Highlights

With the COVID-19 crisis leaving millions of Americans out of work, many renters face the prospect of not being able to pay another month’s rent. Calls for extended unemployment benefits, fully funded rental assistance, and national eviction moratoria have become major policy proposals to contain a probable and daunting surge in housing instability and homelessness.

Recent protests in response to the killings of George Floyd, Breonna Taylor, Ahmaud Arbery, and many Black people before them, as well as COVID-19’s disproportionate impact on people of color, are bringing renewed calls to examine how to dismantle systemic racism in the US. Improving public housing—and the lives of public housing residents—is one concrete area that could help address the nation’s long history of racial inequity.

The Washington Housing Initiative (WHI), launched by Federal City Council  in partnership with local real estate firm JBG Smith, acquires rental buildings in neighborhoods facing rising property values and keeps a majority of the apartments affordable for households with moderate incomes. It is one of a handful of innovative models designed to address worsening housing affordability and neighborhood displacement in rapidly growing urban regions across the US.

Because of a coding error, our May 4 findings about the region's housing cost–burdened households were incorrect. The share of households with housing cost burdens is higher than we estimated, but the potential increase due to post-COVID earnings losses is lower. About 35 percent (not 29 percent) of households were housing cost burdened before COVID-19, and an additional 26 percent (not 64 percent) are likely to become housing cost burdened.

An earlier version of this post displayed the wrong source information for the maps (corrected 4/27/20).

The #MeToo movement has changed the way we think about and understand consent and assault and continues to illuminate how society has normalized illegal and abusive behaviors.

But when those behaviors happen within the context of a relationship, determining what is illegal or abusive can be more difficult, especially for young people in vulnerable situations. How can we help them define and identify abuse and feel empowered to make safe choices?

Like nearly every year that preceded it, 2019 brought rapid growth and change for the Greater DC area. But while new opportunities and development could lead to greater security and stability for some, many area residents could be left behind. How can we work toward a better Greater DC for all?

The Metropolitan Washington Council of Governments recently announced that 56,250 new housing units are needed in the next decade to serve low- and moderate-income households in the region. Ten percent of those units may come from a somewhat surprising partner: the faith community.

The Housing Act of 1949, part of Harry Truman’s Fair Deal, sought to ensure a decent home and a suitable living environment for every American family. But 50 years later, as we face a housing affordability crisis and crumbling infrastructure, can urban redevelopment achieve better outcomes for residents?