D.C. Mayor Pushes for More Housing Downtown

In an effort to stimulate economic development and alleviate the region’s housing shortage, D.C. Mayor Muriel Bowser has set a goal to add 15,000 new residents in the next five years to the District’s downtown through adaptive reuse conversions. 

As Danielle McLean explains in Smart Cities Dive, the mayor hopes to grow the area’s population by over 100,000. “The mayor’s new goal would increase the number of residents in that part of the city by nearly 67% within the next five years and almost 600% when ‘it’s all said and done.’” According to Bowser, “Converting office space into housing is the key to unlocking the potential of a reimagined, more vibrant downtown.”

McLean notes that “Between January 2019 and October 2022, D.C. produced over 25,000 net new units, more than 6,000 of which are affordable, according to city estimates,” but Bowser added that economic development in the District depends heavily on the federal government. “The federal government needs to realign its property holdings for use by the local government, nonprofits, businesses or others willing to utilize those spaces, Bowser said.”