HUD Approves $78M in Bonds for Affordable Housing Improvements

WASHINGTON, DC-The affordable housing market in the District has gotten a cash infusion courtesy of the US government, now that HUD has signed off on the issuance of $77.8 million in bonds for the renovation of public housing properties.

The District of Columbia Housing Authority will issue the bonds as part of HUD’s Capital Fund Financing Program, which facilitates the upgrading of dilapidated affordable housing sites within a within a two- or three-year period, as opposed to the 10 years that would normally be required to complete such endeavors. Of DCHA’s 41 public housing properties, 38 sites accounting for 6,900 units will benefit from the funds over the next three years.

“Housing costs have escalated in the District, particularly since the late 1990s, and a number of low-income neighborhoods have experienced gentrification,” DC Fiscal Policy Institute policy analyst Angie Rodgers notes in a study issued by the institute earlier this year entitled, ‘Squeezed Out: The Worsening Shortage of Affordable Housing for Low-Income DC Households.’ The supply of low-cost housing has diminished greatly and the gap between the supply and demand for affordable housing has widened while the number of high-cost apartments and homes has risen dramatically.”