Churches, neighbors and housing pros team up to build Dupont Commons

By Bendix Anderson

Dupont Commons in Washington, D.C.

(Affordable Housing Finance, August 2005) Washington, D.C. – Last December, workers finally finished Dupont Commons, a 147-townhouse community built on the site of the old Fort Dupont public housing project. Priced way below market-rate housing, the units were almost immediately snapped up by low-income households.

Together, they worked to revitalize the neighborhood and bring affordable, for-sale housing to the people who live there.

In 1999, WIN partnered with an established affordable housing developer, Baltimore-based Enterprise Homes, Inc., to form WIN/Enterprise Fort Dupont Nehemiah Homes, Inc. (WEFD). Bozzuto Construction also joined the team to build the project.

A consortium of local religious organizations helped to finance the $19 million development with a $3 million, zero-interest soft loan. The project also received a $4.7 million Community Development Block Grant from the city’s Department of Housing and Community Development. The U.S. Department of the Treasury provided a $1 million grant to build infrastructure through legislated special funding. The District of Columbia Housing Authority provided land for a nominal cost of $1 per lot. Gap financing came from Riggs Bank.

But it was a long and arduous process to gather all this money. The developers originally planned to finish Dupont Commons in 2002. As years passed, time limits expired on some of the funds, like the Treasury grant, and the funding had to be renegotiated.

Once construction finally began in 2002, internal cross-subsidies helped the project, meaning that the sales of the first units helped to pay for the construction of later ones.

More than 97% of the units were quickly purchased by first-time homebuyers earning no more than 65% of the area median income. Another 20 homes were reserved for families with incomes between $15,000 and $20,000.

The residents at Dupont Commons live next door to a large park and near the Minnesota Avenue commercial strip, which includes a branch library, a Safeway supermarket and a CVS pharmacy.

Seventeen of the 1,280-square-foot, three-bedroom homes built by the partnership were bought by former tenants of Fort Dupont, who were given first preference to purchase them. They had been living at other subsidized housing since the demolition of the old Fort Dupont in the late 1990s. Optional floor plans at Dupont Commons allowed for a separate dining room and up to two extra bedrooms.

The median sales price of a Dupont home was $128,368, compared to a median sales price of $329,290 in the Washington metro area. This gave homeownership opportunities to families who otherwise could never have afforded to buy.

The Nehemiah Program provides gift funds to assist qualified buyers with downpayments and closing costs. The program is named after a Biblical hero who is said to have rebuilt ruined Jerusalem in 52 days.

Dupont Commons is just the beginning of WIN’s plan to build 1,000 for-sale homes throughout the District. This year, WIN will press Mayor Anthony Williams for another Nehemiah site for an additional 200 homes, preferably the old DC General Hospital, which is slated for redevelopment.