Inclusionary zoning, or IZ, is a program that uses the market to provide more affordable housing. When new condos or apartments are built, IZ requires 8-10% of them to be rented or sold more affordably — only to people making below a certain income. In return, home builders can build a few extra market rate units in order to offset the difference in overall cost.
IZ is not a magic bullet for DC’s affordable housing crisis, but it is part of a toolbox of solutions that can make a big dent in our affordability problem. We like IZ because it’s a way to harness DC’s building boom to ensure more affordable places. Plus, it helps to create more socio-economic diversity in otherwise wealthy neighborhoods — which makes for more vibrant, interesting places and greater opportunities for people with modest incomes. In fact, IZ has created the only new affordable housing West of Rock Creek Park in decades.
Resources
- Press release: Zoning Commission takes important step to strengthen affordable housing in the District
- Coalition’s statement of support to Zoning Commission (March 3, 2016)
- Fact sheet: Making IZ Affordable
- Advocates’ Briefing on how IZ works (October 2015)
- DC Office of Planning IZ Case File (Search for case 04-33G)