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
October 5, 2010
Over the weekend The Wall Street Journal reported on some troubling statistics from U.S. Census Bureau data: over 41 million households (or 36.7% of all...
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News
May 17, 2010
From 2006 to 2010, the percentage of homeless dropped by 3 percent for region as a whole.
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News
April 14, 2010
Preliminary results indicate a 1.7 percent decrease between 2009 and 2010.
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News
April 14, 2010
Capital Area Foreclosure Network announced at April meeting of the COG Board of Directors.
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News
April 8, 2009
Greater number of homeless families drives the overall increase.