Bowser Claims Victory On Goal Of Adding 36,000 New Housing Units To D.C.

Despite a pandemic, supply chain crisis and run-up in interest rates, D.C. has accomplished the housing production goal Mayor Muriel Bowser set at the start of her second term, her administration announced Monday.

The District has added more than 36,000 new housing units since 2019, hitting the number before its target year of 2025, Bowser said in a press conference at D.C.'s new Department of Housing and Community Development headquarters in Ward 8. 

The majority of those new units are luxury rentals and condos. D.C. hasn't yet hit its subgoal of creating 12,000 affordable units, but it is 82% of the way there and on track to reach the target by the end of next year, city officials project.

“When we came together in 2019 I told you that we can't undo the previous 15 years, but we can double down on what we're doing now,” Bowser said at the event.

A key motivating factor behind creating the housing goal five years ago was a burgeoning housing crisis, leading the District to be dubbed at the time as the city with the highest "intensity" gentrification and displacement in the country.

Localities in the region have each set housing production goals, but the majority of suburban jurisdictions have fallen far behind their targets, according to a Washington Post analysis from April.

The effect has shown up in the data. The District's rents are increasing at a slower pace than the suburbs, Transwestern’s second-quarter multifamily report shows.

D.C. has seen 1.3% Class-A low-rise rent growth over the past five years, while Northern Virginia and suburban Maryland have both seen 3.6% growth over that period, according to Transwestern.

“Because we added 36,000 new units, we haven't seen the steepest increase in the cost of housing as we see across the nation,” Bowser said. “But we have been able to blunt the increase in the cost of housing.” 

The mayor’s office said that out of the entire region over the last five years, the District boasts 31% of all new housing units and 41% of the committed affordable housing units — despite only containing 12% of the area's population.

The District has created exactly 36,216 new housing units to date since 2019, according to the city’s dashboard counter, which breaks down how far along progress is on the affordable housing front as well as goals across neighborhoods. 

So far, 9,845 affordable units have been created and there are more than 2,500 under construction, per the administration.

“Every aspect of affordable housing or production of affordable housing has really been put on steroids in the District in order to meet the goal,” D.C. Department of Housing and Community Development Director Colleen Green said. 

“The commitment that has been made here is bar none in the nation,” she added.

The Housing Production Trust Fund has played a large part in that equation. 

Bowser said a total of $1.3B has been invested in the fund, roughly half of which came from federal stimulus funds. The HPTF has funded development projects like the two-phased Ridgecrest apartments, the forthcoming senior affordable housing Carl F. West Estates, and WC Smith’s new Terrace Manor redevelopment, which was highlighted at Monday's event.

Since 2015, Bowser's first year in office, at least $100M has been allocated every year to the HPTF. But the District's budget challenges, driven by the collapse in office real estate values, has dragged the allocation for fiscal year 2025 down to $60M.

“What all of these very smart people that you've heard from are working on is, ‘how can we do more with less?’” Bowser said. “Because those same dollars aren't available. And when we see less movement in real estate, actually, we have even more stress on our Housing Production Trust Fund.”