Is there a coherent argument that loosening zoning laws will lead to affordable housing in DC?

[Anonymous]

Well, let's go with that...DC is NOT LA or silicon valley. There is plenty of opportunity to build more housing on metro/in affordable and transitional neighborhoods. I actually am confused , why spring valley? By that logic do I have a right to an affordable home in Greenwich CT or Beverly Hills? Please unpack this for me.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Basic supply and demand. Increase the supply of something and value will decrease.

Paradoxically, because rent control serves to decrease overall supply, rent control raises prices overall.

A million times this on both counts. There are a cabal of Ward 3 ANC Commissioners (some of whom appear to post in this forum) who bang the drum that the rent-control units in Ward 3 are not being counted by the DC Office of Planning. Ugh, they are Trumpian in a deep blue city.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:It’s funny Bowser wants to make the city more dense but does nothing in the way of preparing the city’s infrastructure for more people. They can’t even take care of the metro.

WMATA takes care of Metro, not the DC Government. Nice try, though.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:It’s funny Bowser wants to make the city more dense but does nothing in the way of preparing the city’s infrastructure for more people. They can’t even take care of the metro.

This is one of the really dumb arguments against new housing.

The DC region has committed to and is several years into massive investments in the Metrorail system including a significant expansion.

DC itself is more than halfway through upgrading its entire sewer system in what is one of the most expensive on-going infrastructure programs in the country.

DC is also spending hundreds of millions to upgrade the power grid though that program just started this past summer.

DC has renovated almost the entire building stock of DCPS properties and several schools have been significantly expanded some more than once.

Rec centers, libraries and fire stations across the city have also been modernized and replaced.

And do you know why DC has been able to spend all this money the last 15 years on Capital Improvements (and has massively increased affordable housing subsidies too)? Because the population is growing and the people DC is adding pay far more in taxes than they collect in services.

So yeah DC in fact has done quite a bit to prepare itself for more people though it is pretty unlikely the population will ever get to where it was in the mid 40's to mid 50's.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Not driving out existing rent control is another obvious way to hang on to affordable housing.

No. One. Is. Driving. Out. Existing. Rent. Controlled. Units.

In fact the biggest threat to rent control units is not building enough supply of new housing to meet demand which will make rent control units very appealing for rehabs to chase the same dollars.

In any case DC is not NY and the number of rent control units in DC is not that great and the units are not income screened and very few additional units are being created.

This whole rent control argument from NIMBY's sounds really appealing and progressive but under any scrutiny it completely falls apart.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Not driving out existing rent control is another obvious way to hang on to affordable housing.

No. One. Is. Driving. Out. Existing. Rent. Controlled. Units.

In fact the biggest threat to rent control units is not building enough supply of new housing to meet demand which will make rent control units very appealing for rehabs to chase the same dollars.

In any case DC is not NY and the number of rent control units in DC is not that great and the units are not income screened and very few additional units are being created.

This whole rent control argument from NIMBY's sounds really appealing and progressive but under any scrutiny it completely falls apart.

you can capitalize all you want, but if you do a simple search you can see that DC has been offering to release apartments from rent control those if the landlords rent to those holding city housing vouchers. The vouchers are for above market rates. The city is lessening the affordable housing stock and paying more than market rates, all at the same time.

[Anonymous]

OP here. So is there a coherent argument that loosening zoning laws will lead to affordable housing in DC? Still waiting for someone to explain exactly how this works.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Loosening zoning laws will lead to more housing in DC. That's a good thing.

And then it will all trickle down to affordable housing. It’s Reaganomics applied to a highly segmented local and regional housing sector.

[Anonymous]

Ward 3 has the second highest number of rent controlled units in DC, about 7500-8000 units. Yet neither the Office of Planning nor the mayor’s office acknowledges the need to preserve these units which today provide power income people access to good schools, services and amenities. Many of these units are in older buildings which are already being torn down or redeveloped by developers into upscale market rate housing. It’s basically localized gentrification happening right now, in Ward 3. Upzoning will only accelerate this trend.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Not driving out existing rent control is another obvious way to hang on to affordable housing.

Your rent control is Bozzuto or JBG’s profit opportunity.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Not driving out existing rent control is another obvious way to hang on to affordable housing.

No. One. Is. Driving. Out. Existing. Rent. Controlled. Units.

In fact the biggest threat to rent control units is not building enough supply of new housing to meet demand which will make rent control units very appealing for rehabs to chase the same dollars.

In any case DC is not NY and the number of rent control units in DC is not that great and the units are not income screened and very few additional units are being created.

This whole rent control argument from NIMBY's sounds really appealing and progressive but under any scrutiny it completely falls apart.

Planning Director Andrew Trueblood (and soil) says that rent control is meaningless and won’t even discuss it in the mayor’s housing plan. Yet Council Member Anita Bonds says that rent control is the most effective affordable housing lever in DC.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:It’s funny Bowser wants to make the city more dense but does nothing in the way of preparing the city’s infrastructure for more people. They can’t even take care of the metro.

Atlanta is the canary in the cave mine for this. That city's population is growing at an explosive rate and their infrastructure has not kept up with the growth. At least metro actually takes you places you need to get to. If you had to rely on MARTA then you're SOL.

DC and the suburbs are better equipped to handle the growth.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:It’s funny Bowser wants to make the city more dense but does nothing in the way of preparing the city’s infrastructure for more people. They can’t even take care of the metro.

Atlanta is the canary in the cave mine for this. That city's population is growing at an explosive rate and their infrastructure has not kept up with the growth. At least metro actually takes you places you need to get to. If you had to rely on MARTA then you're SOL.

DC and the suburbs are better equipped to handle the growth.

There is zero point to making the city exaggertedly denser. Good fast public transport extending to the suburbs renders that moot.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:OP here. So is there a coherent argument that loosening zoning laws will lead to affordable housing in DC? Still waiting for someone to explain exactly how this works.

it's pretty obvious ...

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I hear this constantly asserted, as if it were self-evidently true, but cannot figure out how it could possibly be correct.

There's 700,000 people in the District. There's 5 million in the suburbs. If you add 30,000 housing units in DC, they will instantly be soaked up by people in the suburbs looking for shorter commutes.

As people move into DC from Falls Church and Rockville and Fairfax, their old places will open up for other people. Other people will move into those places from suburbs even further out, which will open up slots in places like Chantilly or Columbia or wherever else those people are coming from and that would put downward pressure on housing prices in the suburbs they've left.

But how does any of that lead to affordable housing in DC?

1. Our housing problem is regional. Reducing the cost of housing in the far suburbs is also good. Plus the people who move are better off at each step.

2. The suburbs are looking at the issue as well. Pro housing groups are supporting more development in MoCo, in Arlington, in Alexandria, etc. The metropolitan washington council of government is setting regional goals, with targets for each jurisdiction

3. To the extent more people live closer in, this reduces road congestion, pollution, traffic accidents, etc.