Council hearing spotlights Housing Production Omnibus aimed at preserving and producing affordable homes

Chair Robert White opened the Committee on Housing hearing by framing the Housing Production Omnibus Amendment Act of 2026 as a package to modernize the city’s housing finance tools. He described reorganizing the Housing Production Trust Fund into dedicated accounts for production, subsidy, preservation, tenant purchase and district acquisition and said the bill will "create a revolving construction loan fund" to accelerate stalled projects.

Supporters including the DC Fiscal Policy Institute and Jubilee Housing told the committee the changes could help preserve affordable housing and fill financing gaps. Michael Cohen, senior policy analyst at the DC Fiscal Policy Institute, said the bill ‘‘would create a sub account for preservation creating predictable and stable funding for affordable housing preservation’’ and highlighted that preservation is often a lower‑cost way to prevent displacement.

Several witnesses pressed for explicit safeguards. Tyrell Holcomb, vice president of external affairs at Jubilee Housing, urged the committee to attach clear guardrails if production funds are allowed to support units that lack long‑term affordability protections: "If that stays, we need clarity on when those units convert to affordability, what public benefit is tied to public dollars, and how outcomes are tracked," he said.

DCHFA Director Christopher E. Donald flagged operational questions about a proposed District Construction Loan Fund to be administered by the housing finance agency. He told the committee the draft contemplates up to $50,000,000 of taxable bonds to capitalize a revolving construction loan fund but cautioned about risk and execution differences compared with other jurisdictions where the authority also serves as developer.

Councilmembers and advocates discussed tradeoffs between flexibility and predictability. Supporters asked the city to give preservation a reliable pipeline; housing industry representatives warned that prescriptive new rules could make projects harder to finance. Chair White said the omnibus aims to build both production and preservation capacity and to allow layering of subsidies and land tools to expand housing across wards that have historically received fewer HPTF‑supported units.

The committee did not take a vote; members signaled ongoing negotiations and invited amended language and further meetings with stakeholders before markup. The hearing remains open for written testimony.