Community

Housing & Homelessness

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

  • News

    D.C. Region to Count Homeless Population

    January 26, 2011

    COG staff to give first-hand accounts and reactions through social media in days following count.

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    News

    Affordable Housing in Crystal City

    January 25, 2011

    The posting below is cross-posted at Under One Roof and is part of a series on Crystal City.

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    News

    The Morning Measure: A (not so) radical idea for housing

    January 19, 2011

    Housing has caused a lot of headaches in the past few years. After being the cause of the massive boom and bust housing has taken a beating – so much so that...

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    The Morning Measure: Smart Growth Revamped

    January 13, 2011

    In December we wrote that the concept of smart growth needed to be revamped to be more comprehensive taking social justice and access to jobs education...

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    The Morning Measure: Smart(er) growth?

    December 15, 2010

    Over at Switchboard the NRDC’s exceptional blog on the connections between transportation land-use and the environment Kaid Benfield recently pondered about the...

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