The Equitable Housing Institute (EHI) (formerly known as the Center for Social Welfare Under the American Constitutions (CSWAC)) is a charitable, legal services organization that provides educational resources and “impact” legal services to reduce homelessness and poverty in the United States, by increasing affordable housing opportunities. Its central strategy is to eliminate the legal rules that are major barriers to needed affordable housing in many parts of America.

Those legal rules often are called “regulatory barriers to affordable housing” (RBAHs) or "exclusionary housing policies." Regulatory barriers are “among the principal culprits behind the nation’s persistent affordability problems” (in the words of the Harvard University Joint Center for Housing Studies). Among the common regulatory barriers are exclusionary zoning ordinances, unjustified taxes, fees, exactions, and subdivision requirements for affordable housing developments.  For a further introduction to the issues, please see "Regulatory barriers and EHI -- Summary."

RECENT EHI DEVELOPMENTS

Herndon Town Council preserves possibility of adequate housing near planned, job-rich Metrorail station, as urged by EHI

Up to 13,425 new employees will be working in the 38-acre core area adjacent to the Town of Herndon’s Metrorail station in Northern Virginia by 2030, under planning recommendations adopted by Herndon’s Town Council (4-3), on February 28, 2012. However, the Council also voted (4-3) to hold off rezoning that area to permit the necessary redevelopment, until it sets a policy as to how properties outside that core, but within the original, 183-acre study area, may redevelop later.

The February 28 action preserves, at least temporarily, the possibility that an adequate amount of housing will be permitted within a reasonable distance from that 38-acre core. EHI has been urging that the Town plan for more housing in conjunction with that commercial build-up.

More than three times as many people work in the Town as it has housing units (a ratio of 3.25:1 as of early 2008). By contrast, the generally recommended target standard for a community is one housing unit for every 1.5 jobs there, according to a recent American Planning Association (APA) advisory. APA Advisory Service Report 516, Jobs-Housing Balance, p 4 (2003), posted at: http://www.planning.org/pas/reports/subscribers/pdf/PAS516.pdf.

Housing generally is in short supply in Northern Fairfax County, and in Northern Virginia generally, compared with the usually robust job market. The predictable results of continued, predominantly commercial development in Herndon would include more excessive housing prices, sprawl, traffic congestion, and related problems.

It is far from clear that enough Council members will vote to permit a significant amount of housing the outer 145-acre area, compared with job growth. However, EHI will continue to monitor developments there.

READ MORE . . .  

New George Mason University report finds housing

planning insufficient in Washington metropolitan area

The George Mason University Center for Regional Analysis (“GMU”), whose research on housing needs is  relied on by local jurisdictions in the Washington metropolitan area, has issued a new housing report. (GMU, Housing the Region’s Future Workforce (Oct. 25, 2011); posted at: http://cra.gmu.edu/. See also GMU’s presentation to the Reston Task Force, (Jan. 24, 2012), using the same figures. That presentation is posted at: http://www.fairfaxcounty.gov/dpz/projects/reston/presentations/01-24-2012_tf_housing_workforce.pdf.)

GMU draws the following policy conclusions from its analysis of past and projected job and housing growth in the Washington metropolitan area:

1. Local jurisdictions are planning for an insufficient amount of housing to accommodate future workers.
2. More housing is needed closer to jobs, in existing and growing regional employment centers.
3. There is a need for more multi-family housing and smaller, more affordable owner and renter homes in the region. 
4. A lack of a sufficient supply of housing contributes to worsening traffic and quality of life and threatens our region’s economic vitality.

GMU’s report documents that the Washington region has not been producing nearly enough housing over the last 20 years to keep up with job growth in a responsible manner. Among the jurisdictions that have fallen well short is Fairfax County, VA -- which has been EHI’s initial local focus, because its office is located there.

READ MORE . . .

Reston, VA, considers much more housing for its Metrorail station areas, following EHI input

Reston, VA, also is planning for several future Metrorail stations in the new Dulles Rail Corridor. (A map of that rail corridor is posted at: http://www.dullesmetro.com/stations/index.cfm.) Reston lies just East of Herndon. Reston is planning for both sides of two stations (currently named the Wiehle Avenue and Reston Town Center stations), plus the South side of the Herndon/Reston West station. It currently is planning for a total of about 42,000 new jobs in those areas by 2030.

Housing development in Reston and the rest of the Dulles Rail Corridor already lags seriously behind job creation and will fall far short of the needs of the great influx of workers that is predicted, even under currently reduced job projections.

When EHI became actively involved, early in 2011, the basic jobs-housing mix under discussion was the County planning staff’s framework, which projected about 30,000 new workers and less than 8,000 new housing units by 2030. That would result in a jobs-housing ratio for new development that is much higher than the current ratio in Reston overall (at least 3.75:1, versus the current 3:1). (Again, the generally recommended target standard for a community is one housing unit for every 1.5 jobs there, according to the recent American Planning Association (APA) advisory mentioned above, in the Herndon article.)

EHI’s comments to the Task Force in March and April, 2011 (see March 7 Reston letter and April 20 Reston letter) seemed to help focus support among Task Force members for including more housing. On November 1, 2011, the Task Force voted to send two development scenarios to Fairfax County agencies for impact analysis. Both scenarios presuppose much more housing, and better jobs-housing ratios, than the original framework.

Scenario 1 would involve more than a 100% increase in housing (16,739 new units), and Scenario 2 would involve more than a 400% increase in housing (40,067 new units), compared with the original framework (based on the County's figures as amended on December 1, 2011, posted at http://www.fairfaxcounty.gov/dpz/projects/reston/documents_reference/jobs_housing_2_scenarios.pdf). The second scenario actually might reduce the total number of Reston workers who would have to commute from elsewhere. The jobs-housing ratio in Reston overall would be improved substantially under that scenario, to about 2:1 from the current 3:1.

EHI very much hopes that Scenario 2 survives the County’s impact analysis and that such a residentially-intensive option is adopted. We will continue to monitor Reston’s planning process. For further information on the Reston planning scenarios, CLICK HERE.  

Deficient housing planning for Fort Belvoir and other Fairfax
County growth areas documented by EHI law clerks

EHI was fortunate to have five excellent law clerks this summer. Two of them -- Alyssa DiGiacinto (George Mason University School of Law, Class of 2013) and Sara Tonnesen (Georgetown University Law Center. Class of 2013) -- focused on local regulatory barriers issues. Among their many contributions:

• Ms. Tonnesen produced an extensive report on the Fort Belvoir area of Fairfax County, where the Army base is undergoing a major personnel buildup that is adding to the serious housing affordability challenges in the area; and
• Ms. DiGiacinto provided helpful facts and figures on jobs and housing units in the nearby Springfield area of the County.

Due largely to their efforts, EHI now has a detailed knowledge of current planning and zoning throughout Fairfax County, and it has advised affordable housing advocates in the Fort Belvoir area and elsewhere about causes of, and cures for, their affordable housing challenges.

Fort Belvoir issues

Fort Belvoir, an Army base in southern Fairfax County, is adding a new hospital and numerous new defense-related facilities, as a result of the 2005 Base Realignment and Closure Act (BRAC). That buildup includes not only a net increase of some 19,300 personnel – most of them civilian workers -- but also many new businesses and workers that will provide services to those personnel.

Virtually no new housing is being planned for the civilian workers by either the Army or the County, however -- even though the Fort Belvoir area has been plagued by excessive housing costs since long before the buildup. With Ms. Tonnesen’s help, EHI has documented that that area (the “Fort Belvoir Census-Designated Place”) has markedly less median household income and greater rent burdens than Fairfax County as a whole. (There are no reported homeowners in that area!)

And in Southern Fairfax County overall (the Lee, Mount Vernon, and Springfield Supervisory Districts). the overwhelming majority of rental households that earn less than $75,000 annually pay excessive housing costs (more than 30% of household income). The growing affordable housing shortage in the Fort Belvoir area seems strongly related to the well-documented and growing shortage in Fairfax County overall and in surrounding jurisdictions. Strong efforts are needed in all local jurisdictions to remove regulatory barriers such as those created by failure to plan and zone for sufficient housing -- especially housing affordable to the increasing numbers of low-and moderate-income workers.

 EHI completes initial survey of key statutory efforts nationwide,
as summer law clerks report on California and Oregon

Two other EHI summer law clerks -- Joanna Funke (George Washington University Law School,

Class of 2013) and Sarah Franz (George Mason University School of Law, Class of 2013) –

wrote extensive analyses of statutory efforts in California and Oregon, respectively, to

control regulatory barriers to affordable housing. Their outstanding work puts EHI in a

position to evaluate key statutory efforts across the United States and make recommendations

for improvement. For a summary of their findings -- and those of Advisory Committee member Prof. William A. Fischel on Oregon -- please click on the following hyperlinks:

• California
• Oregon

The clerks’ work builds on extensive written reports by EHI law clerks in summer 2010, on

relevant statutory approaches in key Eastern and Midwestern states -- Massachusetts, New

Jersey, Connecticut, Illinois, and Houston, Texas – as well as the recent federal statute

that prohibits exclusionary zoning regarding religious buildings (including homeless

shelters and affordable housing for low-income people). For a summary of those reports, please click on he following hyperlinks: 

• Massachusetts
• New Jersey
• Connecticut
• Illinois
• Houston, Texas
• Religious Land Use Act

 EHI continues to believe that effective legislation will be crucial to widespread

elimination of regulatory barriers in the foreseeable future, and it plans to publish a

comprehensive analysis of legislative approaches to date. No such comprehensive document has

been published as yet.

 EHI issues advisory to minority group representatives on importance
of monitoring local zoning and planning activities

Based on an excellent report by law clerk Vivianette Velazquez (American University

Washington College of Law, Class of 2013), EHI distributed a memorandum to minority group

representatives in the Washington metropolitan area in September. It explains the importance

of current local government zoning and planning activities to future housing opportunities

for minority group members -- who are affected disproportionately by inadequate supplies of

low- and moderate-income housing. As the memorandum’s Executive Summary puts it:

Housing opportunities for minority group members often are greatly restricted by regulatory barriers to affordable housing, most of them imposed by local governments. Even where local politicians favor more affordable housing, and even where they may have enacted numerous affordable housing programs, local planning, zoning, and housing policies can result in less affordable housing overall. This is especially true in suburban areas, where most jobs now are located, and where most new jobs are being created.

Minority groups cannot rely on Fair Housing statutes and enforcement programs to eliminate those regulatory barriers generally. That is because those barriers result from facially neutral regulations and policies that tend to discriminate against all low- and moderate-income people, regardless of race, national origin, etc. Such discrimination generally has not been prohibited by American law. However, it has a much greater impact on minority groups than on the overall population.

To the extent possible, minority group representatives should be aware of -- and involved in – local planning, zoning and housing proceedings that may affect their members. This memorandum explains:

• how regulatory barriers restrict housing opportunities for low- and moderate-income people generally;
• how those barriers impact minority groups disproportionately; and
• how minority groups may get more deeply involved in shaping housing-related regulation in their local communities.

EHI Advisory Committee member Thomas B. Reston, former Chair of the Board of Directors of the

Mexican-American Legal Defense and Education Fund (MALDEF), was instrumental in providing EHI with contacts among representatives of Latino groups. EHI now is meeting with minority group representatives to determine how to address regulatory barriers, beginning with inadequate housing planning.

EHI recognition dinner celebrates highly successful summer law clerk program

For details and photos, CLICK HERE.

EHI's letter on jobs/housing imbalances as major reason for escalating rents is published by Washington Post

On Dec. 26, 2010, the Washington Post published a letter by EHI's President, Thomas A. Loftus, summarizing EHI's position that the imbalance between jobs and housing units in the Washington, DC, area is a major cause of the escalating rents there. The published version is available on the Post's website -- CLICK HERE. To read EHI's slightly re-edited version, CLICK HERE.

Equitable Housing Institute

P.O. Box 1402

Vienna, VA  22183