Steady job growth and excellent schools are among the features that have made metropolitan Washington a desirable place to live, spurring high home values and encouraging the creation of expensive new developments. This has put enormous pressure on local governments striving to shape communities where all citizens of all ages can afford to live.
COG shares housing data, best practices, and tools to help encourage the production and preservation of housing affordable to low and moderate-income residents who may not be well-served by the existing housing market. Through strategic partnerships, COG and its members build greater awareness of the region's housing affordability needs. In late 2018, COG launched its Regional Housing Initiative to determine what it would take to increase housing beyond what is currently forecast to provide enough housing for the region’s growing workforce. In 2019, officials adopted three regional housing targets to address this challenge.
It is not enough to just increase the amount of housing our region produces, however. Equally important is ensuring that growth is equitable and results in integrated neighborhoods in metropolitan Washington. COG works to support local governments in meeting their obligation to affirmatively further fair housing choice so that as the region grows, all residents can choose to live in healthy, affordable homes with access to transit, jobs, and quality educational opportunities.
COG also supports the most severe housing needs of the region's residents—individuals and families experiencing homelessness. COG, area governments, and homeless services providers seek regional solutions to ensure that the experience of homelessness is brief, rare, and one time only.
News & Multimedia
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News
January 30, 2013
Area governments and homeless service providers will begin conducting the annual enumeration or count of the metropolitan Washington region’s homeless...
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News
November 6, 2012
Cheryl Cort Policy Director Coalition for Smarter Growth
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News
September 13, 2012
Over the past few weeks we’ve been discussing the role of updated Activity Centers in metro Washington . Now we’re going to take a look at some specific...
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News
June 26, 2012
Before fuel and energy costs began spiking in recent years the old saying “drive until you qualify” used to reflect how residents could find housing in...
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News
May 22, 2012
The annual count of the region’s homeless population found that a significant percentage of the 11830 homeless persons in metro Washington are employed.