What to do about Affordable Housing in Arlington?

[Anonymous]

I think AH is supposed to help people not get left behind, by forcing them to live so far away from work that they can't ever have a better life.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I'm totally against affordable housing. No one has a right to live where ever they want. If Arlington isn't affordable, then poor or middle income families will need to move somewhere else that is more affordable.

'Murica

[Anonymous]

There are several problems with subsidized housing in Arlington.

For starters, the County adopted a plan that wants to have almost 20% of Arlington's housing stock be subsidized.

That is an enormous expense. When you subtract the school budget, the County spends ~10% of its discretionary non-school income on subsidizing housing. That is money away from core services like police, firemen, parks and rec, and other services.

On top of that people living in subsidized housing also represent an ongoing and continuous drain on county resources. So it is not just the one time expense of reaching ~20% subsidized housing in Arlington. It is the permanent and ongoing costs associated with maintaining those.

Those long term costs, as well as the up front costs, are never given clearly to Arlington voters. Instead we get sops about how subsidized housing is needed so that our teachers, police, and firefighters can live in our areas. None of that is true - and in fact many of these same people are getting displaced from current housing stock to move in people with lower income. On top of that, subsidized housing can't be targeted by profession, so the claim that this is to help County public servants is silly

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:There are several problems with subsidized housing in Arlington.

For starters, the County adopted a plan that wants to have almost 20% of Arlington's housing stock be subsidized.

That is an enormous expense. When you subtract the school budget, the County spends ~10% of its discretionary non-school income on subsidizing housing. That is money away from core services like police, firemen, parks and rec, and other services.

On top of that people living in subsidized housing also represent an ongoing and continuous drain on county resources. So it is not just the one time expense of reaching ~20% subsidized housing in Arlington. It is the permanent and ongoing costs associated with maintaining those.

Those long term costs, as well as the up front costs, are never given clearly to Arlington voters. Instead we get sops about how subsidized housing is needed so that our teachers, police, and firefighters can live in our areas. None of that is true - and in fact many of these same people are getting displaced from current housing stock to move in people with lower income. On top of that, subsidized housing can't be targeted by profession, so the claim that this is to help County public servants is silly

More importantly, those employees want a semblance of a middle class life, not to live in public housing. I think most of them would choose the commute over that. If Arlington really wanted civil servants to live in the County, they would rent them houses or subsidize their mortgages.

Affordable housing is not for them, but the people who use it need it. But again, it should go to the people who are being displaced from market rate units. Is there a time limit?

[Anonymous]

I also tend to think thatcArlington should have something better than a Podunk-ish hospital.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:that is the problem, poor people will always bring poor people problems such as under performance at school. The problem with Arlington is there simply isn't that many schools and only couple of good ones which become targets by the have-nots who have enough votes to push changes through the county gov. There will always be upper class SFHs in N Arlington, the question is does it become like Alexandria which wasn't able to protect it's schools and now has a "private school culture" or do they hold on as long as possible and keep their legacy HHI segregation policies that effect the schools. They could also do what MoCo is doing and double down on special programs and magnets for the upper middle class to stash their kids in to keep them separated.

Or the population can accept that urban and rich, white enclaves can't really exist together without oppressive policies that are basically unfair. These policies pick winners and the results are losers who are typically the people often propped up to be the losers for must of the American grind.

This is one of the most honest and eloquent things I have read on here.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:that is the problem, poor people will always bring poor people problems such as under performance at school. The problem with Arlington is there simply isn't that many schools and only couple of good ones which become targets by the have-nots who have enough votes to push changes through the county gov. There will always be upper class SFHs in N Arlington, the question is does it become like Alexandria which wasn't able to protect it's schools and now has a "private school culture" or do they hold on as long as possible and keep their legacy HHI segregation policies that effect the schools. They could also do what MoCo is doing and double down on special programs and magnets for the upper middle class to stash their kids in to keep them separated.

Or the population can accept that urban and rich, white enclaves can't really exist together without oppressive policies that are basically unfair. These policies pick winners and the results are losers who are typically the people often propped up to be the losers for must of the American grind.

This is one of the most honest and eloquent things I have read on here.

If only it were true

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I also tend to think thatcArlington should have something better than a Podunk-ish hospital.

Arlington is within 3 miles of two major university hospitals and within 5 miles of INOVA Fairfax. If you don't like the treatment of Virginia Hospital Center, you ave plenty of choices nearby.

[Anonymous]

VHC is a fantastic hospital

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:VHC is a fantastic hospital

It's the hospital of the people and has a great sense of community. I wish it were a little nicer and had a better ER, but maternity ward was great.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I also tend to think thatcArlington should have something better than a Podunk-ish hospital.

This makes no sense. The main hospital facility was completely rebuilt and is one if the nicest and most state of the art in the region.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Serious question

Why do we need affordable housing at all

It just creates artificial floors, screws the middle class who make just over the income cutoff. People don't have right to live anywhere

Is this some liberal white guilt thing?

It may have started as a liberal white thing, but in order to obtain Federal government subsidies for many programs, the Feds are requiring that a certain percentage of housing in areas be affordable. No affordable housing, no government tit.

I'm all for AH. I just want it to be mixed income, so that we're not economically segregating people or sheltering one area of the county from having AH.

Is your concern that individual buildings be mixed income, or the distribution of AH among neighborhoods?

If the former, than you should applaud things like inclusionary zoning. The all AH buildings would be problematic - but they do deliver a lot of units relatively cheaply. Not sure how easy it would be to get that many units in mixed income buildings.

If its neighborhoods, well it has hard to get these buildings in SFH zoned areas. More ADU's would help. The County could buy land in places like the RB corridor for AH, but that would be expensive.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Serious question

Why do we need affordable housing at all

It just creates artificial floors, screws the middle class who make just over the income cutoff. People don't have right to live anywhere

Is this some liberal white guilt thing?

It may have started as a liberal white thing, but in order to obtain Federal government subsidies for many programs, the Feds are requiring that a certain percentage of housing in areas be affordable. No affordable housing, no government tit.

I'm all for AH. I just want it to be mixed income, so that we're not economically segregating people or sheltering one area of the county from having AH.

Is your concern that individual buildings be mixed income, or the distribution of AH among neighborhoods?

If the former, than you should applaud things like inclusionary zoning. The all AH buildings would be problematic - but they do deliver a lot of units relatively cheaply. Not sure how easy it would be to get that many units in mixed income buildings.

If its neighborhoods, well it has hard to get these buildings in SFH zoned areas. More ADU's would help. The County could buy land in places like the RB corridor for AH, but that would be expensive.

I know it would be hard, but I think the County could do better in helping families buy housing instead of building tenements.

This place leaves me so torn - I came for a good life for my kids, but I don't think it's right to see others struggle so hard. And yet, we standby and let them all be pushed into one or two neighborhoods with no prospect of moving up. If we had more land, Arlington could help those families buy townhouses or do something like Singapore did in the 70s.

[Anonymous]

I've thought for awhile that affordable housing could be located along main roads where SFH are often a harder sell. There are busy roads all over Arlington, almost all with sidewalks, and often walkable to shops and transit. Then you get affordable housing distributed all over the county and into every school boundary. The proposed housing along Lee Highway would fit into this idea.

I do agree with some posters that say that everyone does not have the right to live wherever they want, regardless of whether they can afford it. One of the downsides to being poor is that your choices are more limited.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:There are several problems with subsidized housing in Arlington.

For starters, the County adopted a plan that wants to have almost 20% of Arlington's housing stock be subsidized.

That is an enormous expense. When you subtract the school budget, the County spends ~10% of its discretionary non-school income on subsidizing housing. That is money away from core services like police, firemen, parks and rec, and other services.

On top of that people living in subsidized housing also represent an ongoing and continuous drain on county resources. So it is not just the one time expense of reaching ~20% subsidized housing in Arlington. It is the permanent and ongoing costs associated with maintaining those.

Those long term costs, as well as the up front costs, are never given clearly to Arlington voters. Instead we get sops about how subsidized housing is needed so that our teachers, police, and firefighters can live in our areas. None of that is true - and in fact many of these same people are getting displaced from current housing stock to move in people with lower income. On top of that, subsidized housing can't be targeted by profession, so the claim that this is to help County public servants is silly

+1,000. I hate that the AH contingent has such a stronghold on Arlington politics right now. I'd love to live in Donaldson Run, but can't afford it. Do I have a right to live there? I'd love to buy a $2M home in McLean like some of my friends just did, so that we don't have to deal with the cluster that is the future of APS, but we can't afford it. Do I have a right to live there?

I'm at a loss as to why this country has devolved to "it's a right" when it comes to anything that people want.