Here comes the conundrum for affordable housing in Falls Church and in many communities like it across the nation: Who is this for, ultimately?
If we are proposing to offer affordable housing to anyone whose income parameters match the requirements in the ordinance, then it is equally available to whomever applies whether or not they meet any other criteria, like length of years living in the community or proof of employment in the jurisdiction. Without identifying these or related measures of connection to a community, then the reward afforded that person is devoid of any distinguishing criteria whatsoever.
If this is the case, then, what becomes the criteria for selecting one person over another if more than one qualifies for the same space? Can criteria be applied after the fact?
These are among the important questions which the whole issue of affordable housing raises for all of us.
If the issue is to provide so-called workforce housing, then criteria such as the nature of the employment, as a teacher in the local school system or other factors, come into play. Can the City set such standards for employment or can’t they? It seems to us that it will be important to any community offering breaks on housing rates that these kinds of questions get answers before rather than after the fact.
It seems to us that the issue of affordable housing, as critical as it is, needs to be applied across the board to everyone in a given community. We are not sure that what has been set as standards have as yet been adequately addressed.
The only real solution is a comprehensive one that sets as its goal housing for all. It will be a measure that will be a challenge for any community to live up to, and few can be counted on to be satisfied with however this challenge gets addressed.
We face as a nation perhaps our biggest challenge in the achievement of equity and the universality of our housing options. We are confronting a need greater than any we’ve been challenged as yet to address, and sweeping universal remedies are likely the only ones that will actually work.
The bolder the solutions, the actually more likely they are to succeed. The single biggest factor will remain a generosity of spirit, an approach to affordability that succeeds in bringing our widely disparate neighborhoods together.
Does this mean that we go more socialistic as a culture? What is wrong with that? We feel so nervous about words that lack real meaning. Is there anywhere in the U.S. where we would be more likely to find an overriding value system? We are pragmatists above all, and that phrase is the one we need to better understand.
