Fair Share Housing Targets Act of 2025

Statement of Introduction
Fair Share Housing Targets Act of 2025
December 19, 2025

Today, along with Councilmembers Christina Henderson, Janeese Lewis George, Robert C.
White, Jr., and Zachary Parker, I am introducing the Fair Share Housing Targets Act of 2025. This
legislation would ensure that the District of Columbia maintains ambitious goals for the production of
new housing and affordable housing by requiring the Mayor to set new housing targets every 5 years.
To maintain a principle that all areas of D.C. contribute a fair share of housing, specific targets
would be established for each of the District's 10 Planning Areas, groups of neighborhoods used for
planning that do not change with ward boundaries.
In May 2019, Mayor Bowser released the District's first-ever Mayor's Order on Housing, which
set a goal of producing 36,000 new homes by the year 2025. This goal was followed up in October 2019
by the publication of the Mayor's Housing Framework: Creating Goals for Areas of Our City, an
analysis of existing affordable housing distribution and specific housing production goals by planning
area.
These goals made D.C. a leader as the first major U.S. city to establish housing production and
affordable housing targets on a hyper-local level.
2025 is now coming to a close with D.C. having met its 36,000 unit target ahead of schedule.
However, this achievement was not the result of equal contribution across the District. While four
planning areas met or exceeded their affordable housing targets, six planning areas fell short. To address
this, the bill would establish a process for assessing and remedying barriers to housing production for
any planning area that does not meet a housing target, now or in the future.
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Councilmember Christina Henderson
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Councilmember Brianne K. Nadeau
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Councilmember Robert C. White, Jr.
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Councilmember Janeese Lewis George

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Councilmember Zachary Parker

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A BILL

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IN THE COUNCIL OF THE DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA

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To require the Mayor to establish 5-year targets for housing production and affordable housing 1
and track progress towards housing targets on a quarterly basis; and to establish 2
procedures for analysis and remedy for any Planning Area that does not meet a housing 3
target. 4
5
BE IT ENACTED BY THE COUNCIL OF THE DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA, That this 6
act may be cited as the “Fair Share Housing Targets Act of 2025”. 7
Sec. 2. Definitions. 8
For the purposes of this act, the term: 9
(1) "Affordable housing" means income- and rent-restricted housing supported or 10
subsidized by local and federal programs for households earning less than 80 percent of the area 11
median income, as that term is defined in Section 2(1) of the Housing Production Trust Fund Act 12
of 1988, effective March 16, 1989 (D.C. Law 7-202; D.C. Official Code § 42-2801(1)). 13
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(2) "Housing target" means a housing production or affordable housing target 14
established pursuant to paragraphs (B) and (C) of section 3(a)(1). 15
(3) "Planning Area" means a geographic area defined in Volume 2 of the District 16
of Columbia Office of Planning's 2021 Comprehensive Plan and the Comprehensive Plan 17
Amendment Act of 2021, effective August 21, 2021 (D.C. Law 24-20; 68 DCR 6918). 18
(4) "Target date" means the date 5 years from the effective date of a housing 19
target established pursuant to section 3. 20
Sec. 3. Housing production and affordable housing targets. 21
(a) No later than 180 days from the effective date of this section, and every 5 years 22
thereafter, the Mayor shall publish and transmit to Council housing targets for each Planning 23
Area of the District, which shall include: 24
(1) A housing production target encompassing all new housing units produced; 25
(2) An affordable housing target; and 26
(3) The effective start date of the targets, which shall be within the same calendar 27
year as the date of transmittal to Council; 28
(4) The proposed methodology to track and enumerate units that shall count 29
towards the fulfillment of the housing targets. 30
(A) The addition of new affordable housing covenants on existing units 31
may be counted towards fulfillment of the affordable housing target as established in subsection 32
(a)(1) but shall not be counted towards fulfillment of the housing production target as established 33
in subsection (a)(2). 34
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(B) Subsidy or other support provided to preserve an existing affordable 35
housing unit shall not be counted towards fulfillment of the affordable housing target as 36
established in subsection (a)(2). 37
(b) The Mayor shall maintain a publicly accessible dashboard to track progress towards 38
the fulfillment of housing targets established under this section, which shall be updated no less 39
than once per quarter. 40
(1) The dashboard established pursuant to this subsection shall provide 41
information about the affordability level of units produced in each planning area and shall 42
distinguish between affordable housing created as a result of new construction and new 43
affordable housing created through subsidy or the establishment of a covenant on an existing 44
unit. 45
(c) The District of Columbia Auditor shall audit the information provided by the Mayor 46
pursuant to subsection (b) no less than once during each 5-year period. 47
Sec. 4. Fair share analysis and remedy. 48
(a) This section applies to any Planning Area in which: 49
(1) Housing production has not met a target established pursuant to section 3 by 50
the target date; or 51
(2) As of January 1, 2026, has not had sufficient units of housing produced within 52
its boundaries to meet targets established in Mayor's Order 2019-036 and Figure 6 or Appendix 2 53
of the "Housing Equity Report: Creating Goals for Areas of Our City", published October 2019. 54
(b)(1) For each Planning Area subject to this section, the Mayor shall, within 120 days of 55
the target date, select a qualified independent evaluator to assess impediments to housing 56
production in the Planning Area. The independent evaluator shall transmit to Council and the 57
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Mayor a report on impediments that resulted in the Planning Area's failure to meet housing 58
production and affordable housing targets, and proposed remedies. 59
(2) The independent evaluator selected by the Mayor pursuant to this subsection 60
may petition the Zoning Commission, on behalf of the District, for amendments within or related 61
to the Planning Area, pursuant to Chapters 4, 5, and 13 of Subtitle X of Title 11 of the District of 62
Columbia Municipal Regulations. 63
(c) For any Planning Area subject to this section, the Mayor is authorized to submit to 64
Council any amendments to the relevant Planning Area Element, Future Land Use Map, or 65
general elements that may be necessary to reduce barriers to housing production in the Planning 66
Area. Any such amendments may be submitted to Council at any time, notwithstanding the 67
regular cycle of Comprehensive Plan amendments and rewrites as set forth in section 2(a) of the 68
Comprehensive Plan Amendment Act of 2021, effective August 21, 2021 (D.C. Law 24-20, 10A 69
DCMR § 2500 et seq.). 70
Sec. 5. Fiscal impact statement. 71
The Council adopts the fiscal impact statement in the committee report as the fiscal 72
impact statement required by section 4a of the General Legislative Procedures Act of 1975, 73
approved October 16, 2006 (120 Stat. 2038; D.C. Official Code § 1-301.47a). 74
Sec. 6. Effective date. 75
This act shall take effect after approval by the Mayor (or in the event of veto by the 76
Mayor, action by the Council to override the veto), a 30-day period of congressional review as 77
provided in section 602(c)(1) of the District of Columbia Home Rule Act, approved December 78
24, 1973 (87 Stat. 813; D.C. Official Code § 1-206.02(c)(1)), and publication in the District of 79
Columbia Register. 80