What's Being Done to Keep D.C. Affordable?

"Affordable housing is a chronic problem in the Washington area, where nearly a third of homes sold last year cost $500,000 or more, according to data from Rockville-based multiple listing service MRIS," writes Laura Barnhardt Cech.

"Renting is also a problem. In order to afford a District home renting for $1,412 a month, while meeting the affordability standard of 30 percent of income, a person needs to earn $56,480 a year, according to National Low Income Housing Coalition. A minimum-wage worker would have to work 132 hours a week to meet that standard."

“The need for affordable housing is so great,” says Nina Janopaul, president of the Arlington Partnership for Affordable Housing and president of the Housing Association of Nonprofit Developers. “We’re so overwhelmed.”

Cech examines what nonprofit groups, faith-based organizations, and local governments are doing to "create or preserve more low- and moderately priced housing across the region."