Week 10 (3/18) – Fair and affordable housing (PP&C)

What is affordable housing and where does it come from? Who paid for that house you just bought? What’s foreclosure and how does it affect communities? 

Read:

Wogan, J. B. (2015, February). Why D.C.’s affordable housing protections are losing a war with economics. Governing.

Cohen, R. M. (2019, November 14). D.C. is rapidly gentrifying and the fate of its affordable housing hangs in the balance. Washington City Paper.

Schuster, H. & Bullard, G. (2020, September 29). Tenant Activism in D.C. Has Surged During The Pandemic. DCist.

Field journal PPC-5: Identify a house in Brookland that appears to have been built or remodeled recently. Record the address of the property and take a picture. Use Zillow.com to look up the date and price of the two most recent sales and report these in your journal. Drawing on the readings and your own experience, why do you think the DC housing market doesn’t provide enough housing that is affordable to lower-income residents? Is housing affordability a problem in your hometown? Why or why not?

Speaker: Steve Glaude, President & CEO, Coalition for Nonprofit Housing and Economic Development (CNHED)