{"id":8804,"date":"2022-09-08T13:41:17","date_gmt":"2022-09-08T17:41:17","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/montgomeryplanning.org\/blog-design\/?p=8804"},"modified":"2022-09-12T08:44:43","modified_gmt":"2022-09-12T12:44:43","slug":"growing-inclusively-is-possibleif-we-build-enough-housing","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/montgomeryplanning.org\/blog-design\/2022\/09\/growing-inclusively-is-possibleif-we-build-enough-housing\/","title":{"rendered":"Growing inclusively is possible\u2026if we build enough housing"},"content":{"rendered":"

By Benjamin Kraft and Casey Anderson\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n

\"People

Businesses and multifamily housing along Fenton Street in downtown Silver Spring.<\/p><\/div>\n

The conventional story about development and displacement goes something like this: new luxury housing gets built in a neighborhood, driving up rents for existing residents who then must leave to find less expensive housing elsewhere. To be sure, displacement does happen and it can be a serious problem, but our Neighborhood Change research<\/a> shows that this conventional story of displacement doesn\u2019t correspond to what is happening in Montgomery County. Specifically, the study shows that displacement of lower-income residents is not<\/strong> inevitable, and that where it occurs is not driven by new housing development. In fact, displacement is associated with the failure to build new housing<\/em> in neighborhoods experiencing an increase in demand.<\/em> Our study further suggests that building more housing, especially with policies like Montgomery County\u2019s moderately priced dwelling unit (MPDU) program in place, promotes inclusive growth<\/em>, meaning growth that makes room for people of all incomes.<\/p>\n

\"Townhome

Townhomes on King Farm Boulevard<\/p><\/div>\n

Our research found that six of Montgomery County\u2019s census tracts have experienced inclusive growth between 2000 and 2019, meaning that they met three criteria:<\/p>\n

    \n
  1. The number<\/u><\/em> of residents with incomes that were at least twice the federal poverty level increased by at least 10%1<\/sup><\/a><\/li>\n
  2. The share<\/u><\/em> of residents with incomes below twice the federal poverty level fell by at least 5%, AND<\/strong><\/li>\n
  3. The number of residents with incomes below twice the federal poverty level went up.2<\/sup><\/a><\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

    The first two criteria indicate that a neighborhood is getting wealthier, since the number and proportion of people with higher incomes are growing. The third criterion indicates that low-income people are also moving into the neighborhood. All three of these things can happen at the same time<\/strong>. That is, as a neighborhood expands economically and attracts high- and middle-income residents, it can also add lower-income people.<\/p>\n

    So where are these inclusive neighborhoods?<\/p>\n

    They happen to be some of the county\u2019s most prominent. Downtown Silver Spring, Bethesda, and Rockville all qualify as inclusive growth tracts. So do the King Farm neighborhood in Rockville and the north end of downtown Wheaton.3<\/sup><\/a><\/p>\n

    <\/a><\/p>\n

    These neighborhoods have one main thing in common: They all built a lot of new housing between 2000 and 2019. As a Washington Business Journal article<\/a> highlighting the study notes, \u201cNeighborhoods that experienced a rise in overall affluence, but without pushing out their lower-income segments, have on the whole gained at least an order of magnitude more net new housing units than those experiencing displacement and other unwelcome trends.\u201d In fact, the county\u2019s six inclusive growth neighborhoods amount to only 3% of the county\u2019s 215 census tracts but accounted for 20% of the net new housing built in the county over the study\u2019s time period. Neighborhoods that grew inclusively added 18 times more housing per tract than those growing with displacement and 68 times more housing per tract than those seeing worsening concentrations of poverty.<\/p>\n

     <\/p>\n