Moving From Homelessness to Stability

Moving From Homelessness to Stability Committed Affordable Housing for people making 30% of Area Median Income is crucial Arlington Community Foundation White Paper Shared Prosperity Project December 2021

While every metropolitan area in the country has struggled with the issue of homelessness in the past 30 years, the last 18 months have pulled back the curtain on how many low-income households teeter on the edge of eviction and homelessness. Before the COVID-19 pandemic, between July 2019 and March 2020, an average of 145 households per month received eviction prevention assistance in Arlington. Assistance was funded primarily through local sources.

During the pandemic, the average number of households assisted increased to 342 households per month (a 136% increase). Between April and July 2020, demand for eviction prevention funding increased from approximately $75,000 per month before COVID-19 to an average of $550,000 per month.

During the pandemic, government at all levels recognized that an increase in homelessness would only exacerbate the crisis and so took actions to help keep people housed as the pandemic continued. In Arlington, approximately 5000 households used government programs to cover back rent shortfalls, pay utility and other bills, or meet living expenses. Philanthropy also played a role with the Arlington Community Foundation raising $1M distributed to 70 nonprofits who helped neighbors in need.

Metropolitan Washington Council of Governments Homeless Services Committee Co-Chair and District Interagency Council on Homelessness Director Kristy Greenwalt noted in 2021 that “Tenant protections such as the eviction moratorium and emergency housing assistance [during the pandemic] helped immensely in the short term, but it will take significantly more housing affordable to those at the lowest incomes in every jurisdiction to continue this forward progress.”

Throughout our region, committed affordable housing for those at the lowest incomes is rare.

It’s expensive to create and not currently well-supported by any dependable government or private construction funding. While offering direct services and emergency assistance with bills to those who face housing emergencies can help individual households in the short term, the long-term systemic solution is for the community to provide a sufficient supply of rental housing affordable to those who earn very low incomes.

Long term, providing this housing is a fiscally prudent community action as it is likely to decrease costs for other tax-payer supported services. It also helps to stabilize a community, allowing fragile households to put down roots and begin giving back to the community in many

ways. Finally, ensuring that all members of a community have safe, affordable housing is a sign of a vibrant, caring community.

So how can Arlington help very-low income households transition to a place of greater stability and upward mobility? By investing — with non-profits, through philanthropy and government funding — in the construction of residential buildings that commit to providing 5-10% of their apartments for 30 years or more at rents that are within reach of those earning 30% AMI (approx $38,700 in Arlington today).

Based on more than 10 years of experience moving persons experiencing homelessness into housing in Arlington, we know that affordable, stable housing makes an enormous difference to low-income households. Only 12% of households who’ve been helped by the County’s homelessness prevention efforts re-experience homelessness within 2 years. Recidivism was even lower (7%) for those assisted by the Rapid Rehousing and Permanent Supportive Housing programs.

Long term, Arlington’s inventory of committed affordable 30% AMI apartments is simply too low.

With approximately 8,000 30% renter households looking for stability, our inventory of 947 30% AMI units (678 reserved for seniors, 269 unrestricted units) ensures that many low-income Arlingtonians will struggle for years to put a roof over their heads.

The Arlington Community Foundation’s Shared Prosperity Initiative (SP2) is focused on creating affordable options for an additional 750 households living on incomes of 30% AMI or less. We have called on the County to step up and match these new units though additional efforts in their programs. The target households include many essential, hourly-wage workers—child care providers, office cleaners, health aides, food service workers, etc — as well as people of various ages who are reliant on SSI or social security income and have limited options for increasing their income. In addition many are unable to afford housing in Arlington because wages have not kept up with housing costs and access to career ladders and other job training can be very difficult to access for those with limited skills or language barriers.

The County commits approximately 5% of its local revenue to a variety of affordable housing programs. For decades the County has used tools like the Affordable Housing Investment Fund ($8.9M FY22 annual base funding) and local Housing Grants ($13M FY22 annual base funding) to assist households. There can be no doubt that more dollars—non-governmental dollars—are needed to achieve a sufficient supply of housing affordability to those at the lowest rungs of earning power.

In the midst of the pandemic the Arlington Community Foundation, with assistance from Amazon, has piloted a private construction grant program with three housing non-profits. These test cases have demonstrated that, in Arlington, it costs, on average, an additional $170,000 to

buy a unit down from 60% AMI to 30% AMI. There are generally two moments in the life of building when this infusion of funding makes the most sense - as the initial financing is being established, and when the building is refinanced. The inventory has been increased by 28 units by our efforts since 2019. During the same time period, the County, using its development related tools, added 26 units to the inventory of units committed at 30% AMI. In addition, the Community Foundation has used private funding to establish a 2-year rental subsidy pilot. Partnering with landlords has been important so that these very low-income households did not lose other benefits (SNAP, Medicare, childcare assistance etc) that they need to survive. The average amount of annual subsidy is approximately $8,900 and we are assisting at least 28 households for 48 months.

Moving forward, the Foundation is actively building its housing assistance fund. In our investigations we have learned that it’s best practice to provide this funding in ways that allow 510% of the units in a building to be affordable to households living at 30% AMI. This means that in a 100-unit building, a $1.7M grant would create 10 new units committed to 30% earners. As existing buildings seek to recapitalize, a similar level of grant could be available to add to the 30% AMI inventory.

Aligning the affordability of our housing stock with the needs of our residents will take time. But ensuring that we have an appropriate percentage of housing in Arlington that is within reach of these folks is fiscally prudent AND the right thing to do.