Councilman Marion Barry wants to increase homeownership in Ward 8, the city’s poorest with the highest unemployment, by telling developers the only residences they’ll be allowed to build there are ones they intend to sell. Barry this week introduced legislation that would put a moratorium on building new apartment buildings in the Southeast ward that encompasses Anacostia, Congress Heights and Washington Highlands. The act aims to drum up more options for potential homeowners in the ward, where 76 percent of residents are renters, the highest percentage in the District.
“Ward 8 has the largest number of section 8 housing — we’re the poorest ward,” Barry said Thursday. “For the last four decades Ward 8 has lost people [because] renters tend to be more transitory. They can’t pay rent, they get evicted, they move from place to place.”
Homeownership would help give residents in the ward a sense of community and investment in where they live he said. Barry noted renters “are paying “1,300 to $1,400 a month for a two-bedroom” in the ward, money that they could be put toward equity if they owned their home. His aim is to establish a program where renters can find homes for a comparable monthly mortgage payment.
A search on the website Apartments.com shows most rents in the ward range from $775 per month for a one-bedroom at Belmont Crossing to $1,400 for a three-bedroom at Savannah Heights. Income restrictions apply.
Some say Barry’s proposal is well-intentioned but could be ineffective.
“His underlying concern is valid,” said John McIwain, an Urban Land Institute fellow. “Instead of trying to stop rental housing of high quality projects, I would find a way to encourage more homeownership housing. … I think a carrot to homeownership is a better way to go than a stick to rental housing.”
Two apartment complexes have opened in the ward since 2009 and a third is on the way, totalling 338 apartments and 10 rental town homes. Barry said that “landlocked” Ward 8 “hardly [had] any room left to expand homeownership.”
But what about turning away developers altogether with the moratorium or condos that don’t sell?
“Why should I be worried about that? This is a capitalist society,” Barry said.
