Montgomery County Approves More Subsidized Housing

County Executive Douglas Duncan signed into law Wednesday afternoon new legislation to require developers to provide "workforce" housing to benefit middle-class residents at new housing projects. The "workforce housing" program (WHP) will apply to all new residential developments of 35 units or more near Metro areas, requiring the developer to set aside at least 10% of their housing for households at or below 120% of the area median income - or $86,000 for a family of two - and will not receive incentives from the county for the additional subsidy. Developers are already required to set aside 12.5% of their units for MPDU's, a lower income threshold. The bill was passed unanimously by the County Council on July 11th, and is set to sunset in 2014. The DC government is currently working on a similar proposal for residential projects of 10 or more units.