D.C. lawmakers have overhauled a package of affordable-housing initiatives that Mayor Muriel E. Bowser highlighted as central to her second term, setting up a showdown over the direction of housing policy in the nation’s capital as a final vote on the city’s budget looms next week.
At an initial vote last week, the D.C. Council reduced proposed funding for developers to create affordable housing, eliminated housing-preservation dollars and remade wholesale a new program — heavily publicized by the Bowser administration — that would have catered to middle-class Washingtonians squeezed by the District’s high rents and home prices.
It was a serious setback for Bowser (D), who announced the policies in March at her annual State of the District address — her first rollout of a major legislative priority since her reelection in November. With the council set to finalize the budget Tuesday, the mayor is fighting to preserve the programs’ funding.
The conflict reflects a philosophical difference between Bowser and lawmakers over how best to deal with the inexorable rise of housing costs.
Click here to read the rest of the article written by Peter Jamison over at the Washington Post