This article was first published in the Affordable Housing Conference of Montgomery County 2024 Winter Journal AHCMC journal.
by Laura Searfoss, AICP, Senior Program Director, Enterprise Mid-Atlantic
Big Numbers, Bigger Thinking
Since 2013, Purple Line Corridor Coalition (PLCC) partners like Enterprise have rallied to proactively create and expand tools that achieve equitable outcomes for people near the Purple Line.
For the last five years, one big number has been at the heart of the PLCC’s housing efforts: 17,000. The PLCC set a goal to add or stabilize affordable homes for 17,000 households living within one mile of the Purple Line. As of 2022, the coalition was about halfway to this goal.
When the right resources are in place, coupled with the know-how of mission-driven developers, PLCC partners have collectively accelerated our progress toward our 17,000-home goal. For instance, the $12 million Purple Line Capital Pool, seeded with funds from JPMorgan Chase via Enterprise and additional investments by Kaiser Permanente and the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, has leveraged more than $104 million in additional financing and created more than 1,000 affordable homes in less than three years.
With the Purple Line expected to open in 2027, Enterprise commissioned a study by HR&A Advisors to determine what’s still needed to meet the coalition’s goal. How much capital do public, private, and philanthropic institutions need to invest along the Purple Line corridor to ensure it’s an affordable and accessible place to live, especially for households earning less than $72,000, now and in the future? So, the question is simple: how much do we need? The answer? $740 million.
Now, we’re calling on our PLCC partners and others in the Greater Washington region to focus on another big number: $740 million.
An Historic Investment
$740 million would be an historic investment in the communities along the Purple Line, one at the scale needed to stabilize 6,900 families, in addition to the 8,650 households already living in committed affordable homes and another 1,600 homes in the development pipeline.
Providing thousands of families with more stable housing, more money in their pockets, and better educational and health outcomes for their children is reason enough to make this investment.
$740 million signals to communities along the Purple Line that we do not want to lose them or the civic and cultural contributions they make to Montgomery and Prince George’s counties. It shows that cross-sector leaders are willing to prioritize resources that give residents the ability to stay in their homes and communities, even as rents and home values escalate.
The impact of this investment would go far beyond these families. $740 million addresses pressing housing and economic development needs in Montgomery and Prince George’s counties. Long-standing trends suggest both counties lack enough affordable homes for extremely and very low-income households, many of whom are essential workers, and homeownership remains increasingly out of reach for households of color. A 2020 study estimated that Montgomery County could lose 7,000-11,000 of its unrestricted rental homes by 2023.
$740 million helps the entire Washington, DC region. More affordable housing with easy access to transit provides a viable alternative to driving, reducing traffic and greenhouse gas emissions and sustaining economic growth.
The Purple Line is the largest transit investment in Maryland in the 21st century. Its creation took vision, foresight, collaboration, and determination—all the elements needed to make an historic investment to stabilize people and their communities beyond the tracks. And all elements present in the PLCC and recent successes among PLCC partners.
Bigger, Bolder Investment
The study breaks down the $740 million investment into different types of resources that successfully leverage more than $2 billion already available across state and local government funding and private-sector financing to preserve 4,100 existing affordable homes and add another 2,800 new affordable homes.
Key recommended investments include:
- A $95 million place-based funding pool that provides below-market, must-pay loans that significantly narrow the funding gap. A funding pool like this can help close the gap for affordable housing projects, incentivize more development along the Purple Line, and stretch public dollars farther.
- $610 million in flexible funding to leverage additional must-pay loan availability and “close the gap” for the production or preservation of affordable rental homes in the corridor.
- $35 million in increased investment for existing homeowners and first-time homebuyers to subsidize affordable homes for purchase and increase funding for down payment assistance and owner-occupied repair programs.
- A new $200 million corridor-wide acquisition fund to help affordable housing developers nimbly acquire market-rate properties for preservation and continue to leverage the counties’ Right of First Refusal policies.
Working together, we can achieve this level of investment. Many critical institutions are already committed to the Purple Line, and we hope this study provides the basis for the public, private and philanthropic sectors to make bigger, bolder investments along the corridor.
Enterprise looks forward to working with stakeholders to raise and invest the necessary resources by 2027 to make housing stability and affordability a reality for another 6,900 households living near the Purple Line.
Read Investing in Communities Along the Purple Line: 2024 Capital Needs Analysis.