Reply to What to do about Affordable Housing in Arlington?

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[quote=Anonymous][quote=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[/quote]

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?[/quote]

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