Arlington Community Foundation Shared Prosperity Initiative: Summary of Findings on Rent Subsidy and Construction Buy Down Pilots for Affordability at 30% AMI June 2023 Our Shared Prosperity Affordable Housing Goal
In 2019, the Arlington Community Foundation Shared Prosperity Roundtable—made up of government, business and nonprofit participants—established the following community goal that guides this pilot: By 2024, using government and private investments, create affordability for an additional 1500 Arlington households with incomes of 30% of AMI or less using a combination of 1) financing for “bricks and mortar” units affordable at 30% AMI; 2) new rent subsidy strategies; and 3) policy changes and land use tools. Arlington currently has about 8,000 renter households plus 2,000 households who own their homes who earn 30% AMI or less. Households at 30% AMI will always be an integral part of our community - they include people of various ages who are reliant on SSI or social security income and have limited options for increasing their income and essential workers—childcare workers, office cleaners, health aides, food service workers and more. Arlington’s challenge was and increasingly is - 8,000 low income renter households looking for homes in a high rent market. Income challenges Recent poverty information for Arlington indicates that nearly 24,300 individuals–just over 10% of our population–are trying to make ends meet while earning at or below 30% of our Area Median Income, or $42,690 for a family of four. Current data shows that meeting the demands of daily living costs for these Arlington households averages three times that amount. It is an unfortunate reality that the essential service jobs where many are employed pay far less than a living wage. Arlington’s Affordable Rental Market Like many other high-cost communities in Virginia and across the country, Arlington’s affordable housing strategy has relied heavily on the Federal Low Income Housing Tax Credit (LIHTC) program which has been predominately focused on providing units affordable at the 60% AMI level for decades. As a result, Arlington has 9,800 committed affordable units at or below 60% AMI. Fewer than 1400 of these units are dedicated to 30% AMI households. Of these, only 282 units are June 2023
Page 1 of 3