D.C. Mayor Muriel Bowser highlighted once again the importance of providing more affordable housing across the entire District at a conference hosted by the Urban Land Initiative.
During the event held at the Walter E. Washington Convention Center, Bowser said that the city’s focus was on housing, but also on how more Washingtonians afford housing.
It was stated at the conference that in order to create more housing, more land should be acquired for future development, public and institutional land should be leveraged, shared equity ownership opportunities should be supported and the public should be educated about the problem and solutions concerning race and class.
We're live at the @UrbanLandInst Conference discussing the importance of producing more housing across all wards of the District. #36Kby2025 For a stream with captions: https://t.co/8UbHDR6H7o https://t.co/aWwiOMM40B
— Mayor Muriel Bowser (@MayorBowser) September 20, 2019
“You can go two different ways; you can grow and improve or you can die. And our challenge is… and I’m happy to be in a position to help lead that change and transformation,” Bowser said.
“I wouldn’t switch places with a mayor who had the other problems … of losing population, losing businesses, having to cut government and social services to balance budgets. We are in the opposite position,” she continued.
The mayor explained that the District’s challenge was how to continue to manage the ongoing growth and transformation, as well as to make sure more Washingtonians can participate in the progress.
Bowser also talked about the closure of D.C. General family homeless shelter, a former hospital which she promised to shut down before she was elected.
Describing the place as “too big, too rundown, too isolated to serve families who need emergency shelter,” Bowser had decided to replace it with short-term family housing in all eight wards of the city.