Stability, advocacy and voice: opportunities and challenges in resident-led preservation of affordable housing

Abstract

The role of safe, stable affordable housing has been found to play an outsized role in the ability of residents to access opportunity. However, low-income and moderate-income households face disproportionate impacts of changes in urban neighbourhoods, including poor conditions, evictions and rising rents that threaten that stability. Over the past decade, the deep subsidies that created or redeveloped affordable housing between the late 1960s and 1980s have expired, putting not only the residents of those buildings. Meanwhile, market-affordable housing is at risk due to increasing market pressure in appreciating neighbourhoods. In Washington, DC a combination of programmes, laws and traditions have created a tenant-led preservation policy that has preserved the affordability of tens of thousands of units since the early 1980s. This paper investigates DC’s tenant-based preservation policy to understand the preservation challenges and opportunities for low-income and moderate-income residents in changing communities.