New grants from Metropolitan Washington Council of Governments and Amazon are making several housing projects near mass transit stations more affordable.
Over $656,000 will be spread out across 10 housing projects. The grants come out of the new Housing Affordability Planning Program.
“We are thrilled to have these 10 projects moving forward. We have great hopes, as this is the inaugural year of the program,” said COG Chairman Christian Dorsey during a Jun. 8, board meeting. “We don’t yet know what the results will be. But given the rigor with which the committee and technical panel analyze them, hopefully they will produce great results.”
The Council of Governments (COG) makes the decisions about where the money will go, but the money comes from the $2 billion Amazon Housing Equity Fund.
“Given the highly competitive nature of this program all (projects) met the criteria for being in a regional activity center, in or near an equity emphasis area and near high capacity transit stations,” said COG Housing Program Manager Hilary Chapman.
The eight housing developments and two studies got up to $75,000.
“The Amazon Housing Equity Fund is thrilled to collaborate with regional partners, like COG, to increase the number of affordably-priced homes across our region, especially near transit,” said Catherine Buell, Director of the Amazon Housing Equity Fund in a statement. “The 10 proposals being announced today address a great many of our top priorities — advancing equity, expanding access to jobs and opportunity, and creating more vibrant, sustainable communities.”
COG will distribute the funds to the projects later this summer.