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Fairfax coalition urges targeted housing help for workers

New Study finds low income working families face highest housing cost burdens

Read the Report (PDF)

Today, the Coalition for Smarter Growth and Tenants and Workers United released a new report, Ensuring Housing Opportunities in Fairfax that analyses housing costs and burdens in Fairfax County.  The report comes as the County is preparing its budget and deciding how the landmark One Penny Fund for affordable housing will be spent in the future. 

“A key question is, can someone who gets a full-time job in Fairfax County find a modest rental unit he or she can afford?” noted Maria Paez, President of Tenants and Workers United. “This study finds that unless you are making over $50,000, you probably won’t find housing you can afford. This leaves out many of the County’s service workers and clerks.”

Report Findings
The report finds while many households face challenges in the affluent county’s housing market, lower income households are largely shut out of finding affordable housing opportunities close to the communities they serve.

Jose Acevedo, a Culmore resident, said, “I am a HVAC technician and with the $10/hour I make I am not able to cover my housing cost. I ask God and you[Fairfax Supervisors] to help us to come out of this poverty we are living in because we have been in crisis for quite sometime.”

Over 90 percent of owners and over 80 percent of renters earning less than $20,000 a year live in unaffordable housing in Fairfax County.  While this proportion is similar to other areas of the country, what makes an expensive community such as Fairfax stand out is that the incidence of unaffordable housing falls little when the income is raised to $50,000: 64 percent of owner households and 78 percent of renter households earning between $35,000 and $50,000 in Fairfax lived in unaffordable housing in 2005. Conversely, only 16 percent of families earning $75,000 or more live in unaffordable housing. At $75,000 a family can spend $22,500 a year on housing costs and still have $52,000 a year for other expenditures.

Recommendations
“The County has shown great vision in creating the One Penny Fund and putting those dollars to work,” said Cheryl Cort, Policy Director for the Coalition for Smarter Growth. “Now the County needs to ensure that these precious dollars are directed to the working families who are on the verge of being shut out of the Fairfax.”

In 2005, Fairfax County created a One Penny Fund to provide affordable housing for Fairfax residents beginning with $17.9 million in FY06. To date, the One Penny Fund has primarily produced and preserved housing affordable to households earning 60 percent of the Area’s Median Income (AMI), the equivalent of one person making $37,000 or a family of 4 making $53,000. The Fund was late in making any significant contribution to the needs of those earning less than 50 percent of AMI (less than $45,000 a year for a family of four), the households with the greatest demonstrable need. In the first two years of the program, only about 4 percent of all housing units preserved by the fund were affordable at 50 percent AMI.

Supervisor Cathy Hudgins commented, “The Fairfax County taxpayers have been generous in support of the One Penny for Affordable Housing.  It is time we develop clear needs-based metrics in line with the distribution of resources.”

Olga Young, an organizer with UNITE HERE, a local hotel union noted the importance of affordable housing choices near jobs, “Hotel workers face increasingly difficult housing situations. One member lost her job because the commute was too far and she was unable to get to work on time.”

The Campaign is calling on the County Board to adopt an ordinance as part of the budget process to ensure that the One Penny Fund targets working families who otherwise cannot afford to live in Fairfax -- individuals and families making less than 50 percent of the area’s median income (about $31,000 for an individual or $44,000 for a family of four).  Budget hearings begin April 9th.

“The Affordable Housing one penny fund can restore life to the lost American dream for adequate, decent housing of the low income families in Fairfax County,” said Gerald Warren, a Fairfax resident from the Lee District.

Looking Forward
The groups note that the Penny Fund is the County’s best tool for ensuring housing choices for Fairfax’s low wage working families.  In addition to strategically targeting how the money is spent, the County needs to increase the amount of funds available to preserve and create affordable housing options in the County.

“The One Penny has been a success but a second penny is needed to address the County’s severe shortfall in housing affordable for working households earning less than $50,000 per year. Preserving the Janna Lee apartments is an important step for the County using One Penny Funds this year. We need more of these kinds of investments that reach those most in need,” said Paez.

The Penny Fund (worth $22.7 million for FY08), coupled with other programs such as Affordable Dwelling Unit Ordinance, a moderate income housing set aside for new development, a High Rise set-aside effort, and increased housing opportunities in appropriate locations will help meet the housing needs and desires of Fairfax families at a range of incomes.

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The Campaign for Housing and Workers Justice is a broad community coalition of faith-based and community organizations, labor unions, and tenants, working together for affordable housing in Fairfax County, especially for low-income residents

Read the report, Ensuring Housing Opportunities in Fairfax.

Read the Associated Press Story and Listen to an interview about the Report with Cheryl Cort on WTOP.