Programs and Plans

Scroll down this page to link to information about Arlington County’s housing assistance programs, County goals and plans addressing the need for affordable housing, and evolving policy.

You can also link to AHS testimony and letters of support on issues and proposals that have come before the Arlington County Board.

Information on Virginia housing policy provides additional context.

First stops for those who need help with housing

The need for affordable housing in Arlington County

  • Putting it in perspective-1: Arlington profile, with population, employment, education, transportation, and other data
  • Putting it in perspective-2: Arlington housing data
  • Putting it together-1: Link to basic materials from AHS’s public education campaign
  • Putting it together-2: The Case for Affordable Housing is a readable . . . and data-laden . . . research effort sponsored by the Arlington Partnership for Affordable Housing (APAH) and posted here with their permission.

Arlington County plans and programs

  • Arlington’s blueprint for developing affordable housing, preventing homelessness, ensuring fair housing, expanding economic opportunities, and improving neighborhoods is its five-year Consolidated Plan, 2011–2015. The Citizen Summary highlights the need and County initiatives to meet the crisis.
  • The County sets affordable housing goals and targets and evaluates progress annually.
  • The innovative Columbia Pike Neighborhoods Plan
  • Supportive housing is affordable housing combined with services for individuals and families who are homeless or at risk of becoming homeless who also have very low incomes and issues such as substance use, mental illness, other disabilities, or HIV/AIDS.
  • Arlington’s 10-Year Plan to End Homelessness, A Passageway Home, aims to ensure that no individual or family lacks access to decent, affordable housing. Based on the strategy of “housing first,” the plan focuses on prevention and rapidly moving people who become homeless into housing, with wraparound services to help them maintain it. Link here to the latest annual report on the plan.

AHS testimony and letters of support 

Virginia housing policy

The Virginia Housing Coalition supports organizations and individuals working to provide affordable housing options in Virginia by influencing and developing public policy, recognizing exemplary achievement, and providing education, training, and services. Read about housing affordability in Virginia and link to Out of Reach 2013, a report recently released jointly by VHC and the National Low-Income Housing Coalition.

Virginia Housing Policy Framework, including a 2-page summary of recommendations

Public Input on Housing Issues and Potential Solutions in Virginia