For the first time in over a decade, Arlington County will open the waitlist for its Housing Choice Voucher Program, a subsidy program that pays a portion of low-income residents’ rents.
An application for the program will be available online from 8 a.m. September 13 to 11:59 p.m. September 23. Interested families can sign up during the application period, then the county will select 5,000 residents to be placed on the waitlist through a lottery system.
The program will give priority to the following applicants:
- Applicants who live or work in Arlington County;
- Unhoused or houseless individuals;
- Victims of domestic violence;
- People with disabilities who would qualify under the Olmstead Act;
- Disabled households that qualify for Permanent Supportive Housing.
The HCV, formerly called Section 8, is a federally funded program aimed at helping low-income families, senior citizens, and people with disabilities afford housing in the private market. In order to qualify, households must earn below 50 percent of the area median income.
Participants must also be U.S. citizens, U.S. nationals, or “a non-citizen with documented and eligible immigration status.”
Under this program, residents selected off the waitlist to receive a voucher will find a place to live where the property owner agrees to rent under this program. The county will determine whether the rent at that location is reasonable and ensure that it meets the housing quality standards and will then pay a housing subsidy directly to the property owner. The renter will be responsible for paying the remainder of the rent.
This program is just one element in an ongoing effort to mitigate the high cost of living in Arlington.
According to Zillow, the median rent in Arlington is $2,695 per month overall, a slight decline from 2022. That’s $2,308 per month for a one-bedroom property, $2,972 per month for a two-bedroom property, and $3,675 per month for a three-bedroom property.
Many apartment complexes in Arlington have committed affordable units for income-eligible renters, though those units often have waiting lists, according to Arlington’s Affordable Units website.
In March, the Arlington County Board unanimously approved a series of new zoning ordinances and land use plan amendments related to the Missing Middle Housing Study, which now allow multi-family units in areas that were previously only zoned for single-family households.
The county also provides housing grants that are available for income-eligible residents who are 65 or older, have permanent disabilities, are working families with at least one child, or are part of a county-supported mental health program.
And affordable housing is an issue impacting all of Northern Virginia. In 2021, one in five families in Northern Virginia did not earn enough money to cover the basic cost of living, including housing costs, food, and medical care, according to a 2023 study from the Community Foundation of Northern Virginia.
In a summit of elected leaders held in Ballston last month, leaders representing Prince William, Fairfax, and Loudoun counties and the City of Alexandria identified affordable housing as a high priority issue in the region.
Feature image by stock.adobe.com
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