From: Social Housing for All! <socialhousing@savedcpublicland.org>
Date: Thu, Jun 5, 2025 at 9:10 AM
Subject: [RFK Press / Public Update] Social Housing Stadium Tweak Could Provide Critical Revenue to Avoid Devastating DC Budget Cuts
To: Socialhousing <socialhousing@savedcpublicland.org>
Cc: <chenderson@dccouncil.gov>, <rwhite@dccouncil.gov>, <abonds@dccouncil.gov>, <kmcduffie@dccouncil.gov>, <wfelder@dccouncil.gov>, <callen@dccouncil.gov>, <zparker@dccouncil.gov>, <jlewisgeorge@dccouncil.gov>, <mfrumin@dccouncil.gov>, <bpinto@dccouncil.gov>, <bnadeau@dccouncil.gov>, <pmendelson@dccouncil.gov>
PRESS & PUBLIC UPDATE – SAVE DC PUBLIC LAND
socialhousing@savedcpublicland.org
–June 5, 2025—
Stadium Deal Tweak: Social Housing at RFK Could Provide Critical Revenue to Avoid Devastating DC Budget Cuts
WASHINGTON, DC — With the harsh realities of Mayor Bowser’s proposed FY2026 DC Budget settling in, many are left wondering whether she quietly went down to DC BOEE and changed her party affiliation to Republican.
More than 50,000 lower-income DC residents risk losing healthcare. Childcare subsidies—vital to working families and the city’s workforce—face major cuts. Equity-focused programs are being gutted. Across the board, residents face a wave of deep human needs reductions.
Yet buried in this painful budget is a glaring contradiction: massive corporate welfare.
One analysis estimates the Commanders stadium deal could cost DC taxpayers over $1.3 billion. Meanwhile, Bowser offers tax breaks to ultra-wealthy crypto-tech bros—all while working families are expected to bear the cost of these giveaways.
SOCIAL HOUSING AT RFK: A SMART, SUSTAINABLE, REVENUE-GENERATING ALTERNATIVE
As the DC Council launches quickly into budget hearings, Councilmembers have the opportunity to intervene and stop the Mayor's cuts and realign the city's values with its budget. A critical fix: incorporate a social housing component into the RFK Stadium site deal.
Instead of handing over acres of public land tax-free to billionaire Commanders owner Josh Harris, DC should retain and develop this land into mixed-income, municipally-owned housing. Known as social housing, this model provides not only deeply affordable homes but also long-term, revenue-generating assets for the city via rents and home sales.
Social housing is not a theoretical solution as evidenced by some on the Council looking to incorporate successful models from Europe. We also have a closer example: Montgomery County’s growing portfolio of municipally-owned developments, including The Laureate near Shady Grove. These projects are delivering both housing access and steady income to the local government.
Integrating social housing at RFK could transform a lopsided stadium deal into an engine of equity and economic resilience—helping to cover infrastructure and debt costs without pushing the burden onto working families.
With budget deliberations ongoing, and the DC Council’s Committee of the Whole meeting on June 18 to review the 2026 DC Budget in toto, now is prime time for smarter, more just use of public land and public dollars.
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For more on social housing, visit:
https://savedcpublicland.org/the1617project/socialhousing/
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