testifying in support of the DC Office of Planning Historic Preservation Office (HPO) Homeowner Grant program in the Mayor's FY 2019 budget; the proposed FY 2019 budget amount is $250,000

During recent discussions about the proposed Bloomingdale historic district, a comment was made that the DC Office of Planning's Historic Preservation Office (HPO) did not have funding for its Historic District Homeowner Grant program.

A few items on this topic:

A Bloomingdale neighbor and I testified at the Monday, 03-26-2018, DC Council budget oversight hearing for the DC Office of Planning.  We asked that the Historic District Homeowner Grant program funding be included in the FY 2019 budget.   

Note that the DC Preservation League also testified in support of continuing the historic district homeowner grant program funding.  

DC Council Chair Phil Mendelson advised that it indeed IS included.  Great!


Here are the approximate amounts for the past five years for this HPO Historic District Homeowner Grant program:

2014: $335,000
2015: $84,583
2016: approximately $188,000
2017: approximately $285,000 with $172,000 carried over

The proposed budget for FY 2019 is $250,000. 

See the line item below from the mayor's submitted budget for the DC Office of Planning.  

Here is an associated paragraph found here:

Hopefully, this $250,00 inclusion for the HPO Homeowner Grant program in the proposed FY2019 survives the budget process.