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

Need for more housing in latest Metrorail-area plans for Herndon, VA, highlighted in EHI letter printed by Herndon e-journal

EHI's letter of January 16, 2012, calling on the Town of Herndon, VA, to include more housing in the plans for its Metrorail station area along the job-rich Tysons Corner to Dulles Airport corridor in Northern Virginia, has been published by an influential local e-journal. The letter quickly became the "Most Popular" item in the journal and drew a response from, among others, a former head of the Town's Planning Commission.

The letter has been posted (along with EHI's detailed memo in support, and responses to the letter) in the Herndon Patch, at:

http://herndon.patch.com/articles/letter-to-the-editor-herndon-metro-plan-deficient-on-housing. The letter begins:

In addition to the major errors detailed in these pages regarding the Town of Herndon’s traffic planning for the future Metrorail station area, another major error is the woefully inadequate housing planning to accompany the massive, proposed commercial build-up. The results would include more traffic congestion inside and outside the Town and a worsening of Herndon’s already-serious housing shortage. The Town’s upcoming community meeting (Monday evening, January 23) is an opportunity for citizens concerned about good planning to make their views known. 

Herndon’s housing planning violates legal requirements and the basic recommendations of the authoritative George Mason University Center for Regional Analysis. In addition to increasing traffic, Herndon’s planning would increase long-distance commutes, suburban sprawl, excessive and unstable housing prices, and more poverty and homelessness in the area. Some current Town residents predictably would be pushed out through increased gentrification.

The memo gives detailed data and sources for the statements in the letter. The important, new

George Mason University (GMU) study mentioned above is posted at:

http://66.147.244.232/~lifeats1/cra/pdfs/studies_reports_presentations/Housing__the_Regions_Workforce_Oct_2011.pdf  (Oct. 25, 2011). Herndon and other jurisdictions throughout the Washington metropolitan area rely on GMU for expert housing analysis.

EHI's comments concern the latest consultants’ planning proposal to the Town for that Metrorail station area (Draft #3, Dec. 14, 2011) (posted at http://www.herndon-va.gov/Content/Zoning/Comprehensive_Planning/Metrorail/default.aspx). (That station area is on the North side of the future Herndon/Reston West station.) That proposal recommends planning initially for a much smaller station area, with less new development, compared to its previous proposal. The previous proposal was approved by the Town’s Planning Commission (PC) in early October. On October 28. EHI commented to the Town Council on the deficient housing planning in that proposal. (To read that letter, CLICK HERE.) (To read EHI's previous letter (January 27, 2011) to the PC on the need for much more housing in that area, CLICK HERE. )

The Council returned the PC’s October proposal to it in early November for further study, specifically noting major underestimates regarding traffic impacts of that proposal. The Council has tentatively scheduled another public hearing on the Metrorail plan for Feb. 14, 2012, after receiving the PC’s revised proposal.  
 

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.) Housing development along that corridor – already seriously lagging behind job creation -- will fall far short of the needs of the great influx of workers, under current projections. The predictable results would include much more sprawl, traffic congestion, excessive housing prices, and related problems. Reston and the Town of Herndon are planning for a total of somewhere around 80,000 new jobs by 2030.

The Reston Task Force is planning the station areas on both the North and South sides of two future stations (Wiehle Avenue and Reston Town Center) and the South side of the future Herndon/Reston West station. The “station areas” consist of the land within approximately one-half mile of each Metrorail station.

When EHI got involved early this year, the basic jobs-housing mix under discussion was the County planning staff’s framework. It would have provided for about 30,000 new workers, but 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). (The appropriate jobs-housing ratio for a community, according to the American Planning Association, generally includes about one housing unit for every 1.5 jobs in the community.)

EHI’s comments to the Task Force in March and April (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, 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 140% increase in housing, and Scenario 2 would involve more than a 450% increase in housing, compared with the original framework (based on the County's figures as amended on November 10). The second scenario actually might reduce the total number of Reston workers who would have to commute from elsewhere. The projected 1.45:1 jobs-housing ratio is slightly better than the typical ratio of workers per household in the Washington metropolitan area. The jobs-housing ratio in Reston overall would be reduced dramatically, to about 2:1 from the current 3:1, under the second scenario.

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