Eric Goulet

Here is my Ward 3 DC State Board of Education Newsletter, which focuses on the revisions currently being considered to the DC high school graduation requirements. (1/4)

I’ll be talking a lot about this. How is the math proficiency rate for high school students in DC 15% but the graduation rate is 78%? Make it make sense.

Obviously it would either be backed by the city or would have to be repaid directly by the city. I think they planned to replicate NYC borrowing from its pensions per this article, and are now lying about it, because, they don’t have another explanation as to where the money comes from… multihousingnews.com/nyc-to-invest-…

I saw that. This begs the question of where the money comes from to repay those “loans” with interest. Since the people in those units are not going to be paying much, if anything, this means tax money. If the housing was going to be profitable, it would be built with private money, not public funds.

@maustermuhle, I’m a most-of-the-time fan of you, but you still aren’t asking THE important question about Janeese Lewis George’s proposal to have DC generate 72,000 new housing units. The billion dollar question is … HOW IS SHE GOING TO PAY FOR IT? (1/8)

The most obvious interpretation of Janeese saying at the debate that she would “leverage” billions of dollars from DC pension funds for affordable housing is borrowing from the pensions. Presumably, that is how she intended to pay for the DC-subsidized portion of 72,000 housing unit proposal, which includes social housing, because that’s what she said. However, following post-debate blowback, Janeese is now saying that she only meant to say she was going to allow pension fund managers to invest in DC affordable housing projects, which no pension manager would ever do, because it’s a risky investment with no proven rate of return. Thus, Janeese is still $ 2-3 billion short to pay for her affordable housing proposal. It’s truly astonishing.

Is “leverage” poli-speak for “loot?” I’m assuming that our comrade mayor has the power to appoint the people who manage these funds, who will then “invest” pension funds in non remunerative housing projects. Am I reading this correctly? Is there a “plan” 😂 to make the pension funds whole when this scheme works out as expected?

The DC Council often works to address inequities, yet an inequity exists in ed funding. Under the proposed FY27 budget, public charter schools, which educate many Black/Brown students in Wards 5, 7, & 8, would receive $2K less per student in funds than DCPS. #ClosetheGapDC

Only 18% of students from the 9th-grade cohort of 2011–2012 completed a degree by 2022. We've got to better prepare students for what comes next and strengthen the type of supports that students receive. dme.dc.gov/page/compact-2…

Kenyan McDuffie rallying supporters tonight at a fundraiser in Tenleytown. Warns that electing Lewis George could revive memories of the 1980s and 90s when the city was broke and known as the murder capital.

McDuffie’s talking about in-law suites & accessory dwellings. Janeese is proposing 6-unit apt buildings in single family home neighborhoods with no consideration of school overcrowding, public transit access, or parking availability. That’s truly insane. I’m tapping out for the night. My mind is blown. 🤯

@EJGoulet @mbwagoner McDuffie also supports this

The government doesn't pay for the vast majority of new homes. The private market builds them and the government gets tax revenue from property/income/other taxes. A world in which 72k homes get built in DC in the next five years is a world in which we are flush with new cash.

Got it. I see that Janeese is planning to end single family house zoning & allow anyone to sell to a developer who can put up a 6-unit apartment. That’s still not going to get her to 72,000 units but it will disproportionately negatively impact Ward 3, where all of our schools are already overcrowded. No thanks!

@EJGoulet @mbwagoner ggwash.org/view/102946/im…

@dcyimbys @mbwagoner Is this McDuffie’s survey. It has his name at the top of page 1.

@EJGoulet @mbwagoner She has absolutely proposed "dramatic reforms that could contribute to achieving it"

I don’t think $3 billion, or any element of Janeese’s housing proposal, is realistic. But, I calculated the $3 billion DC share by taking your number of $1 million per DC-subsidized unit, discounting it to $833,333 per unit, because you felt DC was overpaying, and multiplying that by 3,600 units, which equals $3 billion. You subsequently said that 3,600 units subsidized by DC government is too aggressive, so I reduced this estimate to $ 2-3 billion, which is admittedly an estimate. Janeese, at a live debate, proposed leveraging “billions of dollars” of DC pensions to pay for it, which at least explained how she could get the $2-3 billion, but now she apparently is backtracking on that. My problem with Janeese’s 72,000 housing unit proposal is that it has been presented and embraced as a serious and credible proposal, when all the housing production data suggests it is completely unattainable and it’s just made up. There is no discernible methodology supporting the number and she hasn’t proposed any dramatic reforms that could contribute to achieving it. I’m not trying to be mean, but her entire proposal appears to just be a number that she made up with nothing to support it.

@EJGoulet @mbwagoner 72k is over 5 years. Your $3B figure is not realistic. It's just a number you made up. Two years ago, we didn't know about DOGE. We don't know where we're gonna be two years after the election. It's an ambitious number but with the right reforms and some luck it's doable.

Scott, I’m just trying to figure out how Janeese achieves her 72,000 units of new housing, which is one of the most touted proposals of her Mayoral campaign. @dcyimbys felt over 95% of this number would have to achieved through private market-rate housing. That would require the private housing market to produce over 17,100 units per year, which is almost triple what was done in 2025, and private market housing production has ground to a halt in 2026. Further Janeese would need to find at least $ 2-3 billion dollars somewhere to pay for the DC-subsidized portion of her plan, which based on what she said at the debate is borrowing from DC pensions, until she proposes another remotely feasible alternative. Honestly, her whole plan just seems to be based on nothing, and the 72,000 units of new housing she has promised appears to be a completely made number with no data or funding to support it. Can you explain this?

@SafeSidewalksDC @EJGoulet @PostOpinions He knows he is deliberately mischaracterizing it. That’s not even what she said in the short sound but let alone the statement. And also he knows the mayor doesn’t have the power to do it anyway. This is just a straw man so he could jump in to the race and slam her.

This is a “unique” take. 🤔 Most neutral observers would probably conclude that Janeese proposing to raid “billions of dollars” from employee pensions is harmful to union workers & that the @PostOpinions advocacy against Janeese doing so ensures union retirement funds are secure.

I realize that creating the 72,000 promised housing units in 4 years is Janeese’s proposal & that it didn’t come from you. I also know you endorsed Janeese. So, I’m just trying to understand her number, which seems completely unrealistic and made up. For instance, construction of new private market rate units would have to average at least 17,100 per year, which would be an unprecedented rebound. And for DC-subsidized units, Janeese would either have to leverage ~$3 billion from DC pensions and break the 12% debt cap, like she indicated at the debate, or come up with a new funding source, which doesn’t exist. To me, it just seems like Janeese made up the 72,000 number with no data that supports it and no money to pay for the DC portion of the housing. That seems kind of concerning.

@mbwagoner @EJGoulet 3. I should point out that we haven't endorsed or congratulated the 72k number. Not sure why @EJGoulet thinks we did. Don't think it's completely unachievable but certainly a little high. 4. If you were going to try to do it, this would be how.

Honored to have the support of former Councilmember Charlene Drew Jarvis. Her lifetime of service to this city speaks for itself — and having her support means everything as we fight to make DC safer, more affordable, and more opportunity-rich.

I can do that. However, when I do the same thing with the private housing market trends, they don’t come close to meeting the 17,100 new market rate units that are required to meet Janeese’s goal of 72,000 units of housing. The DC economy is still struggling and interest rates are moderate. I don’t see anything that would catalyze such an enormous uptick in new private construction, so Janeese’s housing number seems made up.

@EJGoulet If you were looking for a reasonable estimate, it would be good to look at how many units DC has built in the last ~5 years and make adjustments from there.

Are you purposefully misreading our tweets?

Lastly, we already desperately need more DCPS elementary school capacity in W3, so we can finally have Pre-K3 like everywhere else in the city. I’m a full throttle YIMBY for more W3 schools b/c if we start adding housing density before schools we’ll lose our pre-K4 classes. (5/5)

Not to cynical, but all of this seems highly unrealistic. So, the vast majority of the delta between Janeese’s 72,000 units & McDuffie’s 12,000 units appears to be an assumption that the private DC housing market is suddenly going to explode with a sudden, historic growth. (4/5)

@dcyimbys This is helpful. This means over the next the 4 years your interpretation of Janeese’s plan is to have the private market finance a staggering increase to 68,400 market rate housing units (17,100 per year) and DC government will finance 3,600 units (900 per year). (1/5)