72,000 Homes: Janeese Lewis George's Housing Plan for DC

• June 18th

by UrbanTurf Staff

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Janeese Lewis George appears to have won Tuesday's Democratic mayoral primary, putting her housing agenda front and center as she prepares for what would be a historic turn at the helm of DC government. 

The centerpiece of that agenda is a commitment to build 72,000 new homes in five years — double the current administration's housing production target and well above the roughly 40,000 units built during Mayor Muriel Bowser's most recent five-year stretch. Lewis George has pointed to a sharp decline in DC's share of regional housing production as reason for urgency: in 2019, nearly half of the region's new multifamily projects were in DC; by 2024, that figure had dropped to 18 percent.

To hit that 72,000-unit target, Lewis George's plan calls for legalizing high-density, mixed-use buildings near Metrorail and bus stops and on publicly owned land to encourage transit-oriented development. She would also legalize small apartment buildings of up to six units and ease setback and side-yard requirements to make it easier to actually build, not just permit. And she would end parking requirements, with minimal parking encouraged near Metro stations. On the process side, she has proposed a "shot clock" — a maximum timeframe for development reviews — and a one-stop shop for permits, consolidating what is currently a fragmented, multi-agency application process into a single online portal. 

A signature element of Lewis George's platform is "Dignified Homes DC," a program to build publicly owned, mixed-income housing with stable rents that, in her framing, puts people ahead of profit. The concept draws from social housing legislation she first introduced on the Council in 2021. On the tenant protection side, she has pledged to strengthen and expand DC's rent stabilization program, prioritize affordable units in existing and new housing funds, and restore and bolster tenants' purchasing rights under the Tenant Opportunity to Purchase Act (TOPA). For homeowners, her plan would expand downpayment assistance, add foreclosure prevention aid, and provide additional support for senior homeowners. 

Whether Lewis George can deliver on those ambitions is an open question. Developers and analysts have flagged high interest rates and construction costs as headwinds, and affordable housing builders in particular have grown wary of the District. Lewis George has acknowledged that DC cannot control macroeconomic factors like interest rates and materials costs, but argues that regulatory reform and a more predictable permitting environment will make the city a more attractive place to build.

This article originally published at https://dc.urbanturf.com/articles/blog/72000_homes_janeese_lewis_georges_housing_plan_for_dc/24744.