By Charles Rinker, President, Arlington New Directions Coalition

The first way to discuss the affordable housing crisis in Arlington
is to recite the dire statistics which are by-products of our booming economy:

• Since 1980, the County has lost over 15,000 affordable housing units to demolition or condo conversion.
• There is a tight rental market for all housing (a vacancy rate of less than .8 of 1% last year).
• Rents in the County increased an average of 15% last year ($155 per month), on top of an increase of 7% in the previous year.
• Home purchase prices increased an average of 12% last year ($33,000).
• There is an extreme shortage of 2BRs and 3BRs (needed by families).
• Last year alone, Arlington lost 30% (over 3,600 units) of its private market rentals available to households earning less than 50% of area median income (mostly due to rent increases).
• Arlington’s countywide homeownership rate is less than 45%, actually decreasing over the last few years.
• “Affordable housing” no longer means housing for the poor, but for the middle class as well (teachers, police, firefighters, nurses, postal workers, etc.).

The second way to discuss the affordable housing crisis is to describe how outside developers with little or no interest in the County, other than the money that they can make here, are ravaging and exploiting our community.  Arlington is one of the top target markets in the country for Real Estate Investment Trusts (REITs) and other rental housing developers who want to take advantage of our prime location, growing economy, tight rental market and high rents. These developers bid up the purchase prices on Arlington’s properties; and their interests are in redeveloping affordable housing complexes into upscale, high-rent properties that can maximize their monetary returns. “To hell” with what the Arlington community wants and needs with respect to its quality of life.

These market-driven, for-profit developers cause low/moderate income and multicultural residents to be displaced from their homes. Ethnically and economically diverse and viable communities with active networks of association and mutual support are uprooted and destroyed. This private market, for-profit driven development process does not meet the needs of the community; and it gives no voice to those most affected by it, namely, the tenants.  It is a development process driven not by community values and the community’s desired outcomes, but by money and the greed of developers who have nothing more than a monetary interest in Arlington. It is unjust to the households displaced when there is no place else in Arlington for them to go. It is undemocratic in that Arlington’s people are disenfranchised and have no meaningful voice in what kind of development we want and need to preserve our quality of life and community values.  It is Enron-type capitalism, where a few people get rich by exploiting the low-income and minority members of our community and by creating negative externalities that the County must address with its public resources. 

The third way to discuss the crisis is to list the reasons affordable housing is important to a community:

• The first is the “economic reason.” The lack of affordable housing is a constraint on the economy’s ability to achieve its growth potential. High rents and mortgage payments divert spending from other economic sectors. With the lack of affordable housing units, jobs are not filled. New households, who work here but have to live elsewhere because they cannot afford the housing, add to our region’s transportation problems, traffic congestion and consumer spending lost to the area. (George Mason University Professor Stephen Fuller estimates that our region lost 6,800 new jobs in 2000, because workers had no where to live.)
• The second is the “justice reason.” A community should be judged by how it treats its poorest and most vulnerable members. One of government’s prime responsibilities is to provide for the general welfare—to be especially attentive to those who are left out and left behind by the economic institutions of society. When some in our community do not have affordable housing, it diminishes us as a community. It’s the job of government, religious institutions, service agencies and good citizens to correct the problems caused by the lack of affordable housing.
• The third is the “quality of life reason”—namely, our desire to have a livable, quality community. We value cultural and economic diversity, but we cannot have it without affordable housing. We need protection of our environment, but we cannot have it without affordable housing. We want less traffic congestion, but we cannot have it without affordable housing. We want and need craftsmen, repair shops, service providers, etc., convenient to where we live, but we cannot have them without affordable housing