GIVING CIRCLE FOR DEEPLY AFFORDABLE HOUSING Is “affordable” rent in Arlington truly affordable? In fact, what we call affordable rent in Arlington is twice as much as what many low-wage earners can afford. * Let’s do our part to address this today! Many of us who are long-time Arlington homeowners have seen remarkable growth in our assets simply by virtue of years of annually increasing property values. Our renting neighbors who have worked for years in jobs that are the backbone of our community —child care providers, health aides, home and office cleaners, food service employees, school bus drivers and others—have not shared in this prosperity. They are struggling every day to make rent, often working multiple jobs. See two of our renting neighbors’ story here. Arlington has a huge mismatch in affordable housing supply and demand. To provide enough housing for Arlington’s lowwage earners will take changes in local policy, land use tools and investments of funding— most importantly from government sources. Policy change takes years, but for those of us who personally yearn to offer hope now for these neighbors, there is a tangible step that can be taken!
*Units with “affordable” rent assume tenants are earning at least 60% of the area median income (AMI). And yet, nearly 11,700 households earn less than 30% AMI. The rent in the “affordable” units is twice what they can afford. There
are fewer than 1,600 rental units
We invite to join us in “buying down” 60% area median income in Arlington truly affordable for (AMI) rental units now to deeper affordability at 30% AMI these 11,700 households. rent. Each project has an implicit rent that will allow the developers to recoup their costs, including repayment and interest on borrowed funds. This rent can be lowered by reducing the amount of money borrowed - similar to the way individual homeowners can reduce their mortgage costs by increasing their down payment. For a collective up-front investment of $227,000, we can make a 2-bedroom apartment home affordable to an extremely low-income household for three decades.
LET’S BUY DOWN OUR FIRST UNIT BY DECEMBER 31,2024! This graph shows how much income is freed up for this household for other necessary expenses when they are paying rent set to their income level.