Sierra Club & Washington Interfaith Network
Written Testimony of
John H. More
on
Department of Housing and Community Development
Housing Production Trust Fund
Housing Finance Agency
FY2023 Budgets
to the
DC Council Committee on Housing and Executive Administration
Wednesday, March 30, 2022
Thank you Chairperson Bonds and members of the Committee for the opportunity to submit written testimony on behalf of the Sierra Club and the Washington Interfaith Network (WIN) with regard to the FY23 budgets for the Department of Housing and Community Development, the Housing Production Trust Fund, and the Housing Finance Agency. My name is John More, I am a volunteer member of the Sierra Club DC Chapter’s Clean Energy Committee and Beyond Gas Subcommittee and an activist with WIN for over 30 years. I am a 50+ year resident of Ward 4 and a lifelong environmental activist.
The Sierra Club is the nation's oldest and largest environmental advocacy group. We have 3,000 dues-paying-paying members in the District of Columbia. WIN’s 50+ member institutions represent over 25,000 residents of the District. WIN and the Sierra Club are working closely all across the District on the environmental justice issues of healthy affordable housing and meeting the District’s 2050 zero-carbon emission goals. Both organizations support switching from unhealthy methane gas heating and cooking to all-electric, not only in affordable housing, but in all DC buildings.
Our top priority is combating climate change within an environmental justice policy and budget framework that takes into account the need to keep social equity concerns at the core of our efforts. Climate change is adversely affecting disadvantaged communities already and threatens even worse effects in the future. Healthy green affordable housing that addresses disparate housing and health outcomes are core environmental and racial justice issues.
Affordable Housing Budget
Lack of affordable housing hurts the resilience of the District’s lower income communities (especially in Wards 7 and 8), where long-time residents are being displaced. Affordability alone is not sufficient to address the need for healthy housing for all DC residents. New affordable housing and renovated affordable housing must employ highly efficient heat pumps for space and water heating to meet the District’s commitment of zero carbon emissions by 2050. Moreover, transitioning affordable housing from methane gas for heating and cooking is sorely needed because of the serious adverse health effects of methane combustion, especially in poorer communities with older equipment and a lack of venting.
The Sierra Club and WIN applaud the substantial increases in funding related to affordable housing that the Mayor’s budget proposes to make available for the coming years. We support the FY2023 budget items of $500 million to the Housing Production Trust Fund and $41 million of investment in project-sponsor based vouchers to make housing deeply affordable for low-income residents (up to 2,000 new units). The combination reflects the Mayor’s express commitment to focus on producing deeply affordable units (for those earning less than 30% of Area Median Income, or AMI).
Other funds specifically addressing affordable housing and homelessness are equally welcome, including:
- $110 million to rehabilitate or replace more than 1,500 units of public housing over three years, making improvements to housing, health, and safety for those DC residents most in need of healthy housing;
- $32 million to address homelessness (Homeward DC), including a much needed 7.6% increase in funding for administration of vouchers;
- $120 million in rent and utility assistance over two years intended to help more than 20,000 households;
- $26 million to help low-income homebuyers with down payment and closing costs assistance (with an increase in the maximum HPAP grant amount for low to moderate income first-time homebuyers from $80,00 to $202,000); and
- protections for legacy homeownership in the form of $1 million in legal support for multi-generational families at risk of losing family homes and $10 million for a Black Homeownership Fund.
WIN and the Sierra Club are concerned that the Mayor’s budget does not offer new funding for tenant-based, local housing vouchers for the 39,000 people and families on the Housing Authority waitlist. Lack of additional funding will leave these essential programs for low-income DC residents with little hope of finding adequate housing.
With respect to funds in the Committee’s budget area, including especially the substantial funds for the Housing Production Trust Fund (HPTF), we request that the Committee require that District government actually meet the Mayor’s stated goal that 50% of the funds being devoted to producing deeply affordable units (0-30% of AMI). This goal has also been mandated by District law, but in FY2020 only 25% of HPTF funds were spent on deeply affordable housing, and in FY2021 it appears that only 24% of HPTF funds went to deeply affordable housing. We continue to recommend there also be a requirement for funding workforce housing (31-60% of AMI) for those at risk of being driven from living in DC. Funding has all too often gone to developments with more than 60% of AMI—which is approaching market rate housing.
More generally, the Sierra Club and WIN support the Mayor’s commitment in her housing budget to a one-third, one-third, one-third housing approach – a third deeply affordable, a third workforce, and a third market rate – in developments funded by or receiving not only HPTF support, but any substantial tax and other incentives from the District.
We request that the Committee require in the budget and through its oversight that all affordable projects adhere to a policy of “Build First,” that is, that same size, including family-sized, units be made available for all existing tenants before redevelopment to avoid displacement. The use of vouchers does not address the problem of displacement because of the lack of rentals for DC residents with vouchers. The waiting list for obtaining vouchers is already extremely long. The wait to obtain housing for those with vouchers can be years and in many cases, because of high rent levels in the District, the vouchers can only be used in Maryland and Virginia. For years, large numbers of the DC’s limited-income Black and other minority residents – especially those with children – have had to leave the District.
Funding the Transition from Methane Gas
As representatives of the Sierra Club and WIN have testified before Council and at Public Service Commission hearings in recent years, the District’s priority for combating climate change must focus on the rapid phasing out of methane gas to meet DC’s climate commitments. Methane gas is a potent greenhouse gas that is 84 times more powerful than carbon dioxide in trapping heat and driving global warming and climate disruption.
Significantly, the Sierra Club recently submitted to the DC Public Service Commission its DC Electrification Study.[1] The study demonstrates that electrification of current methane gas heating and other applications in residential and commercial buildings is both technologically feasible and economically achievable – as the District transitions toward its mandated zero carbon emissions targets. The study makes specific recommendations relevant to the Mayor’s housing budget in the areas of public and private housing, including assisting individual homeowners to transition to electric. We request that the Committee take into account the findings and recommendations of the electrification study in its deliberations on the budget for housing.
We strongly recommend that the Council make certain that the budget include requirements that all new affordable housing developments and all renovations be highly energy efficient and all-electric. Non-fossil fuel heating, especially in new buildings, is economically viable, especially with advances in solar and heat pump technology. To the extent that all-electric buildings could in some cases require subsidies, we recommend that a portion of the $500 million in new funding be expressly allocated to such subsidies. A 2% allocation, for example, would result in almost $10 million in support for all-electric affordable buildings.
All-Electric Housing to Reduce Indoor Air Pollution
The Sierra Club and WIN remind the Committee of its previous testimony to the effect that a major benefit of switching to all-electric housing (including electric cooking, hot water heating, and clothes drying appliances) is that it would remove a major contributor to indoor air pollution and its adverse health effects. Like any fossil fuel, methane gas gives off toxic pollutants when burned. The resulting mix of nitrogen dioxide (NO2) and other pollutants can have serious health ramifications. A large body of evidence shows that NO2 exposure results in increased respiratory symptoms, asthma attacks, and hospital admissions for people with asthma. Research also suggests that long-term average NO2 exposure can increase the risk of diabetes, cancer, and premature mortality. Since many low-income residents already have serious health problems like asthma and heart disease, it is especially important that all new affordable housing units be all-electric, as well as all renovated units, to the extent feasible.
Funding for Mold and Lead Exposure Remediation
WIN and the Sierra Club strongly recommend that this Committee and the Council add at least $2 million to the $102 million in the Mayor’s budget for the District’s permanent and temporary supportive housing and shelter services to ensure that sufficient funds are allocated to mold and lead monitoring and remediation in existing structures. Families and individuals already in need of shelters have suffered unhealthy living conditions for too long.
The NAACP DC Branch has initiated a campaign to address these environmental health issues in low- and moderate-income housing for mold and lead exposures that have caused illness for generations. Low-income and Black children are disproportionately affected by poor indoor air quality. Children in Wards 7 and 8 are 10 times more likely to go to the hospital because of an asthma attack than children in wealthier parts of DC, according to a 2019 City Paper article. We request this Committee to make certain funding for monitoring and remediation be included in all public and affordable housing funding.
Conclusion
Thank you, Chairperson Bonds, for the opportunity to provide written testimony. The Sierra Club and WIN are glad to see the DC budget putting substantially expanded resources into affordable housing to meet a dire need for low-income DC residents. We look forward to new and renovated affordable housing being all-electric, healthier, and free from methane gas. We look forward to substantial reductions in mold and lead exposure in DC shelters and in all homes. We believe that DC residents should not just be able to remain in the District, but also to breathe clean air in their homes and enjoy reduced utility bills through renewable energy and energy efficiency.