Anthony
Williams for Mayor

Renewal in the Neighborhoods: A Vision for Housing, Economic Development and Community Development for Washington, DC

Our neighborhoods deserve a higher standard of living. The District of Columbia has great neighborhoods, each with a history, traditions and identity. Good people raise their families here. They worship, educate their children, and relax with friends — all in our neighborhoods. If our city is going to prosper, we must have healthy, vital neighborhoods. This begins with, economic development, affordable, quality housing, and community development.

First, we must attack unemployment. If we obtain good jobs for D.C. residents, it will be much easier to build housing and community. People, not government, build housing, schools, churches and other community institutions; jobs that pay well enable them to make that investment. If we create good paying, private sector jobs for District residents, we will build a solid foundation on which to build stronger neighborhoods.

Second, we must improve the city's housing stock. The District is blessed with some of the most beautiful neighborhoods and housing stock in the world. Unfortunately, that stock is deteriorating. Alternatively, other housing is often extremely expensive. With the help of District residents, we can turn this around. We can get this help by protecting and expanding homeownership opportunities and, through homeownership, residents will not only be able to improve our housing stock but also strengthen their own financial situations.

Third, the city must do its part to encourage job and housing growth in the city by effectively providing basic city services. If our neighborhoods are safe from crime, if our schools educate our children and if our streets, parks and other infrastructure are safe, dean and functioning, then people will find it much easier to invest in this city and its residents.

As mayor, I commit to do doing all of these things. Our city needs and deserves better neighborhoods. Our neighborhoods need and deserve this commitment.

I. Economic Development: A Prescription for Job Growth

We must provide more DC residents good jobs. There are three issues we must address in order to achieve this goal.

1. We must bring more jobs to the District by encouraging business development.
2. We must enhance the growth of existing local business.
3. We must train residents to qualify for these new jobs.

If we succeed here, residents will stay in the District, crime will drop and there will be less pressure on government services. More importantly, District residents will have greater hope for a brighter future.

BRINGING JOBS TO DC

The first step to this brighter future is to bring more quality, high-paying jobs to the District. We have very definite plans for making the District of Columbia a more attractive venue for new business and the jobs they'll bring to DC. Specifically, we are going to target industries which can benefit from a DC location and entice them to locate to and invest in DC and its residents.

High Technology Corridor

The District of Columbia lies in the heart of the nation's second largest technology corridor. Thousands of shriving businesses lie outside of the District's boundaries. These small start-ups choose to locate in suburban Maryland and Virginia instead of the District. We need to reverse this trend. As Mayor, I will actively pursue small, high technology firms and bring them to the District. In particular, I will work with the Council to carve out a two block area in the eastern part of the downtown area, a place that needs economic revitalization. We will create this mini "technology enterprise zone" or "technology alley". We will improve street scaping, install new sidewalks, new lighting, and a generally improve the 2 block area.

I will work with the Council to provide immediate tax incentives and tax abatements to firms willing to locate in this area. Additionally, we will provide start-up funds using federal and District money to encourage growth in this area. Lastly, we will market the federal tax incentives already in place in parts of the District, those that call for zero capital gains and employment tax credits, for these firms.

Enact Regulatory Reform

Additionally, we can make the District much more attractive to those businesses, and many other businesses, by reducing their regulatory burden. During my first 100 days in office, I will eliminate duplicative rules and excessive regulations that create a hostile environment for businesses. In doing so, I will not waste time convening a review panel or commissioning a study. Instead, I will rely on common sense and the credible reviews that have already been conducted.

In addition, I will establish a one-stop business center for licensing and permit issuance and a business services hotline that business people can call for accurate answers to questions about permits, licensing, inspections, and other concerns. We will work toward a business-friendly environment where licensing and other transactions can be completed electronically. This will also require the complete restructuring of the Department of Consumer and Regulatory Affairs. However, we will make substantial improvements in the licensing and permitting process in the short term while revamping the Department in the long term.

Reduce and Simplify Business Taxes

One of the most important actions we will take in a Williams administration is to reduce the tax burden of businesses and residents. Currently, the District has one of the most onerous tax burdens in the country. And we are placing ourselves in a competitive disadvantage by overtaxing those businesses that are likely to grow: technology, health care, biotechnology. We must reduce taxes on these businesses in order to make the District a more attractive place for them to locate. We will also reduce the tax penalty that business must pay to move from the suburbs to the District. Currently, District businesses face taxes that are much higher than those paid by their suburban counterparts. As mayor, I will work to ensure that taxes are restructured to create a positive business climate in the District.

Publicize Enterprise Zone Tax Incentives

The District of Columbia Enterprise Zone consists of 122 District census tracts with above-average poverty rates. Private businesses, corporations, partnerships, and proprietorships that conduct business within the Enterprise Zone are eligible for special tax benefits including zero capital gains, employment tax credits, and tax-exempt bond financing. As mayor, I will market the special tax incentives available to companies in the District's Enterprise Zone, to encourage them to locate and create jobs there.

Sell Surplus Government Property. The District government owns hundreds of properties, including many that are not essential to its operations. These buildings provide tremendous economic development opportunities. But currently, the property disposition process is cumbersome it can take years to sell surplus government real estate. We must streamline the property disposition process, while retaining community input, so that buildings and land no longer needed by the District government can be fumed into productive use by the private sector.

Market the District of Columbia. The District is a great place to live and work. The D.C. Marketing Center is a public/private initiative which is bringing that message to businesses across the country and to businesses around the world that are planning to relocate or expand. The Center's goal is to add 1,000 District jobs in the next year. As mayor, I will ensure that the Center's efforts are fully funded and supported, so that the District can compete effectively with other cities and states for jobs.

MORE SUPPORT FOR LOCAL BUSINESS

Provide Capital for Growth As Chief Financial Officer, I oversaw the expansion of the District's industrial revenue bond program, which provides low-cost financing for businesses and institutions that create jobs in the District, especially small and minority businesses. As mayor, I will ensure that the District aggressively pursues all the economic development and community development grant funds that are available from the Federal government. In addition, I will promote and monitor community lending by area banks, and otherwise ensure that capital is directed to the commercial corridors and neighborhoods where it is needed most.

Provide Incentives for Community Development Banks. Community development banks are banks that make long-term investments in neighborhood housing and commercial areas to revitalize under served communities. Many of the District's low- and moderate-income neighborhoods suffer from deteriorating housing and commercial buildings, and lack of access to capital for improvements. Community development banks should be encouraged to do business in the District so our neighborhoods can benefit from their financial and credit services. As mayor, I will investigate providing tax and other incentives for community development banks that are based in the District.

Focus on small, minority business participation in government contracting Each year, the District government awards tens of millions of dollars of contracts for goods and services. In the competition for these contracts, preference points should be given to qualified local and small minority businesses — businesses that create jobs and support the District economy. Particular emphasis will be given to Local Small Disadvantaged Business Enterprises.

As CFO and in my other public service jobs, I have made small minority business participation in government contracting a priority, as illustrated in my service in neighborhood development in Boston and St. Louis.

Promote Heritage Tourism. More than 60 District neighborhood, cultural, and historic organizations have joined forces to support Heritage Tourism. This effort brings tourists off the the Mall into authentic cultural and historic neighborhoods such as Anacostia (Frederick Douglass' home); Shaw (home to Duke Ellington and Langston Hughes); and into various historic churches renowned for their gospel singing. As mayor, I will direct grant funds to Heritage Tourism as a way to foster neighborhood pride and development.

JOB TRAINING

Train Residents for the Jobs of Today and Tomorrow. A Williams administration will ensure that our residents have marketable skills. We will establish a 21st Century Technology Learning Center east of the Anacostia River to prepare our children for high paying technology jobs. We will support high school-to-work initiatives, such as internships, job shadowing, and school- based enterprises. We will implement our Welfare-to-Work program that will be a national model in providing the support systems necessary to enable welfare recipients to be self- sufficient.

In a Williams administration, the Department of Employment Services and perhaps other, private sector firms, will hire training specialists who will offer D.C. residents the job skills they need to be readily employable, now and in the future. Additionally, we will work with the more than two dozen institutions of higher learning, labor unions, and non-profit organizations to make skills training, apprenticeship, and work force preparation programs available to all citizens of the District..

From Woodbridge to Friendship Heights, Shipley Terrace to Georgetown, Brightwood to Le Droit Park and all the neighborhoods in between, the District of Columbia is a city with tremendous potential for revitalization and growth.

I am committed to making the District competitive in the contest for good jobs. In a Williams administration, the District government will stop hindering growth and start helping it happen. Only then, with strong leadership from the mayor's office, will our economic vitality be unleashed and our economic potential be realized.

II. Providing Access to Affordable, Quality Housing and Homeownership

In the area of affordable housing, our number one goal will be to ensure that low- and moderate-income residents have access to adequate affordable housing. At about 42 percent, home ownership rates in the District are among the lowest in the country. In Ward 8 home ownership is even lower at 18 percent.

Housing costs is the largest portion of a family's budget - for many low-income families it can housing takes up as much as 50 percent of their household budget. Homeownership provides a family with financial stability and access to wealth.

The high cost of housing, the difficulty getting a loan are obstacles that must be overcome in order to ensure that our citizens have access to affordable housing and home ownership opportunities. The Williams Administration is committed to helping more Washingtonians achieve homeownership by helping our City's residents meet the financial and technical demands involved in ownership. Being prepared and qualified to own is only half the battle. The other half requires that there be adequate affordable ownership opportunities. Toward that end, the Williams Administration will work to ensure the availability of adequate affordable home ownership opportunities in the City.

Financing programs

In order to increase the number of persons who own their own home, the District must identify and market financing programs for low and moderate income individuals. The Williams administration will work closely with the Housing Finance Agency and other government agencies to coordinate and develop financing packages that will spur home ownership. Financing options include

• Leveraging federal funds, especially the HOME program and housing funding;
• Using federal Community Development Block Grant funds;
• Leveraging private resources — by treating financing institutions as partners, we will give them a visible stake in our City's success and the success of our various; programs; this includes Fannie Mae, the Ford Foundation, and other for-profit and not-for profit entities; Identifying low interest loans, federal resources, and tax incentives for rehabilitating housing
• Creative use of tax exempt mortgage revenue bonds for lease purchase home ownership opportunities
• Tax credits
• Private investment

Helping Individuals and Families Overcome the Technical Barriers to Ownership

To help our residents become better prepared for ownership, the Williams Administration will make counseling services available to anyone seeking to purchase a home here in Washington. Many lenders require that borrowers meet certain educational requirements before they will make a loan. The Williams Administration will work with our community's lending institutions to obtain their commitment and participation toward achieving our goals. By working in partnership with the lenders, my Administration will effectively leverage private sector resources toward our common objective and, through the lenders' participation in counseling and training programs, we will increase the likelihood that our residents will meet the requirements needed to obtain necessary mortgage financing.

Counseling programs will include training in pre-home ownership skills as well as post-home ownership skills. Pre-home ownership training involves:

• credit counseling;
• financial planning, including saving
• the steps involved in purchasing a home, including legal documentation; and financing

Post-homeownership training assists individuals and families with maintenance, ongoing financial planning and trouble-shooting. Once educated about the requirements involved in acquiring and maintaining a home, many individuals and families who previously considered themselves unqualified to own, can actually meet the requirements of the mortgage lenders. Thus, the Williams Administration will help remove the perceived barriers to ownership that many of our citizens feel they face.

Too many individuals and families lack the steady source of income needed to succeed as homeowners. Economic empowerment and educational opportunities are critical to the advancement of a community. Therefore, once we engage an individual or family in counseling and training for home ownership, we will also make available to them services needed to help them in other areas. Our goal is to create an integrated web of available services for our residents that will help them continually strive for, and achieve, new opportunities in their personal lives, educational endeavors and in their careers.

Affordable Mortgage Financing Through Flexible and Creative Lending

The Williams Administration will work in close partnership with our local mortgage lenders to make home ownership more affordable by facilitating creative lending programs. Such programs already exist in many places. By training and counseling our borrowers (the future homeowners), we will make lending more attractive in the District. This in turn can lead to more flexible, creative and accessible mortgage lending programs. Such programs can provide lower down payment requirements, allow all or part of the down payment to be made through a subsidy or other form of assistance, reduce closing costs, and offer more flexible debt-to-income requirements which would lower the income levels needed to qualify.

The residents of the District deserve access to effective and affordable home ownership financing opportunities and the Williams Administration is committed to their being delivered here. Because of Tony Williams' excellent standing in the financial community, the financial institutions that are so critical to any successful home ownership financing program will be extremely open to partnership with his Administration.

In an effort to make mortgage financing more affordable, the Williams Administration will partner with our local private lenders and public financing institutions to create a bifurcated mortgage structure that will lower a borrower's monthly costs by providing a conventional first mortgage for approximately 75% of the purchase price and a subsidized second mortgage for the balance of the price. By lowering the cost of roughly 25% of the mortgage, this program will significantly increase the number of District residents capable of affording ownership.

Affordable Mortgage Financing Through a Local Lender's Consortium

Many communities have successfully involved their local lenders in the development and financing of affordable housing through lending consortia. Through such a consortium, the Williams Administration will involve banks in the process of program development, administration and lending. This creates an effective mechanism for sharing ideas and efficiently directing public and private resources to their highest and best use.

The Lender's Consortium can facilitate effective CRA activities and make it easier and more cost effective for local financial institutions to participate in our Community's economic growth. Mortgage lending should be one part of the Consortium's agenda. Through the Consortium, the Williams Administration will cooperatively develop counseling, training and lending programs that most effectively serve our residents and meet the lending requirements of banks.

While there are many challenges associated with bringing together organizations and individuals with different perspectives and seemingly divergent goals, the Williams Administration will nurture a common vision for the City of Washington and help our corporate and private citizens realize how intertwined their interests are. In so doing, we will more effectively harness the tremendous resources at our disposal, create more effective programs and better meet the needs of our City's lower-income residents.

Providing Affordable Home Ownership Opportunities through New Production and Rehabilitation

The Williams Administration will promote partnerships between the DC government, builders, non-profits and lenders to develop or rehabilitate housing for lower-income families. The Williams Administration will work with financial institutions to ensure that they deliver the necessary financing for construction and assist our City's non-profit community in identifying and training new owners for the properties.

Another important aspect to our Home ownership (as well as rental) policy will be the creation of mixed-income communities. This has proven to be a significantly more effective approach than creating concentrated communities of lower-income families. There are a variety of successful models for financing and developing such communities and the Williams Administration will work with our City's community groups as well as the housing and finance institutions to create effective incentives for the development of mixed income communities.

Lease Purchase Program

The lease-purchase concept is becoming an increasingly popular way for non-profit organizations to help people buy homes. The basic approach is to provide assistance to homeowners and renters who are not yet creditworthy or facilitate ownership of projects that are financed as rental projects (i.e. tax credit must remain rental for at least 15 years). The lease-purchase program provides a vehicle for potential home buyers to reestablish their creditworthiness while creating an equity interest in a property. Oftentimes the "purchaser" can live in the home while saving for a down payment and improving their credit history (if necessary). A portion of the rent can be applied toward a down payment and dosing costs when the time comes to purchase. At the same time, the future owner can receive training and counseling needed to buy and maintain the home. The Williams administration will work closely with non-profits and lending institutions to establish a pilot lease/purchase program.

III. Improving Neighborhood Policing, Schooling, and Quality of Life

One of the important components to improving our neighborhoods is ensuring that our communities are safe. Citizens need to feel that they can live and raise their families in a safe environment. And neighborhood policing, or community empowerment policing, is the key to providing access to affordable, quality housing. It has been tried in many forms in many places, sometimes succeeding, sometimes not. In the year since the Metropolitan Police Department adopted its community policing organized into Police Service Areas (PSA), there have been a few success stories. In neighborhoods where residents aggressively seized the opportunity to forge a partnership with police and take back their streets, wonderful things have happened. In PSAs where officers have embraced the concept, citizens are believing in their police force once again.

As part of my plan to make the neighborhood safe so that our communities and neighborhoods will once again thrive, I propose to:

• Make sure every neighborhood has foot and bike patrols. Get officers out of the cars and out talking to citizens.
• Make assignments to PSAs longer, so officers and citizens can really get to know each other.
• Institute better training in community policing, and make training a continual process. Include neighborhood citizen and business leaders in the training.
• Make neighborhood policing the focus of the entire department. Have all officers learn and adopt the problem-solving and partnership methods, strategies and attitudes that PSA teams use.
• Establish Community Prosecution Unit so that the prosecutors establish relationships with officers in the PSA's and with the residents in the areas and will become more effective in carrying out their duties in the neighborhoods.
• Forge problem-solving partnerships with other organizations to improve coordination and support. Officials from housing, schools, public works, prosecutors, corrections and other agencies and organizations both public and private must work cooperatively.

Improving Education through School-Based Management

In order to attract and retain families in neighborhoods in the District, we must provide our children with a first-rate education. The financial investment the government makes will not solve all of our problems that exist for our children today. Parents, businesses and community and religious organizations will be called upon to realize our hopes for our children and improve upon the reality we see in the statistics today. We must make Washington, DC a city where children can prosper and become the leaders of the future and where education supports neighborhood stability and vitality.

My education platform can be implemented through the Office of the Mayor, the DC Public Schools and public charter schools, other agencies in the government, business and community organizations, and by the will of committed parents.

• Empower parents and community leaders through school-based management
• Support school-based management, Local School Restructuring Teams
• Promote competition through public school choice
• Invest in cost effective modern infrastructure and business practices
• Develop partnerships with businesses, not-for-profit organizations, community groups, and the government to create innovate approaches to education reform.

Improving Quality of Life in our Neighborhoods

We must begin to improve the general quality of life in our neighborhoods in order to attract families to buy homes in the District, in order for business to locate and remain in the District, and in order to remain a viable, thriving, city. This also includes cleaning up our streets on a daily basis, removing graffiti from our building and homes, and cleaning up our city parks so that they can again become a community gathering place. We must reclaim our streets from crime and begin to feel safe walking home from the store. All of this can and will be done in a Williams administration. But it will not be effective without help from the community. Community involvement in this effort is vital to its success.

Second, we must take action to dramatically and rapidly improve service delivery to our residents and our businesses. Whether it is renewing one's license or attaining a business permit, a Williams administration will set forth a list of goals with input from the community and hold itself to specific deadlines for completion. The administrative requirements associated with residency - things like obtaining a driver's license, registering a vehicle and interacting with government service personnel in all areas — will become less of a burden to our residents and the people who do business here.

Additional improvements the Williams administration will make include:

• Cleaning up our streets, especially alleys;
• Improving basic city services such as street cleaning, garbage removal, and snow removal;
• Committing resources to effective drug and alcohol programs
• Dedicating ourselves to improving parks and recreation;
• Improving administrative services, such as automobile registration, drivers license services, business licensing and permitting; and
• Implementing solutions to the homeless problem.

Conclusion

The Williams administration is committed to growing the economy by: developing and implementing a strategic plan for economic development; reducing taxes and attracting businesses; improving our education system and making our city a safer place to live and conduct business. We must also continue to improve the quality of life in Washington, D.C., so that it can become, once again, a thriving city that our entire nation can be proud to call our Capital. This will happen only if we reach out to residents and businesses and let them know that the District wants them to live and locate in Washington, DC.