Opinion: Reform D.C. Housing Now

An op-ed from the Washington Post editorial board argues for urgent action to reform Washington, D.C.’s housing authority and provide more badly needed housing in the region.

The board outlines the findings of a 72-page Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) report that highlights the agency’s failures, including 82 “managerial deficiencies.” The list includes “everything from leaving tenants’ personal information unprotected to noncompliance with HUD pet policies to numerous procurement breakdowns to a failure to ‘properly calculate rent’ to being ‘unable to provide documentation of the number of persons on its Public Housing waiting list,’ which hasn’t been updated in 10 years.”

As the op-ed states, thanks to the region’s affordability crisis, reforming DCHA management “cannot proceed at the city’s leisure.” With media home prices hitting $650,000 and the region seeing a shortage of roughly 320,000 housing units by 2030, the editorial board calls for immediate action.

What kind of action, one might ask? “Everything! Housing subsidies, requirements for affordable units in new developments, promotion of employer-sponsored housing projects — they’re all critical to closing the gap between what the workforce earns and what developers collect.”

Pointing to efforts in Arlington and Montgomery counties, which other entities in the region are eyeing cautiously as examples for housing policy reform, the board concludes, “No pain, no gain. Much-needed housing supply won’t build itself.”