Washington, DC: Mayor Hopes for $117 Million Yearly

Mayor Adrian M. Fenty said on Monday that he wants to allocate $117 million in new revenue every year as part of a plan to protect and create affordable housing in the District.

According to an outline of the initiative, which Fenty (D) presented to more than 500 Washington Interfaith Network members, 30 percent of new housing units built on city-owned land must be affordable for low-income residents.

The plan calls for a partnership between the city and the interfaith network to produce 5,000 homes as part of a network project that creates low-income housing. The houses would be built in transitional neighborhoods such as Columbia Heights, Brightwood, Deanwood, Bellevue and Washington Highlands, said Sean Madigan, communications director for the office of the deputy mayor for planning and economic development.

"This is very aggressive, but a lot of people say the city is really facing an affordable housing crisis, so steps like this are necessary," Madigan said.

The Rev. Christine Wiley of Covenant Baptist Church in Southwest, which was the host of the event, praised Fenty's proposal. "I usually come up here shaking my finger at somebody," she said.

The District lost 312 affordable units between 2001 and 2005, according to a recent report by the U.S. Government Accountability Office.

Fenty's announcement comes a year after he pledged at a meeting with interfaith network leaders that he would implement the group's Vote Neighborhoods First agenda, which asked for $1 billion to be committed to neighborhood revitalization.

Many D.C. residents have seen available housing transformed into high-priced condominiums. Patricia Moten, an interfaith network member who is minister at First Rock Baptist Church, said the steady gentrification is pushing low-income residents out of their homes and into relatives' crowded residences.

Brenda Jordan, president of the Pleasant Park Tenant Association, said the tenants in her building plan to buy it in October. Their company representatives told them last year that they had received an offer to turn the property into condominiums.

"The majority of the people here, we're born and raised here, and we want to stay here," she said. "I know I do." (WashingtonPost.com)