This November 20, 2024, report by the Office of the Auditor<\/a> on DC’s Inclusionary Zoning program<\/b> is an indictment of the Smart Growth urbanists who say that building more luxury housing with a required handful of IZ units would be an answer to our unaffordable housing crisis.\u00a0 The numbers in the official report below show quite the opposite.<\/span><\/div>\n
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WE NEED AN ALTERNATIVE<\/a> THAT DECOMODIFIES HOUSING AND AFFIRMS THAT HOUSING IS A HUMAN RIGHT!
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Part of the IZ failure<\/a><\/b> is because the so-called YIMBY urbanist originators<\/a> of this alleged “affordable” housing policy chose to never highlight the lack of accountability and enforcement of their developer real estate friends in any of their testimony to the Zoning Commission and to the Council over the years.
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For more than a decade now, IZ has been used as the soapbox for YIMBYs to cheer on upzoning such as at 1617 U Street.\u00a0 IZ has been the guise for luxury overdevelopment since 2009 and destroyed affordability in the District by setting the definition of “affordable housing” so high as to be out of reach of most working people and families<\/a><\/b> in our city.
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\u00a0<\/i><\/span><\/div>\nResources\/Background:<\/i><\/span><\/div>\n\n
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DC Code \u00a7 6\u20131041,<\/b> et. seq. Inclusionary Zoning Implementation, https:\/\/code.dccouncil.gov\/us\/dc\/council\/code\/titles\/6\/chapters\/10\/subchapters\/II-A<\/a><\/li>\n
DC Zoning Regulations, Chapter 14-22<\/b> – INCLUSIONARY ZONING IMPLEMENTATION, https:\/\/casetext.com\/regulation\/district-of-columbia-administrative-code\/title-14-housing\/chapter-14-22-inclusionary-zoning-implementation<\/a><\/li>\n
Inclusionary Zoning (IZ) Affordable Housing Program, DHCD webpage,<\/b> https:\/\/dhcd.dc.gov\/service\/inclusionary-zoning-iz-affordable-housing-program<\/a><\/li>\n
Inclusionary Zoning, DC Office of Planning webpage,<\/b> https:\/\/planning.dc.gov\/inclusionaryzoning<\/a><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/div>\n
Below find my highlights from the Auditor’s Report including the two big takeaways showing the dire and acute need for an alternative like social housing:<\/span><\/div>\n
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18,000 people on the waitlist for 2000 IZ units!<\/b><\/span><\/li>\n
Of the 2000 IZ units, 1300 of them are for single individuals (65%).<\/b><\/span><\/li>\n
Most of the IZ waiting list consists of family-sized households needing 3+ bedrooms. <\/b><\/span><\/li>\n
Some of the current IZ participating households are spending 50% of their income on housing costs (this is unlawfully not affordable). <\/b><\/span><\/li>\n
IZ units are allowed to sit vacant allowing the developers to gain luxury density while keeping empty the pitiful handful of IZ units they are required to fill. <\/b><\/span><\/li>\n
Of the IZ units that are being filled, it takes an IZ participant on average 13 months to move-in to the unit.
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\nThe Auditor’s press release was rosy compared to the actual underlying data, see screenshots <\/i><\/span>of major findings directly from the report<\/i><\/span>:<\/b><\/i><\/span><\/div>\n\u00a0<\/b><\/i><\/span><\/div>\n $\"Screenshot_2024-11-22_20-02-24.jpg\"$ $\"Screenshot_2024-11-22_20-05-02.jpg\"$ $\"Screenshot_2024-11-22_20-06-01.jpg\"$
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$\"Screenshot_2024-11-22_20-07-15.jpg\"$ <\/p>\n
$\"Screenshot_2024-11-22_20-07-49.jpg\"$ <\/p>\n<\/div>\n
$\"Screenshot_2024-11-22_20-111.jpg\"$ <\/div>\n
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On Fri, Nov 22, 2024 at 7:48\u202fPM Debby Hanrahan <debbyhanrahan@yahoo.com<\/a>> wrote:<\/div>\n
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Hello all,<\/div>\n
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The only thing I can say after a quick read of this City Auditor’s new report is that the inclusionary zoning (IZ) program is as bad as we have suspected and have witnessed on an anecdotal and individual project basis. The financial abuses of the program were not highlighted, but I hope that will come soon. After you have a chance to read this, I hope you will feel free to walk into your nearest IZ-participating project and ask about subsidized units.<\/div>\n
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Best,<\/div>\n
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Debby<\/div>\n
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—– Forwarded Message —–<\/div>\n
From:<\/b> Patterson, Kathy (ODCA) <kathy.patterson@dc.gov<\/a>><\/div>\n
To:<\/b> Debby Hanrahan <debbyhanrahan@yahoo.com<\/a>><\/div>\n
Sent:<\/b> Wednesday, November 20, 2024 at 12:56:46 PM EST<\/div>\n
Subject:<\/b> FW: New report: Stronger Oversight Needed for Inclusionary Zoning Program to Reach Housing Goals<\/div>\n
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Just posted; thanks for your interest!<\/p>\n
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Kathleen Patterson\u00a0 |\u00a0 D.C. Auditor<\/span><\/b><\/b><\/p>\n
she\/her\/hers<\/span><\/i><\/b><\/i><\/p>\n
Office of the D.C. Auditor<\/span><\/b><\/p>\n
1331 Pennsylvania Avenue NW 8^{th<\/sup> Floor<\/span><\/i><\/p>\n}
Washington D.C. 20004<\/span><\/i><\/p>\n
Direct: (202) 727-8982\u00a0 <\/span> <\/i>|<\/span> Office: (202) 727-3600<\/span><\/i><\/p>\n
Email: <\/span><\/i><\/i>kathy.patterson@dc.gov<\/a><\/i><\/p>\n
Website: www.dcauditor.org<\/span><\/a> <\/span><\/i><\/p>\n<\/div>\n
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From:<\/span><\/b> Shinn, Diane (ODCA) <diane.shinn@dc.gov<\/a>>
\nSent:<\/b> Wednesday, November 20, 2024 12:48 PM
\nTo:<\/b> Shinn, Diane (ODCA) <diane.shinn@dc.gov<\/a>>
\nSubject:<\/b> New report: Stronger Oversight Needed for Inclusionary Zoning Program to Reach Housing Goals <\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
Good morning. Attached please find our newest press release and report entitled Stronger DHCD Oversight Needed for Inclusionary Zoning Program to Reach Housing Goals<\/b>.<\/p>\n
Despite a lack of enforcement that has enabled a culture of non-compliance at some of its properties, the District\u2019s Inclusionary Zoning program\u2014<\/p>\n
one of the many pathways toward the city\u2019s affordable housing goals\u2014has already implemented or is implementing many recommendations of a new audit published today by the Office of the D.C. Auditor (ODCA).<\/p>\n
The IZ program\u2019s purpose is to use market-rate development to increase affordable unit production and ultimately create a full range of long-term housing choices for each District household regardless of size and income. Mayor Muriel Bowser is aiming to achieve the affordable housing goal of producing 12,000 new affordable units for D.C. residents by 2025.<\/p>\n
Actions taken by the Department of Housing and Community Development (DHCD) included enforcement action against an IZ provider following a Management Alert issued by ODCA in June.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe were pleased at the immediate action the agency took earlier this year,\u201d said D.C. Auditor Kathy Patterson. \u201cWe are pleased with DHCD\u2019s concurrence with nearly all 17 of ODCA\u2019s recommendations aimed at improving the IZ program\u2019s efficacy, including efforts to meet the 102-day target to fill IZ units from what an ODCA sample found was an average of more than 13 months.\u201d<\/p>\n
Findings in the report include that during the audit\u2019s scope DHCD did not:<\/p>\n
\u2022\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Ensure that annual reporting requirements were enforced, which meant they were not able to track which units were vacant or who was living in occupied units.<\/p>\n
\u2022\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Ensure that IZ tenants\u2019 incomes were recertified annually which potentially allowed participants to remain in IZ units for which they were no longer eligible because their income exceeded their units\u2019 income requirement.<\/p>\n
\u2022\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Ensure that properties submitted renewal leases annually. Of the IZ properties in the report\u2019s sample, only one of 16 properties was found to have completed lease renewals in a timely manner. At six of the properties, some renewed leases were found and those, on average, were dated 147 days (five months) after the previous lease\u2019s expiration date. The remaining properties had not renewed any leases at the time of ODCA\u2019s site visits, putting the tenants into a month-to-month status on an expired lease.<\/p>\n
\u2022\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Initiate enforcement action against property owners who violated IZ development covenant requirements and DCMR.<\/p>\n
Please let me know if you\u2019d like to speak to the Auditor about this report. Thanks for your interest in ODCA\u2019s work.<\/p>\n
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\u00a0<\/span><\/b><\/p>\n
Diane Shinn |\u00a0Director of Communications<\/span><\/b><\/p>\n
Office of the D.C. Auditor<\/span><\/b><\/p>\n
1331 14^{th<\/sup> Street N.W., Suite 800 South<\/span><\/p>\n}
Washington, DC\u00a0 20004<\/span><\/p>\n
Direct: (202) 727-8991 | Office: (202) 727-3600 | Cell: 202-255-6717<\/span><\/p>\n
she\/her\/hers<\/span><\/p>\n
<\/b>diane.shinn@dc.gov<\/a><\/b><\/b><\/p>\n
dcauditor.org<\/span><\/b><\/a><\/b><\/p>\n
Auditude<\/span><\/b><\/a><\/b><\/p>\n
@ODCA_DC<\/span><\/b><\/a><\/b><\/p>\n
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\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/blockquote>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
This November 20, 2024, report by the Office of the Auditor on DC’s Inclusionary Zoning program is an indictment of the Smart Growth urbanists who say that building more luxury housing with a required handful of IZ units would be an answer to our unaffordable housing crisis.\u00a0 The numbers in the official report below show […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":829,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[59,58,60,61],"class_list":["post-828","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-all","tag-dc","tag-dc4rd","tag-development","tag-displacement"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.dc4reality.org\/updates\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/828","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.dc4reality.org\/updates\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.dc4reality.org\/updates\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.dc4reality.org\/updates\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.dc4reality.org\/updates\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=828"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"http:\/\/www.dc4reality.org\/updates\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/828\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":872,"href":"http:\/\/www.dc4reality.org\/updates\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/828\/revisions\/872"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.dc4reality.org\/updates\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/829"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.dc4reality.org\/updates\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=828"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.dc4reality.org\/updates\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=828"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.dc4reality.org\/updates\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=828"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}