Dear Friends,

September has been a busy month: the Board held a work session on planning for Langston Boulevard's future, opened our housing choice voucher program to those interested in low and moderate-income rental housing, and put out for application our food security mini-grants, and economic innovation grant program. We also brought online a new resource for responding to homelessness, worked on strengthening our economy, and took significant steps on our environment.
The staff of Chagra Grill on Langston Boulevard with John Foti and me. Chagra is great food & is donating part of its proceeds to After School Enrichment Matters, a fund serving Title 1 schools in Arlington. Learn more or donate: After School Enrichment Matters [ASEM] - Arlington Community Foundation (arlcf.org) ([link removed])
On September 12th and September 28th, we took significant steps in the work to plan Langston Boulevard's future via a County Board work session and the publication of the initial draft of Plan Langston Boulevard that will be considered via a request to advertise, our means of presenting a plan for consideration by the Board and community. Over the coming weeks before the end of the year, the County Board will debate and approve a plan to improve Langston Boulevard and the numerous neighborhoods along it.

The Plan focuses on improving sustainability, environmental resilience, and equity. These overall goals are explained in detail in the first full draft of the plan that will be considered by the Board, which can be found here: Plan Langston Boulevard – Official Website of Arlington County Virginia Government (arlingtonva.us) ([link removed]) ) ([link removed]) . The plan will be considered by the Board in two stages, first at the October County Board meeting and then later in November for final approval.

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To learn about the County Board's work on Langston Boulevard, watch this video. The first 20 minutes includes a summary of the major issues involved in re-visioning Langston Boulevard as a green main street.

The work on housing also continues with the opening of our Housing Choice Voucher list to allow for new families and individuals to be considered for federally funded support for rental housing. Opening the waitlist gives people a chance to apply for the federally funded rental assistance program for the first time in over a decade. Once the application period closes, a lottery will be conducted to select 5,000 applicants to go on the HCV program waitlist.

As vouchers become available, they will be awarded to qualifying households on the waiting list, who can then secure housing using the vouchers. This is an important step the County is taking to use federal funding. To learn more, go here: Arlington to Add Thousands to Housing Choice Voucher Program Waitlist (govdelivery.com) ([link removed])

On homelessness, the County launched a new mobile outreach group that will help address some of the concerns with mental health leading to incarceration. This is a welcome and important step: MOST, a New Mobile Outreach Team, Launches July 31 (govdelivery.com) ([link removed])
Joe Wholey passed away this past month. Mr. Wholey was a visionary County Board Member, founder of the Arlington Partnership for Affordable Housing, a leader on transit-oriented development, and a mentor.
The work on hunger and food security continued this month: we published a notice of funding available for $150K in mini-grants designed to encourage local efforts to realize Arlington's Food Security Strategic Plan. Non-profit organizations and faith-based institutions are eligible. To learn more, go here: Notice of Funding Availability: Food Security Mini-Grants (govdelivery.com) ([link removed]) There is much more to do in this area, but the mini-grants are an opportunity for efforts that are designed to address demonstrated needs.
With Emily Gage, Executive Director of Phoenix Bikes. To learn more about how this organization engages young Arlingtonians, go here: Phoenix Bikes – Phoenix Bikes ([link removed])
On our economy, we continued our work over the past two months, announcing our All in Arlington campaign to boost tourism. Tourism has been a critical source of growth in our recovery over the last two years and will be important over the years to come The Board also approved a significant new housing and hotel development in Clarendon, and announced that we are accepting applications for our Innovation Fund through October 20th. Go here to learn more or apply: Arlington Innovation Fund Arlington, Virginia (arlingtoneconomicdevelopment.com) ([link removed]) The approval of the building in Clarendon and other County Board actions are described here: County Board Wrap-Up Media Release for September 2023 Meeting (govdelivery.com) ([link removed])

To watch a short video regarding our efforts to bring visitors to Arlington to further strengthen our tourism sector, watch this video:
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Watch this short 30 second video on All in Arlington, our marketing campaign to accelerate tourism to visit here and help drive our economy.
On our environment, we finished the Cardinal elementary vault for stormwater mitigation this month and celebrated the completion of our work on the Ballston Pond ( Arlington Activates Two New Safeguards in Fight Against Flooding (govdelivery.com) ([link removed]) ) As a community, we also retained our status as a LEED Platinum community (Arlington County Remains at Highest Green Building Status (govdelivery.com) ([link removed]) ), which only 2 other communities in the country have achieved. Much more to do for our environment, but we should be proud of the work we have done.

Working to serve you well,

Matt

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