My fellow Young Democrats-

Happy Asian American & Pacific Islander Heritage Month! With the amount of anti-AAPI hate speech that has surrounded this pandemic, it is crucial that we continue to uplift and celebrate our neighbors in the AAPI community. We here in the Arlington Young Democrats are very happy to be doing that this month and every month.

So in that spirit, I want to talk about a specific issue for the AAPI community here in Arlington County: Housing.

If you haven’t seen it already, the Asian Civic Engagement (ACE) Collaborative has been organizing in Arlington County with their campaign called, “Stop the Push Out.” The basis of this campaign is the fact that a large percentage of AAPI people are being forced out of the area due to rising rents in anticipation of the arrival of Amazon HQ2 and loss of work due to the COVID-19 pandemic. In some cases, rents have doubled. In other cases, people have lost work, which leads to missing rent payments, which leads to evictions.

We are facing two crises simultaneously: the COVID-19 Crisis and the eviction crisis. The COVID-19 Crisis has been a catalyst for a lot of negative changes in our area, but the eviction crisis has been here for a long time. The fact is that the rising high cost of living in the Arlington County area met with stagnant wages as well as the lack of an adequate increase in the minimum wage has forced a lot of people out of their homes. It’s caused many to move out further into Virginia, going as far as Fredericksburg and Stafford in some cases.

Arlington County is a prime example of the discrepancies between affordability and affordable housing in Virginia, and how the market does not even out with more density just on its own. According to a study by the Economic Policy Institute, a family of four would need to earn a total of $9,493 per month, or about $113,915 per year, to live in Arlington comfortably. Single Arlingtonians, though, have to make $56,221 annually to live comfortably — only $11,619 less than a couple without children does ($67,840). For individuals and couples to access affordable housing, it is reasonably easy comparatively for individuals and couples without children: $68,000 maximum income for individuals and $77,680 for couples. A family of three can have a max income of $87,360 (only $9680 above the 2 person household) and a family of four can have a max income of $97,040 (only $19,360 above the two person household). The reason for these constraints is that there simply is not enough supply to meet the needs of affordable housing in Arlington.

More density in housing would presumably lead to affordable housing. However, since Virginia is such a hot destination to live in, relying on the marketplace to even itself out does not apply here since landlords and property owners will maintain high costs because supply is not able to meet overall demand. Many people are forced to choose lower housing costs in exchange for longer commute times. This is problematic especially for those who are trying to live and work in the same area.

In some cases, tenants are being forced out of affordable housing due to corporations buying up property and trying to gentrify the area. If you have followed the fight at Southern Towers in Alexandria, you will note that even in cases of affordable housing, evictions are still possible. Last year at the start of the pandemic, the tenants at Southern Towers, many of whom are immigrants, were hit extremely hard. A large number of tenants are employees at DCA Airport and when flights were grounded last year, many of them lost their jobs. When wages were gone, that meant rent payments were missed, some for the first time in over 20 years. And when those rent payments were missed, eviction notices were posted.

Shortly after, the tenants began to organize a rent strike because their mentality was “No Work, No Rent.” Instead of working out a system to keep these tenants housed, the property management company began to withhold services from their tenants like custodial services and maintenance requests. Now, management has doubled rents, some going from $1600/month to $3000/month so that they can turn the old units into luxury apartments in anticipation of incoming employees for, you guessed it, Amazon HQ2. These tenants have been organizing a tenant union because they deserve to be protected and need the power of the collective in order to do that.

So what does this all mean? A few things here in Virginia

1. We need to look again at our zoning laws. Too many times, exclusionary zoning gets in the way of our housing stock. Many Not In My BackYard (NIMBY) advocates will tell you that they need to “maintain the character of their neighborhoods'' and upzoning areas will bring down their property values. However, there are ways to do this, like developing duplexes and quadplexes, so the structures of the houses remain the same, but the number of units increases. These increases should also keep in mind their proximity to major mass transportation hubs like Metro Stations, bus stops, Virginia Railway Express stations, Amtrak stations, and other mass transit stations for all new development. When you increase the housing stock, rents will plummet, making housing more affordable. By making things more affordable, we can allow for people to live and work in the same area.

2. We need to permit Accessory Dwelling Units on properties as well. This will help increase our stock, while helping young professionals be able to afford temporary housing on someone’s property or in some cases, allow for elderly people to age in place with their families.

3. Virginia must reinstate the proffer system to its full capacity to allow localities to be able to ask large scale developers to either set aside a percentage of their units for affordable housing or give a cash payment of an equal cost to the Virginia housing trust fund depending upon the size of their project.

4. We need to retrofit commercial buildings to be residential. Right now, Arlington County has upwards of a 20% vacancy rate for commercial buildings. If we were able to turn those into affordable housing units, people would be housed and we wouldn’t need to build more to do so.

5. We need to do more than eviction moratoria. Moratoria are temporary. Protections last longer. A Federal Judge recently vacated the COVID-19 eviction moratorium putting many people in danger of being forced out of their homes. If we increase tenant protections, enact legislation for a Virginia Tenant Bill of Rights that allows tenants the right to organize for safety and security in their homes while keeping in mind good landlords, we can create a Housing for All system that doesn’t force people out on the street. Right now, there are more empty houses than homeless people, so supply is not always the issue. It’s the systems we put in place to house these people that are the issue.

There is so much more work to be done on this issue. But I want to close by asking you to take action with ACE Collaborative. They are asking that changes be made to the Housing Grants program. The burden on our communities continues to increase with no relief in sight. Asian American needs are invisibilized, creating many disadvantages for those facing challenges and forcing our communities to suffer in silence.

While community members meet the current income limit requirements for the Housing Grants program, the difference between the allowable rent for the program and the actual average rent in Arlington do not match. They are asking that the Arlington County Board increase eligibility and funding so that low-income working class people can remain in Arlington.

So please sign their petition and reach out to the Arlington County Board to help these AAPI folks.

And don’t forget to attend our local election debate this Sunday at 6PM - 8PM where we will be hearing from the candidates for County Board and School Board.

And in the spirit of AAPI Heritage Month, please join us on May 19 to celebrate our AAPI members and community members.

Stay well and keep the faith,

Matt Royer