On Thursday, March 31st from 9:30AM- 3:30PM, MWCOG will host full-day training and information-sharing session will be around HUD’s Affirmatively Furthering Fair Housing rule, and specifically, the data component of the assessment tool. The session will be open to housing directors and planners from all COG jurisdictions, and will be particularly beneficial for staff members responsible for analyzing local demographic, economic and/or housing data. The goals of the session are to 1) explain the new AFFH rule and assessment of fair housing process; 2) review the assessment tool and maps and data that will be provided to localities; and 3) share information about locally-collected data to improve the availability and quality of data that will be helpful to the assessment process.
Registration begins on March 1, 2016 and ends on March 29, 2016.
Please click here to go to the registration form.
At its March 1 meeting, the Board of Supervisors appointed Tom Fleetwood as the next director of the Department of Housing and Community Development (HCD). Fleetwood will succeed Kurt Creager, who left the county in the summer of 2015. Since that time, Fleetwood has been serving as acting director for the agency, and will take on his official role as director effective immediately.
HCD serves both as staff to the Fairfax County Redevelopment and Housing Authority and as a county department, committed to preserving affordable housing and caring, livable communities in Fairfax County.
Fleetwood has been with HCD since 2005, when he first joined the county as a strategic planner. In that role, he coordinated the development of the agency’s “Housing Blueprint,” a document still used by HCD and the Board of Supervisors today to help develop housing policy. He also served as lead on the development of the county’s Workforce Housing Policy in 2007 and worked extensively on the county’s Five Year Consolidated Plan. In 2011, Fleetwood’s position was reclassified first as an associate director, then as a division director for the Fairfax County Redevelopment and Housing Authority (FCRHA). In this role he maintained his strategic planning responsibilities while also providing additional direct support to the FCRHA Commissioners. Fleetwood also acted as lead staff to the Fairfax County Board of Supervisors Housing Committee and the Fairfax County Affordable Housing Advisory Committee, and played a key role in the preparation of annual budget narratives. He was named acting director of HCD in August 2015.
By Lisa A. Sturtevant, PhD
President, Lisa Sturtevant & Associates
The District of Columbia has attracted thousands of new residents since the end of the recession. In 2009 and 2010, the Washington DC metro area was one of very few places around the country that was adding jobs, and therefore the city was a big draw for young workers in the first few years of the economic recovery.
In 2014, there was concern that after four years of dramatic increases the city’s population growth had begun to slow. The main reason seemed to be a slowdown in domestic migration—that is, people moving into DC from other places in the U.S. According to Census Bureau population estimates based on IRS data, in-migration to the District did, indeed, slow in 2014. After years talking about what it meant for the city when all of the Millennials moved in, people started wondering what it meant if the Millennials stopped coming.
However, the worries about population slowdown in the District might be premature. New population estimates from the U.S. Census Bureau shows that net migration is up between 2014 and 2015 and population growth, which has been slowing for several years, actually increased this past year. We know now that the heady post-recession population growth years were fueled by thousands of young, well-educated, mostly white people moving into the city. But what do we know about more recent migrants to DC? Do they look the same as the earlier newcomers or is there a shift in the types of people who want to call DC home?
Notwithstanding the most recent population trends in the District of Columbia, young people have always been more likely to move to cities than older people. And young people—particularly between the ages of 18 and 24—have been the primary driver of DC’s population growth, both in 2010 and more recently. What’s different is that young people might be staying in the city longer than they used to. In 2010, 40 percent of people who moved out of DC were between the ages of 25 and 34. This is a relatively mobile age cohort, and these moves are often precipitated by life-cycle events, such as marriage and children, which are historically often associated with a move to the suburbs. In 2014, however, the share of out-migrants that was 25 to 34 years old declined slightly, to 37 percent. (The share of out-migrants age 35 to 44 increased between 2010 and 2014.) Not a big change, and it could reflect a more complicated demographic pattern in the city. However, it could also be early evidence of young people staying in the city, at least while their children are very young (i.e. pre-school age) instead of bee-lining to the suburbs.
So, people moving into DC are much younger than the overall population. Nearly 40 percent of people who moved into DC in 2014 were between the ages of 18 and 24, compared to just 12 percent of all residents. But they differ from existing residents in many other ways, as well. Continuing post-recession trends, new residents to the District are much more likely to be white than existing residents. In 2014, nearly 60 percent of the people who moved into the city were white, compared to 40 percent of the overall population. Only 29 percent of in-migrants were black, while the city’s overall African-American population was just under 50 percent in 2014. DC has a very highly educated population but new residents are much more likely than existing residents to have a bachelor’s degree or higher—72 percent versus 55 percent. And not surprising, given their age, the vast majority of new residents are renters (82 percent) compared to about 57 percent of the overall population.
These demographic patterns may not be terribly surprising. They match what we’ve heard for years about the city’s new residents. But the income data may be a little surprising. Even though about 15 percent of new residents had individual incomes of $75,000 or more (compared to 24.5 percent of existing residents), most were more likely to have lower incomes. In fact, nearly 40 percent of the city’s in-migrants in 2014 had individual incomes of less than $25,000. Many of these lower-income newcomers likely included young workers and college students. By comparison, 32 percent of the city’s overall population had incomes below that level.
So, if DC is still the place to be, is the city ready to accommodate its new residents? These data on recent movers to the District suggest the following:
Did you miss last month’s Matters@HAND? Read Should We Put a Dollar Value on the Benefits of Affordable Housing today.
The ACTION Campaign is calling on Congress to expand the Low-Income Housing Tax Credit (Housing Credit).
Leaders from both sides of the aisle, including President Obama and House Speaker Ryan, recognize that persistent poverty is both destructive to families and a barrier to our nation’s economic growth. Affirmative policy solutions are needed to prevent people from falling through the cracks and instead, expand opportunity to improve economic well-being.
Unfortunately, the scarcity of affordable housing is a significant obstacle to the nation’s efforts to alleviate poverty. While programs like the Earned Income Tax Credit are critical to increasing the incomes of low-income families, more help is needed to bring down the costs of housing – the single largest expense for low-income families.
For this reason, the ACTION Campaign is calling on Congress to address our nation’s severe shortage of affordable rental housing by raising the cap on Housing Credit allocation authority by at least 50 percent.
Read the letter and sign on. The deadline for signing on to the letter is Friday, March 11.
All existing ACTION Campaign members will be included in the letter, so if you are already an ACTION Campaign member you do NOT need to sign on. However, it is encouraged to share the letter with networks to show broad support for the Housing Credit.
If you have any questions or want to remove your organization from the letter, contact Emily Cadik at ecadik@enterprisecommunity.org before the March 11 deadline.
On March 24th, Bisnow and presenting sponsor Nixon Peabody will host a forum about the latest development on HUD, Tax Credits, Community Development and more! Speakers include:
Buwa Binitie, managing principal, Dantes Partners
David Bowers, vice president & mid-atlantic market leader, Enterprise Community Partners
Monica Hilton Sussman, former deputy general counsel, HUD, partner, Nixon Peabody
Brett Macleod, executive director, Community Development Banking, Chase
Jeff Lesk, DC managing partner, Nixon Peabody
Winell Belfonte, partner, CohnReznick
Jim Knight, president, Jubilee Housing
Jane Lang, chair, Eugene M. Lang Foundation, founder, Atlas Performing Arts Center.
More speakers to be announced! To purchase tickets, click here.
[custom-facebook-feed]
Payments: Orders placed on the event registration page are not confirmed until payment is received. A confirmation email will be sent to the email address listed in your registration. If you paid by credit card, a receipt will be sent to the email address listed in your registration. If you mail a check, all payments must be received within seven days of completing your registration form. Checks should be remitted to: HAND, PO Box 48386, Washington, DC 20002
Guest List & Dietary Preference: If your registration includes a luncheon table or multiple guests, please submit guest names and menu choices by May 1, 2020. Submit guest names here.
Housing Expo: Plan to exhibit? Download the Housing Expo FAQs here.
Omni Shoreham Hotel Room Block: For attendees looking to secure overnight accommodations on May 25th, HAND has secured a rate starting at $189 for conference attendees. There are a limited amount of rooms available, so visit this link today to reserve your room. May 10th is the last day to secure a room at the discounted rate.
Ad Submission: The artwork for advertisements should be submitted to annualmeeting@handhousing.org. You can download the ad spec sheet here. Deadline for ad submission is April 13, 2020.
Cancellations & Changes: If you wish to cancel or change your registration for the Annual Meeting & Housing Expo, please send a request in writing to annualmeeting@handhousing.org. All cancellation requests made prior to April 27th will receive a 50% refund. For cancellation requests made after April 27th, no refund will be provided.
Door Prizes: Are you interested in donating a door prize to this year’s Annual Meeting? Email annualmeeting@handhousing.org to coordinate with our team.
Mailing Address:
HAND
1330 New Hampshire Avenue NW, Suite 124
Washington, DC 20036
info@handhousing.org
202.384.3764
Staff Directory
MEDIA INQUIRIES?
communications@handhousing.org
INTERESTED IN HAND UPDATES?
Sign up for the distribution list here.