A recent Washington Post article highlighted two LIHTC developments in Washington, DC, which cost $1.2 million per unit.
- The projects featured in the news article, Ontario Place and EucKal, converted vacant commercial properties in high-opportunity neighborhoods. The units will serve individuals earning 30 to 50 percent AMI, with a portion set aside for returning citizens. Half of the units are two- or three-bedrooms and the properties have on-site social services and features like rooftop gardens, a community Arts center, and green infrastructure.
Why it matters: The article underscores the growing complexity of LIHTC financing, where multiple funding layers, legal and accounting costs, and compliance burdens add significant expense. Developers also face rising costs tied to federal, state, and local mandates, including prevailing wage requirements, environmental regulations, local hiring preferences, and zoning restrictions.
DC has no cost containment limits, prompting calls from local leaders, like Council Chair Phil Mendelson, for stronger oversight and better cost-efficiency in affordable housing investments.
Ezra Klein enters the debate. In a New York Times article, the author connected the story to his book Abundance and continued the critique of how Democrats have governed in the places where they’ve held power.
“A world in which local regulations drive the cost of an affordable housing unit in a Washington, DC, project to $1.2 million—to be fair, that includes the cost of the “rooftop aquaponics farm”—is a world in which the left simply cannot house the people it has promised to house. That is a world in which the left will fail, both substantively and politically.”
