Affordable Housing: Here's What's at Stake
It’s DC Council budget season, and that means WIN actions are getting underway across the city. This Saturday, March 25th, join other advocates for an action in the shadow of the U.S. Capitol with a special focus on opportunities to advance housing and climate goals for lower-income households. WIN leaders will meet with Ward 6 Councilmember Charles Allen, who leads the Climate and Transportation Committee and is a critical ally in using federal and local climate dollars to support WIN’s public housing and Black homeownership campaigns. The action is from 11 AM to noon, in-person, at Lutheran Church of the Reformation, 212 East Capitol St. NE, across from the Folger Shakespeare Library and an easy 10-minute walk from the Capitol South Metro station. Doors open at 10:30 AM. To register, visit https://bit.ly/winward6. Come make your voice heard alongside our brothers and sisters in Ward 6. And save the date for a joint Ward 3/Ward 7 action with At Large Councilmember Robert White, chairman of DC’s housing committee, on the evening of April 11th!
Lower-income Black residents of Wards 6 and 7 are being steadily displaced for lack of money to perform home maintenance and repairs.
- Elderly homeowners on fixed incomes are being forced out of their longtime homes to seek cheaper accommodations elsewhere, because they can’t afford maintenance and upgrades for basics like heating and cooling systems.
- Vacant homes are being bought and flipped by national real estate investors who have the cash to install such needed retrofits and repairs as insulation and new roofs. These properties often then come off the homebuyers’ market—becoming Airbnb’s or rentals—reducing opportunities for inter-generational wealth-building in DC neighborhoods and further accelerating gentrification.
- Residents of public housing are desperately seeking renovations and repairs to make their homes healthier and more livable, including to convert those buildings to healthier electricity rather than natural gas energy sources.
WIN is advocating for DC officials to apply millions of dollars in federal climate-related funding--currently sitting largely untapped--to help meet these immediate needs. These issues fall squarely at the intersection of two top WIN priorities in 2023: advancing affordable housing and homeownership, and achieving climate progress in tandem with affordability in the housing sector.
