nature and personality of our city is dispersed into Prince George’s County and St. Mary’s County [because] they cannot afford the new Class A market-rate units. The price points are terrible.”
Developers, Elected Officials, and Bowser Administration Navigate Tough Terrain
Councilmember Frumin told The Informer that he sought out protesters before the Biznow event, but they arrived after it started. Chevy Chase Voice has since reached out to schedule a meeting that Frumin said will take place “some point soon.” The council member also pointed out that he will more than likely see, and engage group members in discussions, at future community events.
One of the panel discussions that took place on the penthouse level of 2 Wisconsin Circle NW centered on how best to spur post-pandemic economic activity and develop new housing in Friendship Heights. Joining Frumin were: Montgomery County Councilmember Andrew Friedson (District 1), Anya Kamara, managing director of Somerset Development Company, and Natalie Avery, president and executive director of the Friendship Heights Alliance.
The panel, moderated by Friendship Heights Alliance advisory board member Chapman Todd, considered economic resilience and innovation in Friendship Heights. Amid discussions about housing, Kamara said that District leadership must make affordable housing more of a priority in Friendship Heights and other high-market areas.
“Right now, what we have done by not allowing any more housing is that we created a closed club,” Kamara said. “We’re telling the community that we don’t want new members. We have to rally the community to embrace development.”
Frumin, former board chair of Lisner Home, touted the construction of 93 units of affordable senior housing to be completed at the site within the next year, as a crowning achievement. He would later tell The Informer that kicking off Ward 3’s first Housing Production Trust Fund project required working with a mission-led owner, securing subsidies and working closely with community members to address concerns about increased affordable housing, traffic, and overcrowded schools.
During the panel, Kamara expressed her desire for building upon that work. She touted Bowser’s housing goals as a viable first step.
In recent years, Somerset Development has preserved affordable housing in other parts of the District, including the increasingly expensive Shaw-U Street community. However, Kamara admitted that market dynamics preclude Somerset Development and other socially responsible real estate development companies from producing similar results in Friendship Heights and other high-market value communities.
“You get gap financing and other government subsidies, but the government isn’t able to quickly put together funds [within 90 days],” Kamara told The Informer.
“A seller in Friendship Heights isn’t willing to wait,” she added. “A seller in Ward 8 that doesn’t have a huge demand can afford to wait two years so it’s easier to get financing. That seller can’t be a chooser whereas in Friendship Heights, a seller can sell to anyone tomorrow because their backs aren’t up against the wall.”
Nina Albert, deputy mayor for planning and economic development, echoed Kamara’s points, telling The Informer that low-income areas often have a lower barrier to entry for affordable housing than high-income areas.
“Wards 3 and 6…historically had high-income levels in the last 20 years or so,” Albert said. “We have a different income base east of the Anacostia River. The market rate for the income in Wards 7 and 8 is lower, which allows for the delivery of housing in those levels.”
In regard to DMPED data showing a significant difference in affordable housing production across various District neighborhoods, Albert said there’s more to it than meets the eye.
“A lot of housing units the District has invested in is major rehabilitation of existing housing units to make sure people who are in homes today continue to be in safe and quality homes,” Albert told The Informer. “The newly constructed units are much more distributed,” she continued. “The dollars in preservation and new construction are much more distributed.”
Since 2021, the D.C. Department of Housing and Community Development has released comprehensive requests for proposals (RFPs) that align with the Bowser administration’s housing goals. Albert said the RFPs included a preference for development projects that include market-rate housing and units priced at 80% average median income.
This arrangement, in tandem with the Food Access Fund, is intended to attract retailers to neighborhoods located east of the Anacostia River, Albert told The Informer. She cited The Clara at 2323 Martin Luther King, Jr. Ave. SE [which has permanent supportive housing and housing for tenants earning 30-50% average median income] and the new D.C. Health headquarters as part of that strategy in Downtown Anacostia.
Other projects across Wards 7 and 8, including Skyland Town Center, Cedar Hill Medical Center, and St. Elizabeths Campus, are anticipated to produce similar results with residents and employees as part of the economic engine that attracts retail.
“It’s a work in progress,” Albert said. “I think grocers make decisions [based] on a variety of data. They have been slow to make decisions and they’re trying to understand it and make decisions as they evolve,” she added. “The Food Access Fund has drawn people who are on the fence. It’s had a significant impact and helped meet the goal of diverse food and groceries in Wards 5, 7 and 8.”
Longtime Anacostia Residents Continue to Question the Status Quo
Greta Fuller, a former advisory neighborhood commissioner and 23-year resident of Anacostia, told The Informer that neither the presence of D.C. Health headquarters nor the infusion of money from the Food Access Fund into Starbucks and other restaurants in Anacostia have encouraged D.C. Health employees to walk along Martin Luther King, Jr. Avenue SE and other corridors in the neighborhood.
That situation, Fuller said, stems from the concentration of poverty within those blocks. Earlier this year, she joined Waddell and others in filing the HUD complaint after unsuccessful attempts to bring economic diversity and retail to Anacostia.
“We saw that we were being inundated with 100% affordable housing with no market rate units,” Fuller said. “The city basically pushed Mapleview Flats on us. They promised retail [but] we had to fight for Starbucks,” she continued. “When they put in 100% affordable housing, everything that came to our community had no diversity in the housing market. But you can go elsewhere in the city and see the diversity in the housing being built.”
As Fuller recounted, not even collaborations with the Historic Anacostia Block Association and Fairlawn Citizens Association could compel the D.C. government to act. The results since then, as she explained to The Informer, have been abysmal for longtime residents and those just moving east of the Anacostia RIver.
“People’s ..leases [in Northwest] are not being renewed and [they are being] pushed east of the Anacostia River,” Fuller said. “They still take their children to the other side in Northwest schools because they’re scared to put their children in failing schools in Southeast.
“To add salt to the wound, transitional housing is being put in our neighborhoods with no support. Those residents are roaming the streets having drug problems and mental health issues,” Fuller continued. “Transitional housing is being put in our neighborhoods with no support. It’s not helping the community and it’s not fair.”
Longtime Anacostia resident Bruce Holmes lives near a transitional housing community in Anacostia where he said he sees swathes of people congregating on the front steps of the apartment and onto the street at any given time of the day.
Holmes, who also signed onto the HUD complaint, said outreach to the D.C. Council hasn’t quelled the activity near his home. The environment, he notes, makes it impossible for his 95-year-old aunt to sit on her front porch or even enjoy a walk around the block during her twilight years.
“This was an upscale residential area at one point,” said Holmes, a resident of Anacostia since 1962. “We’re oversaturated with affordable housing. We’re not saying that we don’t want that, but let’s make an equal [share of housing.] I would like to take my aunt on a walk through my community.”
Affordable housing without a corrective plan for rehabilitation is a total failure. Good example is the Walt Reed Facility. Why move veterans with mental illness & drug issues into a Facility next to low income seniors when there is plenty of land for development on the old soldiers home f ability which has the military culture that would better serve these individuals. In order to improve areas with a vast number of disenfranchised residents will require education to include how to maintain new dwellings, what was historically located on that quadrant & how it became blighted. Education & historical knowledge can only improve the attitudes of residents in any area of Washington D.C. Chevy chase has no reason to be so restrictive regarding their neighborhood when history shows that Ft. Reno was actually a Black township call Reno City until the individuals who resided their were harassed off the land that they owed. Me, I have desired to live in that area due to the contaminated land that runs from Springvalley to Ft. Reno. Just saying.
I regret there isn’t more affordable housing in Ward 3. But I want to point out that there’s a lot of still semi-affordable housing in rent-controlled buildings (so-called “naturally occurring” affordable housing) in Ward 3. However, the city is doing its darnedest to eliminate rent-controlled housing by paying landlords above-market rates — up to 187% above market rate — to rent to voucher recipients.
We want voucher recipients to rent in rent-controlled buildings. But the city’s policy has encouraged landlords to lease up to 65% and more of the units in a given rent-controlled building to voucher recipients. That simply transfers pockets of poverty from one location to another, which defeats the purpose of vouchers. What the city is doing with rent control also crowds out non-voucher-receiving tenants because landlords prefer to rent to voucher recipients to increase their profits.
Ward 3 has more rent-controlled buildings than any other ward in the city. What needs to happen is for the city to stop overpaying rents to landlords in rent-controlled buildings AND to step up its game in requiring and funding many more genuinely affordable housing units in NEW buildings. Inclusionary zoning at the rate of 8% or 15% simply won’t help, particularly since “affordable” is defined as $50,000 or more in annual income. And it’s scandalous that no IZ units are allowed in the downtown DC areas slated for the Mayor’s most intensive revitalization efforts.