Arlington County’s vision is to be a “diverse and inclusive world-class urban community.” The 2018 Leckey Forum explored the challenges to achieving this vision by exploring the historical context of racial segregation and current policies that keep neighborhoods from being more diverse.

The 2018 Leckey Forum explored both the history of segregation in Arlington and solutions for making our neighborhoods more inclusive.

The Fair Housing Act was passed fifty years ago, yet America’s neighborhoods remain deeply segregated along racial lines. Author Richard Rothstein argues that this divide is the direct result of government policies, some of which are relegated to the past and others that are still in place today.

Arlington County Board approves contribution of $14.3 million to the Affordable Housing Investment Fund for FY 2019.

In December 2017, the Arlington County Board approved Phase 1 of a proposal for a Housing Conservation District (HCD) that will provide protections and incentives to preserve or replace affordable apartments in market rate affordable buildings. Phase 2 of the plan, which includes developing a set of incentives to help property owners renovate or redevelop their properties in exchange for affordability protections, will be developed throughout 2018.

Do you want to help keep Arlington a diverse and inclusive community? At AHS we do! In the spirit of the importance of affordable housing, we offered a training about the Arlington for Everyone campaign for this year’s MLK Day of Service on January 15th. The campaign is designed to spark a community dialogue about the importance of housing affordability and housing options for the future of Arlington.

A coalition of experts and advocates urges the County Board to pursue strategies to meet the production goals set out in Arlington's Affordable Housing Master Plan

On Sunday, December 3rd, 2017, the Alliance for Housing Solutions Ellen M. Bozman Affordable Housing Award celebration recognized three organizations whose commitment to affordable housing was demonstrated through collaboration in the preservation efforts in Westover.

In a recent Progressive Voice column for ARLNow, our Executive Director Michelle Winters had the opportunity to weigh in on how we are doing two years after the Affordable Housing Master Plan was created. In the column, Michelle discusses the loss of critical market-rate affordable units, the worsening political environment, and the shortage of funding in the context of the Arlington housing market.

One of the biggest drivers of cost for housing is size, and when it comes to single-family homes, square footage has been on the rise nationwide for decades. If larger sizes drive up costs, then smaller sizes could help reduce them, potentially producing more affordable or moderately-priced options for people in our community. Smaller housing options such as tiny homes, cottage housing, and detached accessory dwellings are one part of the vital missing middle housing.

A recent study by Enterprise Community Partners points to public land as an underutilized affordable housing resource, especially in high-cost housing markets.  The use of publicly owned land can provide an edge to nonprofit developers to acquire resources that are traditionally cost prohibitive.  However, the use of public land raises two questions: first, what exactly is public land?  Second, how can public land be used as a resource to meet affordable housing needs?