A Drive for Affordable Housing

Bowie Is Given Pointers on Promoting Low-Cost Options

Political leaders and housing officials from across the Washington region are mounting a campaign to convert local governments to the cause of affordable housing -- and then to help them practice it.

The first stop for this affordable housing effort was the Bowie City Council on Monday evening. Members of the Washington Area Housing Partnership, a group that includes governments, developers and advocates, presented Mayor G. Frederick Robinson and council members with a range of ways to promote affordable housing.

The Prince George's County city of 56,000 people is starting a police force this year, and council member Jack D. Jenkins wanted to know how the city could provide housing that officers could afford.

Barbara A. Favola, an Arlington County Board member and chairman of the housing partnership, cautioned that officials needed to be "a little careful" not to violate fair-housing laws that prohibit targeting benefits to just one group.

The exchange illustrated the appeal and complexity of "workforce housing," which has emerged as an area of emphasis in government to help those priced out of the housing market. Officials in many jurisdictions, faced with still-rising real estate prices, want to devise housing programs for government and service-sector workers, some of whom have annual household incomes of more than $100,000. The programs have the advantage of being more politically palatable than those targeting lower-income families.

But housing advocates warn that creating affordable housing for people with relatively high-paying jobs will draw resources away from those who are most in need.

Meetings similar to the Bowie session are scheduled in Takoma Park and in Loudoun and Prince William counties in April and May. Officials at the Metropolitan Washington Council of Governments are encouraging all area jurisdictions to set up such meetings, in part to showcase the housing partnership's "Toolkit for Affordable Housing Development."

The document, available online at http://www.mwcog.org/planning/housing/partnership/ , highlights successful affordable housing programs and strategies across the region and the country.

One example is Montgomery County's landmark "inclusionary zoning" program, which requires that developers include affordable units in their projects and, in exchange, grants them permission to build at higher density. Other approaches include the Prince George's housing rehabilitation program, which provides money to people of limited means who are upgrading their homes, and Frederick County's rental assistance program for low-income families.

When a Bowie council member asked about the need to build vertically in a region running out of land, Favola said the goal of providing affordable housing can sway the public to accept higher density and taller buildings.

"The lack of affordable housing is such a compelling need that they may accept some things they would not ordinarily accept to achieve it," she said.

Elizabeth Davison, Montgomery's director of housing and community affairs, briefed the Bowie officials on the county's Housing Initiative Fund, which relies on a dedicated stream of property tax revenue to pay for efforts to create and preserve affordable housing.

Alexandria's housing director, Mildrilyn Stephens Davis, explained how the city uses federal community development block grants to pay for its affordable housing programs. Robert Boulter, head of Faithworks Inc., a religiously inspired development organization in the District, touted the benefits of a community land trust for jurisdictions that need to start their work on a small scale.

Linda Cooper -- director of St. Matthew's Housing Corp., a nonprofit transitional housing facility in Bowie -- encouraged the mayor and council to keep learning about how the city might develop its own programs. "The needs are enormous, and they're growing," she said. "I got three calls today."