Progressive Voice: The AHMP Two Years Later - Full Speed Ahead

Progressive Voice: The AHMP Two Years Later - Full Speed Ahead

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.

Will Arlington Open its Doors to Smaller Homes?

Will Arlington Open its Doors to Smaller Homes?

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.

This Land is Your Land, This Land is My Land: Public Land as an Affordable Housing Resource

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?

The State of Affordable Housing 2017: The Changing Landscape of Affordable Housing Finance

The State of Affordable Housing Forum is an annual AHS event designed to engage the community in a discussion of a range of current events and the outlook for affordable housing in the coming year. This year's event subtitled “Federal Upheaval…Local Consequences” was held at the intersection of major federal decisions that could have lasting political impacts to the future of affordable housing finance and community economic development programs.

FY 2018 County Budget Recommendations & Results

Each year, AHS is actively engaged in monitoring the Arlington County budgeting process and advocating for the level of funding and specific programs and policies needed to meet the housing needs of the County.

Working closely with the HousingArlington group and others throughout the FY 2018 budget process, AHS helped create a set of recommendations on housing and services issues. Between February and April, AHS and other advocates met with each of the County Board members to present and discuss the group's priorities and concerns.

AHS also submitted detailed recommendations to the County Board on the main housing-related budget items to help guide the Board's work sessions with County staff.

The final decisions for the FY 2018 budget were made at the April 22 County Board meeting, including the following - most of which are consistent with the housing and services groups' recommendations:

Affordable Housing Investment Fund (AHIF) - allocated $4.9 million in ongoing funds and $10.1 million in one-time funds, for a total of $15 million. This final allocation is $1.3 million higher than FY 2017, but still far short of the amount needed to cover the pipeline of projects proposed for 2018.

Columbia Pike Transit-Oriented Affordable Housing Fund (TIF) - reset the baseline of the TIF to remove the current balance of $880k from the fund. This action placed the funds into the County's general fund, which means that almost half of the funds will be shared with Arlington Public Schools due to existing County revenue sharing principles. Of the County's $471k portion, $200k will go to increased funding for the Columbia Pike Revitalization Organization (CPRO) and the remainder will be added to AHIF (included in the numbers above).

Community Services Board's recommendation funded to add 2.2 development disability FTEs. These positions are funded mainly by 3rd party (Medicaid) revenues, so they will have little impact on the County's budget while providing vital new services to the community.

Lee Highway - funds the Lee Highway Alliance with $60k, and keeps the planned funding for the County to move forward on the Lee Highway planning process. This planning process is key to the area's ability to create and preserve affordable and middle-income housing options.

Childcare - the Manager had recommended adding a position focused on childcare in Arlington Economic Development (AED), but the Board decided to move the position to add a planner to CPHD to deal with planning and zoning barriers to childcare, plus consulting money for a study.

The final “Chairman’s Mark” (with the details of changes the Board made to the Manager’s proposal) is available online.

MARKs and the Affordable Housing Master Plan

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Market Rate Affordable Housing (MARKs) are an important part of the affordable housing stock in Arlington that serves low- to moderate-income households.

MARKs are units that are affordable to moderate or low-income families due to amenities, condition, age, and/or location of the units. The rents are not regulated by any agency allowing for diversity of incomes in buildings or neighborhoods.

This chart, taken from the county's first annual report on the Affordable Housing Master Plan shows how drastically we are losing MARKs (blue line).

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AHMP: Supply, Access, Sustainability

Read how the County did in its first year implementing the Affordable Housing Master Plan (AHMP), including a look forward at multi-year projects.

See the County's Annual Report page for context and information on past goals and targets.

Housing for a Diverse and Sustainable Community