Washington, DC is one of the most expensive housing markets in the country. 40,000 DC households are on the subsidized housing waiting list. Many of WIN’s leaders have been priced out of the neighborhoods they grew up in and are unable to afford market-rate housing prices.
One of WIN’s most important tools the fight for housing affordability is Nehemiah homes. First developed by our sister organization East Brooklyn Congregations in the 1980s, Nehemiah homes have been built through the power of citizen action all over the country.
The 147 unit Nehemiah/Dupont Commons Development in Ward # 7 was finally complete in February, 2005, when the final first time homebuyers moved in. The development was a joint venture between WIN, Enterprise Homes, and the Fort Dupont Dwellings and Additions Resident Council. WIN leaders organized for the vision, the land, and the funding for the project. WIN leaders not only organized people demonstrating the public will for the project, but also organized money bringing financing to the table from religious institutions including the Archdiocese of Washington, Episcopal Diocese of Washington, Metropolitan Washington, DC Synod-ELCA, United Methodist Church of Baltimore Washington Conference. The project received local and national recognition for Nehemiah/Dupont Commons, including a HAND award for the best affordable housing project in the Washington region and an award from Affordable Housing Finance Magazine as the best affordable homeownership project in the country in 2005. Local politicians and District officials regularly take people to Dupont Commons when they want to show the sort of affordable housing that the District needs for families earning $15,000 to $55,000 per year.