by Michelle Krocker, Executive Director, Northern Virginia Affordable Housing Alliance (NVAHA)
“Economic development” and “regional cooperation” are the buzz words in the news these days as business leaders express growing concern about our regional economy. Sequestration dealt the metro area a severe economic blow, and we continue to struggle in the aftermath.
Consider these statistics
Federal spending has dropped, both in jobs and in procurement. As a result, higher wage jobs in the business and professional sectors have declined. The Center for Regional Analysis at George Mason University reports that from 2012-2013, the DC metro area had the lowest job growth among the 15 largest metropolitan regions in the nation. All of these trends point to FY16 as another difficult year for local governments to fashion balanced budgets that can adequately fund growing service needs in an environment of anemic property values, tepid job growth and rising vacancies in commercial office space.
But a few voices are emerging with strategies that would foster innovation, encourage business diversification and job growth and promote healthy, vibrant communities, and localities would do well to take note. In a report released in December titled “New Virginia Economy,” Governor Terry McAuliffe identifies five priorities to leverage and expand the state’s current assets to diversify and grow the economy. These include building critical infrastructure; diversifying and growing strategic industry sectors; promoting an entrepreneurial and competitive business climate; and workforce training to meet the needs of business and industry.
Affordable housing and sustainable growth
It is within the priority of infrastructure, that the report maintains the importance of affordable housing for the workforce, stating “Quality, affordable housing is a core component of sustainable economic growth. Housing is foundational for a high quality workforce, great school performance and health communities.” Key housing recommendations include:
Where will our region’s jobs sleep at night?
To attract and retain new businesses, our region needs to provide housing opportunities that are affordable for a wide variety of jobs, with locations near transit and job centers. Cost of living that is too high can be a deterrent to new businesses that want to locate in an area or businesses that are considering expansion. Recruiting and retaining employees becomes a bigger challenge, and those businesses may seek other locations or regions that provide an infrastructure conducive to growth and expansion. Think Houston, LA or even Detroit.
The notion of housing as infrastructure is not new, but it is one that not all jurisdictions have embraced. Housing production creates substantial economic activity and jobs, and provides homes for hard working people who spend their paychecks in the local economy. And the outcome is that people who work in our community have an opportunity to live in our community. Now is the time to invest in housing, and we should capitalize upon existing opportunities that present themselves.
What needs to happen?
To meet our region’s unmet housing needs, we need:
As many suburban jurisdictions watch with concern the growing vacancies in older commercial office space, we need greater flexibility in our local zoning ordinances to be creative with adaptive re-use of these structures for a mix of uses that include mixed-income housing. Vornado’s partnership with WeWork, a national company with co-working offices in major metropolitan areas is one to watch. This project, located in Crystal City, will convert an aging, vacant office building into an innovative live-work space containing shared amenities, a sense of community and opportunities for collaboration in a residential building.
More than ever, we need to incentivize the private sector in this effort, as they will produce the majority our housing. Along with transportation, air quality and disaster preparedness, addressing the region’s housing needs should be an essential component of regional cooperation, and now is the time to come together on this issue.
Exelon Corporation is in the process of acquiring Pepco Holdings, Inc., including Pepco’s Maryland operating companies: Potomac Electric Power Company (Pepco), and Delmarva Power & Light Company (Delmarva Power). Why does the merger of Exelon and Pepco Holdings matter for affordable housing? Tens of millions of dollars are at stake! To show that the merger is in the public interest, Exelon is proposing to create a Customer Investment Fund (CIF) and how these funds are to be used will be up to the MD PSC. HAND has joined the National Housing Trust in an effort to ensure the proposed merger is in the public interest.
Hearings will be held starting today through January 14th in different parts of Maryland. The hearings will provide an opportunity for the MD PSC commissioners to learn about why improving the energy efficiency of multifamily affordable housing is in the public interest. For questions on this effort, please contact Todd Nedwick at tnedwick@nhtinc.org or 202-333-8931 x 128.
For assistance drafting talking points, please use these templates:
If you plan to testify at a hearing, please sign up using the Google Document here.
HEARING SCHEDULE:
1. Tuesday, January 6, 2015 — Beginning at 7:00 PM
Kent County Public Library
408 High Street, Chestertown, Maryland 21620
2. Wednesday, January 7, 2015 — Beginning at 7:00 PM
Chesapeake College – Cadby Theatre, Wye Mills Campus
Eastern Shore Higher Education Center
Routes 50 and 213, Wye Mills, Maryland 21679
3. Thursday, January 8, 2015 — Beginning at 7:00 PM
Salisbury University, Room TETC – 153
1101 Camden Avenue, Salisbury, Maryland 21801
4. Tuesday, January 13, 2015 — Beginning at 6:00 PM
Montgomery County Council Office Building Auditorium
100 Maryland Avenue, Rockville, Maryland 20850
5. Wednesday, January 14, 2015 — Beginning at 6:00 PM
Prince George’s County Community College Room 227 – Community Room B
301 Largo Road, Largo, Maryland 20774
It is encouraging to note that within the goals and strategies for ‘project ready’ infrastructure, there is a section on housing that begins with:
The report goes on to lay out some modest steps to support and preserve affordable and mixed-income housing. While no funding was identified in this section, it is in our interest to follow the work of the Steering Committee that has been charged with executing this four year implementation plan, and support any and all discussions of housing needs. We know that at the local level, some jurisdictions are having similar conversations about how to stimulate economic growth and development as we transition from our over-reliance on federal contracts.
I’ve provided a link to the full report below. I recommend taking a look as it’s brief, and contains good charts and useful data.
http://governor.virginia.gov/media/3501/new-virginia-economy-12052014.pdf
The George Mason University Center for Regional Analysis (CRA) announces the release of “Real Property Assessment Trends in the Washington Region, 2005-2014,” a working paper that traces patterns in residential, commercial, and multifamily property assessments over the past decade in the Washington area. This topic is of particular interest to city and county governments in the region, as many local governments are highly dependent on revenue from real property taxes. The national economic recession from 2008 to 2010 led to declines in the property assessments of every major jurisdiction in the region, and the assessments have yet to recover to pre-recession levels in many jurisdictions.
The paper finds that property assessments have increased since 2009 in the District of Columbia, Arlington and Alexandria, driven primarily by increased valuation from multifamily residential development. However many suburban areas have struggled to rebuild their commercial assessment bases in the past five years. This trend is placing additional burdens on residential property owners in these jurisdictions and making it more difficult for local governments to maintain their public facilities and services.
Click here to download “Real Property Assessment Trends in the Washington Region, 2005-2014”
Illinois-based utility corporation Exelon is acquiring Pepco. Why does this matter for affordable housing in Washington, D.C.? Millions of dollars for affordable housing could be at stake. In order to demonstrate that the merger is in the public interest, Exelon is offering to create a Customer Investment Fund with funding for energy assistance and energy efficiency investments to benefit D.C. residents. Exactly how these funds are to be used will be up to the D.C. Public Service Commission (PSC).
HAND has joined the National Housing Trust in an effort to secure up to $19 million for efficiency improvements to D.C. affordable housing via the Exelon-Pepco merger. To accomplish this goal we must demonstrate strong support from the D.C. affordable housing community. Here are two ways you can help:
Full hearing information:
December 17, 2014 – 6:00 p.m.
Public Service Commission of the District of Columbia
Hearing Room
1333 H Street, N.W., Suite 700
Washington, D.C. 20005
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