Program Overview

COG's Region-wide Housing Opportunities Program covers a broad array of issues important to area local governments and their housing partners. These include the region-wide affordable housing policy, data on the housing stock of the region, Housing Choice Voucher programs, homelessness, housing affordability, concentration of affordable housing, fair housing, and neighborhood redevelopment. COG works to provide up-to-date and user-friendly information that will help inform regional and local policies. Current COG Housing Program efforts include implementation of the Metropolitan Washington Regional Affordable Housing Policy, which calls for the creation of new affordable housing, the preservation of existing affordable housing and the distribution of affordable housing opportunities around the metropolitan area.

Through its Planning, Economic and Demographic Analysis programs, COG assists and supports local, state, and federal planning activities by serving as a major review and information resource on planning actions taken throughout the region. COG coordinates and integrates planning policies for land use, transportation, and the environment and carries out the recommendations of the region's Partnership for Regional Excellence. Data and analyses produced by this program, particularly through its Cooperative Forecasting program, serve as major inputs to much of the work done by the Transportation Planning Board and other state, regional, and local organizations. This work also assists local governments in assessing their own plans and forecasts.