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 19, 2012
Not enough housing. Not the right housing. Stephen Fuller and Lisa Sturtevant of the GMU Center for Regional Analysis blog about their findings which show that...
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News
January 12, 2012
The Capital Area Foreclosure Network is currently running an ad campaign encourgaing the region's residents to seek free help to avoid foreclosure.
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News
January 5, 2012
COG Executive Director David Robertson and other regional leaders recently appeared on NBC's Viewpoint program to discuss major issues the region will face in...
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News
November 17, 2011
Alicia Lewis and Sophie Mintier Housing Planners at MWCOG recently attended PolicyLink’s Equity Summit 2011 in Detroit. The “Dispatches from Detroit”...
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News
November 10, 2011
Gentrification is an international reality. Just as the District of Columbia and other parts of this region experience the benefits of revitalization while also...