20,000 New Homeowners By 2030: DC's Black Homeownership Strike Force Unveils Recommendations

• October 3rd 2022

by UrbanTurf Staff

At the beginning of the summer, DC Mayor Muriel Bowser and the Deputy Mayor for Planning and Economic Development (DMPED) launched the Black Homeownership Strike Force (BHSF) in order to address homeownership disparities across the city. 

Among the goals of this group were to provide recommendations for how a $10 million homeownership fund could be used to create 20,000 new Black homeowners in DC by 2030.

Today, the BHSF outlined those recommendations at the Howard Theatre. UrbanTurf highlighted some of those recommendations below:

• DC should provide estate planning resources and legal services to assist with the transfer of property ownership for Black homeowners and heirs.
• DC should pass legislation to protect homeowners from unwanted solicitation regarding the sale or potential purchase of their homes, including requirements for homeowners to opt-in for such solicitation.
• The city should create a program to aid Black homeowners who have experienced and are at risk of foreclosure due to their inability to pay their mortgage and related housing fees.
• For Black households struggling to make home repairs, DC should convene all relevant agencies to coordinate program offerings, ensure major repairs are completed for all homeowners, while also providing financial support and technical assistance to homeowners in rehabilitating their homes.
• In order to discourage conversion of DC's older housing stock to new housing that is unaffordable to Black residents, the city should incentivize new construction and renovation of single family homes, create legislation that reduces impact of housing speculators in the District, and establish a requirement that investors disclose to homebuyers the scope of work, the permits used and the cost of the renovations, with penalties imposed for sellers who fail to disclose as part of the sale. 
• The city should leverage the homeownership fund to create a public/private fund where 1/3 of the units are affordable, 1/3 of units are for middle income earners, and 1/3 of units are market rate and sold to Black owner-occupant homebuyers. 

To view all the report's recommendations, click here. 

Photo by Ted Eytan.

This article originally published at https://dc.urbanturf.com/articles/blog/20000-new-homeowners-by-2030/20154.