Mayor Bowser Unveils Unprecedented $400M Investment in Housing Production Trust Fund

Washington – RealEstateRama – This Investment Brings the Total Investment in the Housing Production Trust Fund to $1 Billion in Her Time as Mayor, EquityRFP Also Announced for 1234 Good Hope Rd SE to Create Homeownership Opportunities, Office Space for Small Businesses, and Retail in
(Washington, DC) – Today, Mayor Muriel Bowser announced the release of the Consolidated Request for Proposals (RFP) for Affordable Housing Projects, making available $400 million from the Housing Production Trust Fund (HPTF), in addition to other federal and local resources that will help us build and preserve affordable housing across the District. Mayor Bowser promised to make an annual investment of $100 million into the HPTF, and she has done just that for each of the last six years. This one-time $400 million infusion brings Mayor Bowser’s total to $1 billion invested in her time as Mayor. The HPTF investment will be a major tool in achieving the goals laid out in the 2019 Housing Equity Report, which outlined the 36,000 new homes by 2025 initiative and made the District of Columbia the first jurisdiction in the nation to set affordable housing goals by neighborhood.

“I promised we would make big investments in our Housing Production Trust Fund – and at $1 billion since 2015, that’s exactly what we’ve done,”?said Mayor Bowser.?“But now there’s more work to do and more housing to build. We were proud to make Washington, DC the first city in the nation to set affordable housing targets by neighborhood, and now we’re calling our housing partners to use these historic investments to help us achieve those goals.”?

The HPTF is being made available from the Mayor’s Fiscal Year 2021 (FY) Supplemental and FY 2022 budgets, passed by the Council of the District of Columbia this summer. The financial plan also features Local Rent Supplement Program (LRSP) funding to better target funds to deeply affordable units at or below 30% of the Median Family Income (MFI), or about $38,700 for a family of four. Together, these investments will deliver an estimated 2,700 units of affordable housing over the next two to three years, with up to 1,100 of those units deeply affordable. In addition to HPTF and LRSP other local and federal funding sources in the Consolidated RFP include: 9% Low Income Housing Tax Credits (LIHTC) Department of Behavioral Health (DBH) Grant, HOME Investment Partnership Program (HOME), National Housing Trust Fund (NHTF), Housing Opportunities for People with AIDS (HOPWA), Annual Contributions Contract Program (ACC), Department of Human Services (DHS) Supportive Services Funds, and Building Energy Performance Standards (BEPS) Compliance Fund.

“Fueled by this $400 million investment, Mayor Bowser has now invested $1 billion into our most powerful tool to build and preserve affordable housing– the Housing Production Trust Fund,” said Deputy Mayor for Planning and Economic Development John Falcicchio. “We’re continuing to build off of making DC the first in the nation to set affordable housing goals by neighborhood and look forward to giving even more residents a fair shot.”

In making gap financing available through the RFP, the District is also making it clear what projects it will prioritize with their funding. This includes place-based priorities such as projects across planning areas and proximity to transit and neighborhood amenities. There are also priorities for inclusive and equitable housing to include Permanent Supportive Housing (PSH), Family-oriented units, housing for seniors and people with disabilities, and mixed-income projects to name a few.

“With this RFP, we’re making very clear what we want to see in exchange for gap financing from the District” said Department of Housing and Community Development (DHCD) Director Polly Donaldson. “Deeply affordable, shovel ready projects, in high opportunity areas, that help our achieve our goals”.

The announcement was made intentionally on the site of 218 Vine Street, a 129-unit senior affordable housing project selected by DHCD from the 2018 Consolidated RFP, celebrating a topping out in the construction process. Vine Street is funded with $8,591,352 in HPTF, $4,616,739 in NHTF, $1,100,000 in 9% Low Income Housing Tax Credits (LIHTC), tax exempt bonds, and $987,681 in 4% LIHTC. The project consists of 129 units of senior housing with 26 units at 30% MFI, 90 units at 50% AMI, and 13 units at 60% AMI in a mix of studio and one-bedroom units, with 2 two-bedroom units.

“Our team is driven to produce new quality housing for all. With strong partners like the Mayor and her agency teams we can develop affordable housing for our beloved seniors,” said President and CEO of Jair Lynch Real Estate Partners, Jair Lynch. “As we reach this milestone of topping out the project we look forward to a ribbon cutting next spring and residents enjoying their new homes next summer.”

Mayor Bowser and the Office of the Deputy Mayor for Planning and Economic Development also issued the EquityRFP for 1234 Good Hope Road SE in the Anacostia neighborhood of Ward 8. The goal of this development opportunity is to create homeownership opportunities, office space for small businesses, and retail in Historic Anacostia. This site is 1.94 acres of land located at the corner of Good Hope Road and Martin Luther King, Jr. Avenue, SE, in close proximity to DHCD’s Headquarters, the Anacostia Metro Station, and Downtown. This development opportunity will also include the equity inclusion prioritization, which aims to increase access to development opportunities for entities or organizations that are owned or majority controlled by individuals determined to be part of a socially disadvantaged population. For more information on this RFP, please visit dmped.dc.gov.

At the start of her second term, Mayor Bowser set a bold goal to deliver an additional 36,000 units of housing – including at least 12,000 units of affordable housing – by 2025. By further equitably distributing these goals across the District’s ten planning areas, Mayor Bowser made DC the first jurisdiction in the nation to create affordable housing goals by neighborhood. With 16,550 new housing units delivered since January 2019, the District has reached 46% of that goal. During that same period, 3,758 affordable units have also been delivered, which represents 31% progress toward the affordable housing goal. You can track the District’s progress toward #36000by2025 at open.dc.gov/36000by2025.