The WIN Ward 3 Affordable Housing Work group is led by five Upper Northwest congregations: Adas Israel, Chevy Chase Presbyterian, National United Methodist, St. Columba’s Episcopal, and Temple Sinai. We welcome other congregations and congregants of other member institutions who live in Upper Northwest to join with us in advocating for development of affordable housing in our communities.
We meet monthly via Zoom to learn about opportunities to advocate for affordable housing projects in Upper Northwest, get briefings from housing experts about the details of housing advocacy, and hear from those in DC who can help us advance WIN’s housing agenda. If you would like to join, contact Jamie Butler at jgb3611@gmail.com.
WIN Ward 3 is advocating for inclusion of affordable housing on public lands and to maximize the number of affordable units in privately owned projects in Upper Northwest. We are looking for all opportunities to support the Mayor’s goal of creating 1,990 units of affordable housing in the Rock Creek West planning area by 2025.
Chevy Chase Civic Core
Along with our partners at Ward3Vision and the Coalition for Smarter Growth, we’ve proposed that when the Chevy Chase Library and Community Center are rebuilt, the development should include 100 units of housing (possibly fewer depending on the number of family-sized units), priced to be affordable to those with incomes between 30 and 80 percent of area median income. This can be done in a variety of ways – including redevelopment by a nonprofit or for-profit developer or a community land trust. What’s important is that DC include housing at varying affordability levels along with the library, recreational resources, and green space so important to our community.
Western Bus Garage
WMATA, the authority that runs Metrobuses and Metrorail, has outgrown its facility on 44th Street NW in Friendship Heights and has purchased the site of the now-shuttered Lord & Taylor department store and parking lot to build a new facility for a zero-emissions fleet. WIN Ward 3 is advocating for the inclusion of affordable housing as part of the design of this new site as well as the existing site once it is vacated by WMATA.
Western Bus Garage, which could become a site for affordable housing after a new bus garage is constructed.
Tenley-Friendship Library
Located at the southwest corner of Wisconsin Avenue and Albemarle Street NW, this site is ideally suited for housing given its proximity to transit, shops, and multiple schools. When the library was rebuilt in 2010, it was constructed to support additional stories above the current facility.
Convert underutilized National Park Service (NPS) properties to housing.
The NPS owns many parcels of land throughout the city, many of which are not useable for recreation. WIN Ward 3 is talking with decision-makers about the potential for transferring ownership of several parcels to DC so that they can be used for housing. These include the parcel across from Murch Elementary (bounded by Reno Road and Nebraska Avenue to the west and east, and Davenport Street to the south), as well as the triangle on the west side of Wisconsin Avenue north of Tenley Circle bounded by Grant Road to the north.
