Addressing Housing Crisis using Federal Funding in Washington D.C.

The shutdown of the U.S. economy during the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic in mid-March 2020 brought about loss of income especially for workers who could not work in the office nor continue their work from home. Consequently, paying for mortgages became a challenge that led to foreclosures for affected families. As the situation was further exacerbated for the past two and half years, states and cities across the nation introduced housing programs to help address this challenge using federal funds from the American Rescue Plan Act. One example is in Washington, DC where Mayor Muriel Bowser and the Department of Housing and Community Development put the following plans in place:

• 03/11/20 – 06/30/22: Foreclosure Moratorium enacted
• 06/22/22: Launched of “Homeowner Assistance Fund (HAF)” program. This new $50 million homeownership program provides financial assistance to eligible residents affected by the pandemic and struggling to make housing related payments. Funding for this program comes from the federal American Rescue Plan. The HAF program provides grants that includes funding to cover mortgage payments and other property or housing expenses like utilities, insurance, internet assistance and housing association fees.
• 07/01/22 – 09/30/22: Foreclosure Moratorium extended only for homeowners who have a financial assistance application pending approval, pending payment, or under appeal by the HAF program; otherwise, foreclosure proceeding may resume.
• 08/15/22: 875 HAF applications have been submitted and another 1, 244 residents have started applications out of about 9,000 homeowners at risk of losing their properties.

Discussion Questions:

1. Explain the effect(s) of the “Homeowners Assistance Fund (HAF)” program on the housing market in DC? Click on each link to understand the demand/supply graphs & use these graphs to explain each part.
   • As a subsidy from the local government to help homeowners,
   • An indirect rise in rent-control (or price ceiling) by landlords in the housing rental market for new homeowners, and
   • A rent-seeking restriction on new home construction by developers.

2. Given that the extended Foreclosure Moratorium ends on the last day of September 2022,
   • Why is the response rate for this program not picking up?
   • List two things that the Department of Housing and Community Development can do to increase the response rate to the HAF program.
     
3. Self-reflection: If you were one of the affected homeowners, would you take advantage of the HAF program? Do explain your choice.

Sources| Congress.gov: H.R. 1319 – American Rescue Plan Act of 2021; Council of District of Columbia: Foreclosure Moratorium; DC Homeowner Assistance Fund: https://haf.dc.gov/; Executive Office of the Mayor: 06/14/22: Mayor Bowser launches $50 million Homeowner Assistance Fund, 08/22/22: Mayor Bowser urges DC residents to take advantage of programs to buy a home or keep their home; Washington City Paper: D.C. dragged its feet in handing out federal money to stop foreclosures, setting up a last-minute scramble; International Growth Center: Housing finance; Saylordotorg.github.io: Government intervention in market prices: price floors and price ceilings; Stanford Politics: The tragic economics of urban housing; Pixabay: Washington Dc C City Cities Urban Row Houses Old