From Karl Ensign:
Given
immediate market forces, affordable housing is rapidly disappearing within the
City of Falls Church. As a result,
our community is rapidly and substantially changing.
Without attention to this issue, advocacy,
and action; our housing stock will become less diversified and more homogenous,
putting our local economy at-risk in the long-run. As our housing stock becomes more skewed to upper
income levels, the place we call home is impacted. Increasingly our children, elders, friends,
and neighbors will have to leave the city to live within their means.
A September 2005 report on
housing needs prepared by City staff points to the rapidly changing composition
of housing within the City. The report
estimated a “potential loss of 754 units of affordable multi-family rental housing within the City by 2010 as a result of
redevelopment and escalating rents.”
- Fields of Falls Church (formerly Westbrook Commons) obligation to serve low-income households expires in 2010.
Virginia Village—feeling development pressure from the east and the west.
Although the exact impact is
fluid and difficult to measure, exponentially increasing assessments and sales
prices of existing housing stock further compound the problem, as does the
commonplace replacement of lower end housing stock with higher end houses.
- From 2001 - 2004, 47 small, single family homes were replaced with much larger homes at much higher sales prices
Apart from the issue of
community preservation, the undeniable reality is that economic growth is
limited by the availability of a diverse housing stock regionally. Without ready access to affordable housing,
we are limited in our ability to attract those professions we are dependent on
each day, including teachers, youth leaders, health workers to care for the
elderly and disabled, city maintenance crews, waiters, and store clerks.
- For example, last year townhouses in Winter Hill sold for $400,000 on average, affordable to households earning $120,000 or more.
Actions that could be Taken:
(1) Advocate for
the preservation of currently existing affordable housing structures.
(2) Advocate for
the inclusion of affordable dwelling units within new development projects, or
contributions to the city’s affordable housing fund when there inclusion is
determined to be infeasible.
(3) Advocate for
the preservation and creation of permanent affordable dwelling units (ADUs) as
opposed to time-limited ADUs.
(4) Participate
in workgroups refining the city’s existing affordable housing code or programs,
or developing new code and programs (currently the City’s affordable housing
policy is discretionary; meaning that it specifies our intent but contains no
real enforceable requirements).
(5) Build active
partnerships with other public and private entities concerned with maintaining
a diverse housing stock.
This is the greatest issue facing many in Falls Church. For many owners, the loss of their current house would preclude them from remaining in Falls Church. Yet as land values climb - the pressure in neighborhoods near or in development areas to sell will be intense if things continue. We must preserve current, and force the construction of more, affordable housing in Falls Church to maintain a diverse population.
Posted by: Michael Baker | March 28, 2007 at 01:59 PM