Call The Question: Will the Greater Washington Region Collaborate and Invest to Solve Its Affordable Housing Shortage?

A group of public and private sector stakeholders concerned about housing affordability in the Greater Washington region began to meet in June 2014 to discuss how to solve the shortage of affordable housing. These stakeholders, the Greater Washington Housing Leaders Group (GWHLG), seek to elevate and broaden the housing affordability conversation among public-sector, business and civic leaders, as well as residents around the region, so that everyone understands the need to address this crisis before it has negative impacts on both the local economy and our quality of life. This conversation must address the need for housing affordable to residents at all income levels in communities across the region in order for employers to have access to employees and for workers to be able to work in close proximity to their jobs. Low-income housing needs data as referenced in this publication refers to households making less than 80 percent of the area median income (area median income for the Greater Washington region is approximately $109,000 in 2015). These families include people working as teachers, police, fire personnel, local government, secretarial, construction, retail, health, hospitality, and entry level employees

Targeting urban revitalization

A movement to focus public improvement efforts on neighborhoods with the greatest potential to spread the benefits is gaining adherents. Former Federal Reserve Board vice chairman Alice Rivlin discusses her recent research into targeting.Community development

The Validity of Ordinances Limiting Condominium Conversion

In 1974, the New York Times ran a front-page story about the dilemma of an elderly woman who lived in a Washington, D.C., apartment building that was being converted into a condominium. On a limited budget, she faced the choice of either finding a new place to live in the tight Washington housing market or paying $2000 down and$422.50 in monthly installments for the same one-bedroom apartment she had been renting for $ 155.00 per month. The woman\u27s situation is not unusual: a federal study estimates that owners have recently converted 60,000 rental apartment units to condominiums, and real estate experts expect many more conversions in the future. Landlords and speculators find conversion profitable, but tenants and housing officials blame it for exacerbating shortages of rental housing, for displacing tenants from long-established homes, and for adding to the cost of housing. These complaints have prompted several state and local legislatures to regulate the conversion of apartment buildings into condominiums. Conversion laws fall into two categories: consumer protection laws that merely require an owner to disclose fully his plans to convert, but actually protect the condominium purchaser more than the tenant; and stricter laws that prohibit conversions unless the owner or the housing market satisfies certain conditions. The first group is almost certainly constitutional, but the second group\u27s legitimacy is less clear

INVESTING IN FARM WORKER HOUSING: A MULTI-SEASON PEAK-LOAD ANALYSIS OF WASHINGTON STATE DATA

This paper develops cost effective investment rules for farm worker housing and applies the model to farm worker housing in the state of Washington. The state must meet varying seasonal farm worker housing needs at minimum expense. In this study we examine investment rules to choose among different housing technologies in order to minimize the total costs of housing consistent with achieving welfare goals. The research extends existing peak-load models to the multi-season planning cycle case and applies the approach empirically to a new subject area.Labor and Human Capital,

Creating and Leading Washington State's First Public-Private Partnership to Reduce Family Homelessness: The Washington Families Fund (2004-2009)

During the last decade, families with children have constituted the fastest-growing segment of the homeless population nationwide.Unlike homeless individuals, they are usually out of the public eye, living in cars or doubling-up with other families in often-overcrowded conditions. The reasons families become homeless vary: A job loss, an unforeseen financial or health crisis, or domestic violence could propel them from an already financially precarious situation into housing loss. The continued cutback of federal and state social welfare programs in the last two decades has only made securing stable housing more challenging for those living in poverty. In Washington State, there were approximately 3,000 families that experienced homelessness in 2011, although that figure is most likely an undercount. While the experience of homelessness is undeniably stressful for adults, especially when compounded with the trauma of violence and other factors that forced them into homelessness, the consequences for children can have lasting impact. As a result of losing their home life and routine, children suffer from poor physical and mental health, experience hunger, and often transfer or drop out of school altogether. To address this societal challenge, a group of private funders, government officials, nonprofit advocates, and lawmakers in 2004 formed the Washington Families Fund (WFF), a public-private partnership that funds services in housing for families experiencing homelessness. Building Changes, a nonprofit organization working to end homelessness in Washington State, leads the program. Since its inception, WFF has secured more than $28 million from 25 public and private funding sources, and re-granted funds to 39 providers throughout the state. WFF grantee providers have served 1,750 families, including more than 3,000 children, across the state. The results are promising: More than 70 percent of the children stayed stable in their schools rather than transfer as a result of homelessness, and approximately 60 percent of families have exited into stable housing. As WFF continues to serve families, the program is undergoing extensive evaluation to identify the often complex challenges that homeless families face and to continue evolving best practices in helping them attain stability. This case study provides a concise history of the vision that led to WFF, the sometimes challenging path it took to get there, and the program's most unique attributes

Northwest Arkansas Housing Policy Landscape Assessment Phase Two Report

In 2020, a team led by Smart Growth America assessed policies that affect the supply and price of housing in Northwest Arkansas and analyzed current capacity and market conditions for a wider range of housing types and price points. Two subsequent reports detail these findings and include recommended changes in policy and practice that could help the region successfully address these challenges. The reports build on Our Housing Future, a call to action published by the Walton Family Foundation in 2019, which found that "housing is becoming increasingly inaccessible to the region's workers, families and seniors." Over the course of the assessment, the research team conducted interviews, analyzed zoning codes and development processes, tested current and future growth projections and developed an understanding of the financial impacts of public and private investments as they relate to housing affordability

How Housing Matters

A significant majority of Americans believes the country is still not past the housing crisis that began seven years ago, according to a new survey of housing attitudes released today by MacArthur. Despite some improvement in their view of the housing situation nationally, the enduring sense of the housing market under pressure is reflected in the public feeling more worried and concerned than hopeful and confident about what the future holds for the country. Americans believe it is harder than it used to be to attain a secure middle-class lifestyle and significantly more likely for a family to fall from the middle class than to join it.This survey is the third annual national survey of housing attitudes conducted by Hart Research Associates and commissioned by the MacArthur Foundation. Hart Research Associates interviewed 1401 adults, including landlines and cell phones, between April 27 and May 5