Friday, November 9, 2012, 1–5—10^th Annual Leckey Forum

Sunday, December 9, 2012, 6–8:30—Ellen Bozman Affordable Housing Award Celebration

Prior event highlights—

Affordable Housing Challenges in 2012. Interviews with AHS board members and executive director at the 2011 Ellen Bozman Award event.

Bricks and Books: Why Affordable Housing Is Good for Students and Schools. Materials. 2011 Leckey Forum.

Increasing Local Revenues for Affordable Housing. Highlights/materials, 2010 Leckey Forum

• Recognizing the role of the housing industry as a critical economic development engine
• Promoting sustainable and vibrant communities, including mixed use and green technology
• Ensuring a range of housing
• Increasing capacity to address the needs of  the homeless

The latest update report (12/13/2011) identifies progress on a variety of programs and actions consistent with the above four principles. The matrix specifically identifies the need for both a housing trust fund (HTF) and legislation necessary to eliminate local barriers to affordable housing. Unfortunately, however, the trust fund was DBA (dead before arrival) in the Governor’s budget this year. Several bills to create the HTF have been introduced in the Assembly bill, but it will be shocking if they go anywhere.  Further and to my knowledge, there are no bills pending that would give localities any more flexibility to craft affordable housing approaches—meaning that many potential tools would still need authorization in Richmond.

The Governor deserves credit for taking a comprehensive look at housing. But without new financial support and increased local flexibility, the only thing being built higher is the paper pile. And the legislature owns that pile, too.

Follow the housing policy framework process.

Follow key bills affecting housing.

Bricks and Books: Why Affordable Housing Is Good for Students and Schools. Materials. 2011 Leckey Forum.

Increasing Local Revenues for Affordable Housing. Highlights/materials, 2010 Leckey Forum

• What do you rank as the highest priorities facing Arlington County in the near future? Where do you place maintaining/increasing the supply of affordable housing in Arlington in the list of priorities, and why?
• For several years Arlington has had a target of increasing the supply of Committed Affordable Housing Units (CAFs) by 400 annually. However, this target has most often not been met. In your view, why has the County failed to meet its target? What can be done to reach the target, or do you see a need to modify the target?
• What specific actions do you think the County should be taking to help preserve/increase the supply of affordable housing, including both CAFs and market-rate affordable units?

The Jordan was developed by AHC, Inc.

As the result of a land swap (suggested by the Alliance for Housing Solutions), Arlington has gained 66 affordable family units a short walk from Ballston Metro. The Jordan is a complex of 90 affordable apartments sharing with an upscale office building the 5-acre site that used to comprise the former Dave Peck Chevrolet dealership and the 24-unit Jordan Manor apartments (affordable). The Jordan’s amenities include a community center, water play area for children, and library, and a public transit subsidy for residents. More at http://www.ahcinc.org/JordanManor.html.

I hope that others of you . . . will consider yourselves a part of this honor, because surely you are. Many of you share with me the blessing of having our eyes opened to see the world from the bottom up; and of understanding that persistence and imagination are the hallmarks of social change.

Link to Mr. Rinker’s complete remarks and to articles in the SunGazette online and in the Arlington Mercury about the event.

I recently helped give a presentation about affordable housing at the invitation of a group of young adults—in this case, the Young Democrats. As part of it, I distributed a short informal survey about their personal housing concerns. Not surprisingly, most respondents indicated that they would not be able to buy in Arlington during the next five years. Most also agreed or were not sure that high housing prices would require them to buy outside of Arlington.

Anecdotally, I’ve—we’ve—heard many stories about young people having difficulty even renting in Arlington, including young teachers. This “evidence” is consistent with the discussion held this past January by the Committee of 100 at its event “Tomorrow’s Challenges and Today’s Facts: A View of Two Issues Uniquely Impacting Young Adults in Arlington.”  The two issues were housing and transportation.

So what does this mean for Arlington? It means we could lose . . . 

We could lose the activism and volunteer contributions of the many concerned young people participating in the recent 100 Homes campaign: You know—the “kids” with the energy and ability to get up at 3 a.m. for many days in a row.

We could lose the ongoing work of groups like the Community Volunteer Network (CVN), a social network of young adults in Arlington created for volunteering, building networks, socializing, and developing leadership.

According to 2010 Census data, only 15.6% of owner-occupied housing units in Arlington are owned by  those aged 25–34, while 43.3% of Arlington’s rental stock is occupied by those in that age bracket. Overall, only 38.5% of Arlington’s owner-occupied housing is held by those 44 years old and younger—way below national averages.  

Sure, life in the city is exciting and the housing market “adjustment” may be long-term, making ownership less attractive for the duration. But even if that bet is placed, there is still the issue of the lack of affordable rental units.

The young people to whom we presented were an attentive audience. They should be: they live the issues and choices the Alliance and other affordable housing advocates talk about.