BY INDUSTRY

AFFORDABLE HOUSING / MULTIFAMILY CASE STUDY

The Home Again Initiative is a program designed to convert vacant and abandoned buildings into quality, affordable homes in Washington D.C. In 1999 a DCRA study identified 3,970 vacant properties. While these are only 2.5 percent of the 158,000 taxable properties in the District, they still pose a significant problem. In response to residents' concerns, the District will gain site control of vacant houses and sell them to developers who will rehabilitate them into low income homes and businesses.

This initiative will focus on empty lots and vacant homes. It will begin in neighborhoods that have high concentrations of vacant properties: Columbia Heights, Shaw/LeDroit Park, Near Northeast, Ivy City/Trinidad and Rosedale. These areas have been identified by their communities as a high priority in their Strategic Neighborhood Action Plans.

DC Office of the Deputy Mayor engaged EMG to assist in their endeavor. It was EMG’s Construction Services Division's responsibility to evaluate each bid and rank the developers as to scope, quality and cost. Unlike a typical bidding process where the lowest bid wins, it was essentially the highest bidder who won, due to the quality of materials, completeness of the design and resultant product (number of bedrooms, basement vs. slab on grade, etc.). Accordingly, EMG needed to review each proposal, relate them to each property inspection and then review, line by line, each of 35 cost items for each address. The result was a ranking that translated into an award of each of the projects.

EMG created a template for evaluating the costs submitted against an EMG estimate, and then evaluated property-by-property, developer-by-developer. The first contract included 52 properties in six bundles submitted by 15 developers. Over 50,000 numbers were analyzed and compared. The Deputy Mayor's office was so satisfied with the approach and resultant evaluation, that EMG was awarded a second contract at the end of 2002.