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DCHA tells council it can rehab roughly 800 units a year but warns HUD approvals and infrastructure costs slow work
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Summary
DCHA testified it averages about 80 unit turns per month and has completed 1,164 unit rehabs since January of last year. The authority told the committee it is preparing a more aggressive rehab and redevelopment plan but faces long HUD review timelines for Section 18 applications and rising per-unit costs.
DCHA officials told the Committee on Housing that the authority is pursuing an aggressive program of unit rehabs and is preparing a formal rehabilitation and redevelopment plan to prioritize offline and vacant units.
Deputy Director Daniel Denning said DCHA has completed 1,164 unit rehabs since January of last year and averages roughly 80 unit turns per month. "Roughly about 800 units a year" is DCHA's current capacity under existing staffing and contractor arrangements, Denning said.
Director Keith Pettigrew explained the authority faces an array of constraints: many offline units require major infrastructural work, supply and labor costs remain high, and pending Section 18 applications submitted to HUD take longer than in the past to receive final approvals. Pettigrew said some units are taken offline because large-scale repairs or repositioning make short-term rehabs impractical; he said DCHA is preparing both a more aggressive rehabilitation plan and a longer-term redevelopment sequencing assessment.
On per-unit costs, DCHA staff told the committee the average cost to turn a typical public-housing unit has risen substantially; the authority presented figures in the tens of thousands per unit, and staff said larger units and those with structural issues cost more to repair. Committee members asked for a property-by-property cost assessment and a clear schedule showing which units will be brought back online and when.
DCHA also described a multi-source funding approach to rehab: local capital allocations, HUD capital grants expected for FY25, prior-year local balances and HUD-held reserves. The authority said it is planning to obligate FY25 capital funds and expects to use a combination of local and federal funds to preserve and rehab units; the committee asked DCHA to provide a line-by-line capital-spending plan and to identify how contingency reserves would be used if federal funding were curtailed.
Council members and witnesses emphasized the need for clarity about which units are already offline and which are being held pending redevelopment, and asked DCHA to publish property- and unit-level vacancy and offline data. DCHA committed to provide a more detailed plan by the end of the year.
