DC Mayor Muriel Bowser Announces Progress in Affordable Housing Preservation Initiatives

WASHINGTON, March 13, 2018 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- District of Columbia Mayor Muriel Bowser today announced that Capital Impact Partners and Local Initiatives Support Corporation-DC (LISC-DC) will manage the District's $10 million Affordable Housing Preservation Fund. This announcement follows the March 5 appointment of Ana Lopez Van Balen as the District's First Affordable Housing Preservation Officer. The Mayor's Housing Preservation Strike Force recommended the creation of the fund and a preservation unit headed by the preservation officer as two of six critical strategies to preserve affordable rental housing in the District.

Along with other private and philanthropic investments, the $10 million in the Housing Preservation Fund will be used to grow the fund to approximately $40 million. These monies will quickly provide short-term bridge acquisition and predevelopment financing to eligible borrowers. Targeted for fund investments are most multi-family properties where at least 50 percent of units are currently affordable to households earning up to 80 percent of the median family income (MFI). The preservation officer, the first in the District and the only mayoral-appointed, high-level position of its type in the country, will focus on: (1) preserving affordable units that exist with and without government subsidies; and (2) collecting and maintaining data on affordable housing.

"When I established the Strike Force in 2015, its mandate was clear?develop an action plan that ensures the District does not lose any of its already existing affordable housing," said Mayor Bowser. "Ana has a strong background in economic, housing, and community development, strategic planning, and engagement, and we know she will serve the residents of DC well. Capital Impact Partners and LISC-DC both have deep, long-standing commitments to affordable housing and my Administration looks forward to working together to get this money out the door and into preservation projects."

Since coming into office, the Bowser Administration has sparked the creation or preservation of more 10,400 affordable units, with another 2,950 in preconstruction. In Fiscal Year 2017, the District made historic investments in affordable housing, getting more than $138 million in Housing Production Trust Fund financing out the door to support 23 projects that will produce or preserve more than 1,900 affordable units.

The District's multi-pronged approach to housing production and preservation, homeownership, and development of vacant properties is winning national recognition. On September 11, the District was selected for the Urban Land Institute's Larson Housing Policy Leadership Award.

CONTACT:
LaToya Foster (EOM) ? (202) 727-5011; [email protected]  
Gwendolyn Cofield (DHCD) ? (202) 657-8489; [email protected]

SOURCE DC Department of Housing and Community Development