04-24-2024: Testimony Carol Aten, Secretary/Treasurer, NWOP CDC

FY 2025 DC Budget Oversight Hearing on Office of Planning Committee of the Whole

April 24, 2024

I am Carol Aten, Secretary/Treasurer of the NW Opportunity Partners CDC, an organization devoted to racial equity through affordable housing and minority business development within well-planned neighborhoods. We believe that if you work in Ward 3 you should be able to live in Ward 3.

The Mayor’s FY 2025 budget proposal cuts against these goals in many ways, providing extremely generous tax abatements and cash subsidies for downtown redevelopment while slashing programs that provide a safety net for those who live on the margins in other parts of the city – Emergency Rental Assistance (ERAP), Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF), Permanent Supportive Housing (PSH), Rapid Re-housing. The dramatic reduction in the Housing Production Trust Fund will slow production of desperately needed affordable housing and end up costing the city far more as projects denied funding now will cost even more in the future. We know you share these concerns and join with the many organizations throughout the city that are urging the Council to redress this gross imbalance in allocating diminished funds available in FY 2025.

But neither should downtown revitalization distract from the tremendous opportunities in Ward 3 to lay a sound foundation for affordable housing beyond IZ. We ask the Council to consider funding several low-cost actions that would help position Ward 3 for future affordable housing:

First, allocate $200,000 to the Office of Planning for an in-depth affordable housing supplement to the Wisconsin Ave. Development Framework. This disappointing document relies entirely on IZ+ to produce affordable housing, with no acknowledgment of the gross deficiency for the people who work in Ward 3 but cannot afford to live in Ward 3: cashiers; fast food cooks; grocery workers; parking attendants; home health and personal care aides; laundry and dry-cleaning workers; child care workers; ground maintenance workers; teaching assistants; some social security recipients; tellers; security guards; school bus drivers; opticians; secretaries and administrative assistants; roofers; welders, cutters, and braziers; payroll clerks; locksmiths; lab technicians; police and fire dispatchers; chefs and head cooks; hvac/refrigeration mechanics and installers; etc.

Furthermore, the Framework assumes 9,500 new residents along this corridor, but completely ignores comprehensive planning for schools, community recreation centers, water/sewer, roads, bike and bus lanes, etc. This gross omission is undermining public confidence that the proposed up-zoning will produce good results. Without substantial additional planning, Wisconsin Ave. will end up with the same old mix of market-rate and trickle down IZ we have come to expect rather than an exciting new model of affordable rental, home ownership and social housing possible in this dynamic corridor. Noting that this seems to go beyond the traditional purview of OP, we would suggest that a contractor be hired to do this supplemental planning.

Second, while tangentially related to OP, but requiring cooperative planning, we would urge the Council to require WMATA to develop 2 Sites/1 Plan for the Lord and Taylor site and the current bus garage on Wisconsin Ave. as a condition of further public subsidy. NW Opportunity Partners’ study of the housing potential on these two sites can produce as many as 1222 apartments plus 14 home ownership units in 7 townhouses, as well as a range of much-needed community facilities. We are eager to work with OP and WMATA to develop a visionary plan.

Third, appropriate $300,000 for a small area plan for the Homeland Security site as requested by Councilmember Frumin. Transfer of this remarkable site to the city cannot begin until there is a credible development plan. And we urge you to insist that public engagement include application of the dynamic ArcGIS planning tools, Urban and City Engine for which OP has licenses. We strongly recommend that an independent contractor be engaged to conduct the study, as well.

Thank you for this opportunity to testify.

Carol Aten