Opinion

Lyon’s Legacy IV: White Families’ Homes

By D. Taylor Reich

Lyon’s Legacy is a limited-run opinion column on the history of housing in Arlington. The views expressed are solely the author’s.

“IN THIS early-twentieth-century era, when African Americans in the South faced terror that maintained them in subjugation, when African Americans throughout the nation were being driven from small towns where they had previously enjoyed a measure of integration and safety, and when the federal government had abandoned its African American civil servants, we should not be surprised to learn that there was a new dedication on the part of public officials to ensure that white families’ homes would be removed from proximity to African Americans in large urban areas.”

Richard Rothstein, The Color of Law

A century ago, Robert E. Lee defeated both George Washington and Pocahontas. The contest? A decision to rename the county today known as Arlington.

In 1919, this was Alexandria County. But it was growing. The county was tired of being confused with Alexandria City to its south. So the Civic Federation held a contest to choose a new name, and “Arlington,” the name of Robert E. Lee’s personal mansion, won out over our nation’s first president and one of its most mythologized Native inhabitants.

This is the fourth part of Lyon’s Legacy, a biweekly series (you can read the whole thing, with citations, here). It will tell an eight-part history of how Black people, and other groups that experience racial or economic discrimination, have been excluded from living in Arlington County. Last week, the story told how Frank Lyon and his allies built their power in our county. This week we’ll see what they did with it.

Arlington’s new symbol was a good one to represent the new county that men like Frank Lyon were building. Lee fought for white supremacy just decades earlier, and the Union army drove him out of his home. Now Lyon led the county’s developers and planners to create a new Arlington. Frank Lyon, by pen and by brick, would succeed where Lee by sword had failed. The developers and planners of Lyon’s day embeded white supremacy so deeply in the foundation of our county that it has not yet today been driven out.

The raid in Rosslyn was a turning point. Shortly after that day, Lyon claimed a stake in the county’s land values: he became a real-estate developer. First, he joined a colleague to build a few blocks of houses in Clarendon; then he bought out that colleague’s share of the business and built a few more. But it wasn’t until 1919, the year of the county’s renaming, that Lyon really got going. That year he broke ground on Lyon Park. Four years later he began Lyon Village. Today those neighborhoods hold about 3,500 houses. Lyon’s partners in the Good Citizen’s League built many other neighborhoods: Maywood, for example, was largely organized by Crandall Mackey. By the time Lyon was done, nearly three percent of all the land in Arlington County had passed through his personal hands.

Frank Lyon, like other white developers and legislators of the time, did all he could to keep Black people out of Arlington. Lyon used three methods to this end: restrictive covenants, exclusive zoning, and automobile-oriented design.

Lyon’s first technique was blunt. Whenever he sold land, Frank Lyon made a binding contract with the buyer that they would never sell or lease the land to Black people or to any other non-whites. The legal agreement remained with the property, so that no Black person would ever be able to live on the land except as a servant. This type of contract was called a “restrictive covenant,” and it was the most explicit weapon in Lyon’s arsenal.

One such covenant mandates that “neither said property nor any part thereof nor any interest therein shall be sold or leased to any one not of the Caucasian race.” Racism even became a selling point. Lyon Village was advertised under the claim that it was “reserved for the white race alone.”

Most developments in Arlington in the early 20th century included racially-restrictive covenants, like this one in Columbia Forest.

The second technique was pragmatic: Like many developers of his time, Frank Lyon made sure his houses would be expensive.

(more…)

What’s Next: Meeting Our Community Energy Goals

By Nicole Merlene

What’s Next with Nicole is a biweekly opinion column. The views expressed are solely the author’s.

From the local to state to federal level it finally feels like there is momentum to make an impact on climate change. In order to meet our collective goals, it is incumbent upon us all to take responsibility for these aspirations in our everyday actions.

Arlington released bold energy goals in the 2019 Community Energy Plan. The county resolved to achieve 100% renewable electricity by 2025 for government operations, achieve 100% community renewable electricity by 2035, and become carbon neutral by 2050.

In 2020, Governor Northam signed the Clean Economy Act (sponsored by Arlington’s Rip Sullivan) that directed sweeping environmental standards. It set a path to 100% carbon-free electricity by 2045, required Dominion Energy to supply 30% of their power from renewables by 2030 and close all carbon-emitting power plants by 2045, made it “in the public interest” for generation of that 5,200 megawatts of offshore wind and 16,100 megawatts of onshore wind and solar, expanded net metering for solar credits on Dominion electric bills, required expanded energy storage capacity for solar by Dominion, among many more provisions.

Today on Earth Day, President Biden pledged to cut US emissions of greenhouse gasses in half by 2030 — a goal twice as ambitious as what President Obama originally agreed to upon the initial signing of the Paris Climate Agreement. A significant amount of funding will be found in the upcoming Infrastructure Bill for improvements to the grid, public transportation, and other items.

(more…)

Peter’s Take: Arlington Should Offer Evidence-Based Treatment for Young Adults with Severe Mental Illness

By Peter Rousselot

Peter’s Take is a biweekly opinion column. The views expressed are solely the author’s.

We’ve all seen mentally ill people on the street, often disheveled, perhaps speaking to no one in particular, seemingly unaware that they are ill and unable to care for themselves.

This may be the face of mental illness, but it shouldn’t be because recovery is achievable.

Recovery requires early detection of psychotic illnesses, followed by prompt and effective treatment to prevent the cognitive decline that occurs when psychosis goes untreated. Early intervention also prevents or limits substance abuse, involvement in the legal system, and other negative but all-too-common consequences of severe mental illness.

Early identification of psychotic illnesses

One highly effective program is Coordinated Specialty Care (CSC) for those with early episode psychosis (or First Episode Psychosis), a program based on extensive research with positive outcomes sponsored by the National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH).

In Northern Virginia, all of the localities except Arlington offer this evidence-based CSC model for teens and young adults experiencing early-episode psychosis. Arlington offers elements of this program, but it does not offer them in a way that adheres to the model and is intensive enough to effectively treat the most severely ill teens and young adults with schizophrenia or schizoaffective disorders.

Without CSC what does Arlington offer?

Arlington offers an array of programs, what one parent calls a “patchwork,” but not CSC for those with the most severe illness. These teens and young adults either go untreated, isolating at home, often frightened by their symptoms, and falling further behind their peers, or receive in-home services from Arlington’s PACT (Program of Assertive Community Treatment), essentially, long-term care.

We are unnecessarily jeopardizing the possibility of recovery when we place young adults in long-term care, declare them disabled, and consign them to a lifetime of poverty living on Social Security Income (SSI). These are often young adults who showed promise in school or other pursuits and who still have potential. Arlington should be offering a program that conforms to the CSC model for those teens and young adults who need these very intensive but short-term (usually two years) services built around a goal of recovery. Recovery is what families and ill young adults want and deserve. (more…)

The Right Note: More Transparency Please

By Mark Kelly

The Right Note is a biweekly opinion column. The views expressed are solely the author’s.

The County Board is scheduled to vote on the budget and tax rates later today. Sadly, the budget documents have not been posted to the county website as of the writing of this column. At best, the public will have just a handful of hours to review the final FY 2022 budget before it is adopted.

If you do not believe mistakes can happen when a budget is adopted, an accidental pay raise for County Board members was published in the adopted materials last year. County staff rushed out to say it was not supposed to be there and that the pay raise was not funded by the budget itself.

Nonetheless, it is time for the County Board to adopt a 24 hour rule to vote on any matter. If the proposed final budget is not published 24 hours prior to the vote, it cannot be adopted. Nothing would stop an open amendment process where Board members made line item changes if last minute adjustments were necessary. A 72 hour rule would be better, but the way they are going about it now really only leaves open the possibility of critiquing the final product after it has already passed.

On Saturday, the County Board approved $2 million in Neighborhood Conservation projects which will be funded by borrowing. This program was created in 1964 to give neighborhoods the opportunity to recommend improvement projects to their elected officials. Sidewalks, curbs, streetlights, signs, and other beautification ideas can percolate all the way from an impromptu front porch coffee to fruition.

Anyone who has been through the process can tell you that the handful of projects that are ultimately funded often take years to get across the finish line. Judging by the dates on the  plans on record, many neighborhoods have given up on it altogether.

Contrast that the Arlington County Board’s recent decisions to grant County Manager Mark Schwartz $2 million each year as part of the closeout process to spend without County Board authorization.

That’s right: the Manager has an annual slush fund which is equivalent to projects that go through an exhaustive review process to benefit neighborhoods.

While some of us may prefer that 100% of closeout funds be allocated toward reducing the property tax burden, the County Board has largely ignored this plea for years. So for closeout 2021, maybe neighborhoods should ask the Board to take the $2 million County Manager slush fund and apply it to the next round of Neighborhood Conservation projects instead.

Mark Kelly is a long-time Arlington resident, former Arlington GOP Chairman and two-time Republican candidate for Arlington County Board.

Progressive Voice: School Board Candidates Show Insights, Analytic Skills, Resolve

By Progressive Voice
Arlington School Board candidates Miranda Turner (left) and Mary Kadera (right) (image courtesy Progressive Voice)

Progressive Voice is a biweekly opinion column. The views expressed are solely the author’s.

By Progressive Voice Editors

Progressive Voice editors recently talked with Miranda Turner and Mary Kadera, candidates for the Democratic endorsement for Arlington School Board. Here are excerpts from their answers to questions that probed their experience, new ideas and understanding of challenges facing the school system.

Disparity in Free and Reduced Lunch populations. Do you believe more efforts need to be made to distribute F/R lunch students more evenly across APS schools? If so, how would you approach this?

Turner: It’s surprising to many people that we have such disparity, with some schools at 83% and others at 2%. The disparity suggests economic segregation and that’s concerning. Historically, communities have tried to deal with this in various ways… that haven’t worked well… such as busing. I live in Green Valley and when low-income and minority kids were bused out of here [in the 1970s] as a way of integrating, that was hard on the community.

The way to approach is… maximize the walk zone around a school [safely] and… then look at the demographics. If there is a way to enhance diversity and bring schools closer to the mean of Arlington, that deserves a hard look. If we can, enhance diversity in a way that doesn’t disrupt school communities, doesn’t raise transportation costs, doesn’t disrupt walkability and still preserves the neighborhood character of schools.

Kadera: Historically, it most often has been students of color and low-income who get bused away from their neighborhood schools, to schools that often have excess capacity. Their neighborhood schools have set up supports to serve needs of those students like food pantries and tutoring programs afterschool. For all those reasons, it strikes me as problematic to propose a “busing and boundaries” solution.

I would concentrate on making every neighborhood school the best it can possibly be, and being sure students have equal access to opportunities and services.

Option schools are another way we can look at balancing demographics. I’d like to see APS double down on making sure all families are aware of options…and figure out ways of doing more intentional outreach to lower-income families and families of color. (more…)

ARLnow Weekend Discussion

By ARLnow.com

It’s a sunny, if a bit chilly end to the work week.

On a more somber note, today is also a day to remember those killed and wounded at Virginia Tech on this day in 2007.

Below are the most-read stories of the past week.

  1. Pie Shop Says Ongoing County Construction Has Cost Them Lots of Dough
  2. Police: Man Tried to Strangle Woman in Attack Near Courthouse
  3. Arlington Public Schools Stays Course with Hybrid Instruction This Spring
  4. Liberty Tavern in Clarendon Vandalized
  5. Police: Woman Danced on Car, Exposed Herself in Crystal City (April 8)
  6. New Developer Takes Over Stalled Ballston Church Redevelopment Plan
  7. Arlington Pauses Use of J&J Vaccine After Federal Warning
  8. Punch Bowl Social to Reopen Next Week
  9. Coronavirus Cases Steady, Full Vaccination Rate Speeds Up

Feel free to discuss any of the above — or anything else of local interest — in a respectful and civil manner, in the comments. Have a relaxing weekend, Arlington.

Flickr pool photo by Kevin Wolf

Ed Talk: The Miseducation of Black Students in Arlington

By Symone Walker

Ed Talk is a biweekly opinion column. The views expressed are solely the author’s.

Esther Cooper started the Arlington branch of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) in 1940 to fight for educational equality of Black students in Arlington Public Schools (APS).

Under her leadership, the NAACP sued the school board challenging the inequalities in the county’s Black high schools. In Carter v. School Board of Arlington Co. (1950), the Fourth Circuit Court of Appeals agreed, ruling that Arlington’s separate high schools constituted unlawful discrimination.

Today, 81 years after Ms. Cooper began her advocacy, 71 years after the Carter decision, and 67 years after Brown v. Board of Education, we still don’t have education parity for Black students, or fully integrated schools.

Over the decades, both the county and the school board have intentionally, through policies and boundaries, kept our neighborhoods and schools segregated. Consequently, Black students have been redlined out of education parity by neighborhood, by school, and by classroom.

Not surprisingly, the academic gap has not closed in decades. In fact, the literacy gap between Black and White students increased within the last decade. The fact is, we have Black students entering high school reading on a third grade level, or below. The inability to master all five pillars of reading (phonics, phonemic awareness, fluency, vocabulary, and comprehension) adversely impacts a student’s ability to access the curriculum in all other content areas, causing the gaps to widen as students “progress” through school.

Through a prolonged practice of social promotion and failing up, APS has a sordid history of graduating generations of Black students who are functionally illiterate. Many of these students grew up in Arlington, attended APS schools, and are now relegated to low-wage jobs — some in the very schools that failed them.

This is the school-to-poverty pipeline.

While there are many Black students who excel academically in APS, there are far too many others who do not. For the 13 years I have lived in Arlington, I haven’t heard any school board members or school board candidates acknowledge this problem, let alone commit to addressing it — not even the ones who purport to be “educators” or feign concern about “equity.” Instead, year-after-year, decade-after-decade, superintendent-after-superintendent, and school board-after-school board, APS continues to fail Black students with impunity.

This miseducation of Black students is the school-to-prison pipeline.

APS is miseducating Black students by under diagnosing learning disabilities and misidentifying them with emotional and intellectual disabilities;

APS is miseducating Black students by failing to utilize the most current and recommended psychological testing for accurate evaluations;

APS is miseducating Black students by under-identifying them for gifted and twice-exceptional (“2e”) services;

APS is miseducating Black students by underfunding training and procurement for evidence-based literacy instruction and intervention;

APS is miseducating Black students by tracking them into low-level courses in pursuit of standard versus advanced diplomas;

APS is miseducating Black students by allowing disparities in opportunities to persist;

APS is miseducating Black students by levying harsher discipline and disproportionate referrals to law enforcement;

APS is miseducating Black students by failing to sufficiently recruit and hire teachers that look like them;

APS is miseducating Black students by perpetuating a culture of low expectations and unchecked bias;

APS is miseducating Black students by downplaying or ignoring acts of racial violence perpetuated against them; and

APS is miseducating Black students by failing to talk about and recon with all of this.

In the 81 years since Esther Cooper commenced her fight for equality for Black students, APS and the school board have dodged accountability and maintained the status quo. How much longer must we wait for them to course correct? How many more generations of Black families will be lost to poverty or prisons in the meantime? APS deserves no more grace. The time for change is now.

Image courtesy of Project DAPS, Arlington Public Library, Community Archives

Symone Walker is an Arlington Public Schools parent and federal attorney. She is an At Large Executive Committee Member of the Arlington NAACP and Co-Chair of the Education Committee. She serves on the Arlington Special Education Advisory Committee, Superintendent’s Advisory Committee for Equity and Excellence, School Resource Officer Working Group, Destination 2027 Task Force, and the Commonwealth Attorney’s Community Advisory Board. She is a former candidate for the Arlington school board.

Morning Poll: Keep Arlington County Board Meetings Virtual?

By ARLnow.com

(Updated at 11 a.m.) After more than a year of online-only Arlington County Board meetings, some have decided they actually prefer it to in-person.

Instead of schlepping to a Courthouse office building and sitting quietly for hours, one can now speak at Board meetings at home, in your pajamas if you prefer. Board meetings have been broadcast on local cable TV and online for years, but the virtual format now provides an opportunity to participate in the meetings to those who cannot attend in person.

Parents who would otherwise have to hire a babysitter in order to attend, for instance, are now more likely to be able to speak at a meeting.

Last May, two months into the pandemic, we asked whether the county should “consider making virtual meetings a more regular feature of citizen participation” after the pandemic. About 73% of more than 900 respondents said yes.

At least one civically-engaged local called keeping Board meetings open to virtual participation after the pandemic “a no-brainer.”

https://twitter.com/CarFreeHQ2/status/1382329999815024642

Of course, there are downsides. Older and disadvantaged residents may lack the technology and/or the know-how to participate in a virtual-only meeting. And there is something to be said for in-person meetings helping to keep elected officials accountable to their constituents.

A hybrid option that allows virtual and in-person participation is an option — in fact, one that the county appears to be pursuing (see below) — though virtual participation could come to be seen as less impactful than speaking at the meeting in person. And it could be more difficult to coordinate the combination of in-person and virtual speakers.

What about streamlining things and making all regularly-scheduled, monthly County Board meetings online-only on a permanent basis after the pandemic, however? Would that be a better idea than a hybrid participation option or the in-person-only way of yore?

Let’s say, for argument’s sake, that in order to facilitate virtual-only meetings, Arlington library branches can open during meetings and offer video conference stations from which library staff can help people speak and participate. And the Board can still hold certain special meetings in person.

What do you think?

Modern Mobility: Five Ways to Build Back Better

By Chris Slatt

Modern Mobility is a biweekly opinion column. The views expressed are solely the author’s.

The County is in the midst of putting together their Capital Improvement Plan (CIP) for the next three years.

This document will determine what projects get built in the near future, from transportation to parks to stormwater infrastructure.

This is an opportunity to reset our priorities and “build back better” to a transportation system that is safe and sustainable.

Arlington’s Capital Improvement Plan should:

  1. Fund Vision Zero

Arlington is expected to adopt their Vision Zero Action Plan later this Spring. The Vision Zero plan envisions a comprehensive, safe-systems approach to identifying the common factors that contribute to Arlington’s severe and fatal crashes and to address those factors systematically.

Safety isn’t sexy, but failing to address it has an immeasurable cost. We need a dedicated pot of money that is always working to address those factors that are contributing to deaths and serious injuries on our streets.

  1. Build out the Bike Network for All-Ages & Abilities

In 2019 Arlington adopted a new vision for biking in Arlington, where biking is “an integral part of Arlington’s equitable, multimodal transportation system and provides safe, reliable, convenient and comfortable travel for persons of all ages and abilities.”

Arlington’s approach to bike infrastructure has largely been an after-thought. Projects are identified for other reasons, and “while we’re at it” we look to see if anything can be accomplished to improve biking as part of the project. This approach will never result in a comprehensive network for all-ages and abilities. We need dedicated funding to tackle the projects that matter most for biking.

  1. Speed up our Transit

Arlington has invested significantly in our bus network over the last 15 years, but those buses often struggle to attract riders when they sit in the same traffic as drivers while also waiting unnecessarily for long, slow boarding processes at each stop. Arlington needs to maximize the return on its transit investment by prioritizing projects that speed up our buses: dedicated bus lanes, transit signal priority, queue jumps and support for all-door boarding.

  1. Safe Routes to Every School

Kids who walk and bike to school arrive happier and more focused. Walking & biking to school fights childhood obesity and raises a new generation that views walking and biking as normal everyday transportation modes. Making sure that kids have a safe route to walk or bike also helps control APS transportation costs and builds community ties. Every place that APS limits a school’s “walk zone” because of a dangerous street or intersection is a failure that needs to be addressed.

  1. Expand & Connect the Trail Network

When Arlington conducted a statistically-valid survey of recreational needs in 2016, paved multi-use trails were ranked the “most needed outdoor facility” with 87% of households indicating a need. Since that time, little progress has been made. The Capital Trails Coalition has laid out a vision for an expanded, interconnected trail system in the DC region. Arlington needs to do its part to see this vision realized by making progress on the Arlington Boulevard Trail and the Cemetery Wall Trail.

Arlington County is seeking input on your priorities for the upcoming Capital Plan. You can weigh-in here through this Friday, April 16th.

Chris Slatt is the current Chair of the Arlington County Transportation Commission, founder of Sustainable Mobility for Arlington County and a former civic association president. He is a software developer, co-owner of Perfect Pointe Dance Studio, and a father of two.

Community Matters: We Have Been Challenged!

By Krysta Jones

Community Matters is a biweekly opinion column. The views expressed are solely the author’s.

Last year I joined a coalition of women’s organizations as a part of Vision 2020, which aims to increase the number of women who participate in the political process by voting and through public service. Vision 2020 had a goal of a record-breaking number of eligible women voting in the November 2020 national elections.

Over the last several months, I have also been engaged in a number of discussions analyzing next steps for women and political participation after the centennial of the 19th amendment. In order to increase the number of registered women across the nation,  women voting advocates in San Francisco, CA have challenged Arlington to participate in a pilot program and develop strategies to register every eligible female Arlington voter.

As a community that values civic participation, we should do more to consider why some decide not to register to vote. We should not congratulate ourselves on a high rate without considering why the people who aren’t registered have decided to opt out of this specific activity.

I would be curious to know whether not registering to vote is a predictor of other behaviors as well, and if these nonvoters have a particular perspective that we don’t generally consider when we focus on soliciting voters’ opinions. I addressed this in an October 2020 column, Community Matters: When “None of the Above” is Your Only Choice.

Arlington County does a great job of providing election information online. The General Assembly has expanded voter access by removing the witness signature requirement, making it easier to vote by mail and early in person absentee. Voter registration is often available at new citizen ceremonies. Organizations like the League of Women Voters of Arlington spend a large proportion of their resources on voter registration.

Despite these successes, we should consider whether we are being unintentionally exclusive.

We should do more to learn about the Arlington residents who are not registered to vote, and determine their concerns. Once we determine what their specific concerns are, we should try to address them. In Arlington, there are approximately 8,000 women who are over 18 and not registered to vote. If they are otherwise not eligible, we should determine that and strategize about how we can remove barriers.

More organizations should include voter registration in their civic engagement efforts. The State Board of Elections has facilitated voter registration training for groups, and provided QR codes for volunteers. We should also continue to diversify outreach efforts, and expand multicultural voter registration efforts.

Organizations should teach their members to address the behavioral barriers cited by nonvoters. Strategies could include discussing the specific impact certain local elected officials have on the issues they care about, as opposed to federal leaders, which are often vilified for partisanship. For those who feel they don’t know the issues well enough to vote, we should solicit their opinion on the key issues, and empower and value their perspective. We should also steer them towards resources which outline the candidates’ platforms.

While voter registration is not compulsory in the US, considering our nation’s history and current actions to suppress voter participation, Arlington should do even more to ensure that we have maximum participation in the electoral process. The work we do in Arlington to register that small remaining number of voters, could assist other localities in increasing voter registration and participation. If you are interested in participating in our pilot challenge program, please email [email protected].

Krysta Jones has lived in Arlington since 2004 and is active in local politics and civic life. This column is in no way associated with or represents any person, government, organization or body — except Krysta herself.

Making Room: County Board, Increase Funding for Housing in the FY22 Budget

By Jane Green

Making Room is a biweekly opinion column. The views expressed are solely the author’s. 

I am proud to be a board member of the Alliance for Housing Solutions, a nonprofit that advocates for affordable housing in Arlington. Below is my own modified and condensed version of the letter AHS sent to the Arlington County Board regarding the FY22 Budget.

During this time, we have become more aware than ever how vitally important a safe and affordable place to call home can be. Today, a home is not only where we rest our heads at night but it is also where children receive much of their education and many adults either work or take refuge from the danger created by this rampant virus.

Arlington expects to receive $46M in federal assistance through the American Rescue Plan. Using these funds, the County Board should make the following changes to the FY22 budget:

Increase Investment in AHIF and Realign Income Levels Served

The Manager’s proposal slashes the total Affordable Housing Investment Fund (AHIF) allocation from last year’s level of $16 million to less than $9 million by cutting out all one-time funds for the program. Funds from the American Rescue Plan should be used as one-time funding to bring AHIF to at least $18.7 million in FY22.

In early 2020 AHS was advocating for a $25 million County allocation to AHIF, a level that is still warranted. Funding received from developer contributions, including the Amazon Metropolitan Park contribution, should not be used as a replacement for ongoing General Fund support.

Furthermore, recent data show that Arlington has a significant shortage of housing options for our lowest-income neighbors. The County should prioritize AHIF funding to include a share of units designated for residents making 30% of AMI, and also to buy down higher priced units within Committed Affordable properties so they are available to residents at the greatest need.

Update the Housing Grants Program for a Post-COVID Environment

The Manager’s proposed budget wisely increases the Housing Grants and Permanent Supportive Housing programs by 26% and 28% respectively, including the continued increase in maximum allowable rents. At a time when many Arlingtonians have dropped into lower income brackets during the pandemic, this increase in tenant-based housing assistance will help cushion that fall for some.

This would be an ideal time for the County to consider what changes it should make to the long-term design and eligibility of the Housing Grants program for post-COVID needs. This should include expanding eligibility within the program to cover additional groups who are currently unable to receive assistance (such as children aging out of foster care).

The County should lower the percent of income paid toward rent from the current 40% of income to a more reasonable 30% of income. Aligning with federal standard of housing affordability would allow very low-income recipients to a larger financial cushion to cover other important and often unpredictable expenses. (more…)

View More Stories