Loudoun County adopts Regional Fair Housing Plan
By Tabitha Reeves
Noting patterns racial segregation in neighborhoods across the county, as well as corresponding wealth distributions and access to quality education, Loudoun County has resolved to take a more aggressive stance towards furthering fair housing by passing the Metropolitan Washington Council of Governments’ Regional Fair Housing Plan.
At the Public Hearing on June 14, the motion to approve the plan passed 7-0-2, with County Chair Phyllis J. Randall (D-At Large) and Supervisor Matthew F. Letourneau (R-Dulles) off the dais.
To accomplish the ultimate impact of reducing perceived inequalities, the draft outlines seven action items, which include meeting the target of 16,000 affordable homes in Loudoun, as well as implementing anti-discriminatory procedures to prevent bias towards marginalized groups when renting, selling or buying homes.
“This right here is what ‘woke’ and ‘equity’ means,” Supervisor Michael R. Turner (D-Ashburn) said. “It’s an acknowledgement that for three centuries we have built processes, programs and systems with a sometimes intentional, but often unintentional, bias in those programs that disenfranchise certain Americans of certain demographic groups.”
Loudoun was the first to approve the plan for regional fair housing, but seven surrounding jurisdictions – Washington, D.C., Alexandria, Gaithersburg and the counties of Arlington, Fairfax, Montgomery and Prince William – are expected to follow suit in July.
“The last few years have been the first concerted effort for regions to come together based on a lot of the similarities and challenges that we face,” John Hall, director of Housing & Community Development, said. “It’s a voluntary activity to come together and streamline our resources to get the biggest bang for our buck.”
Prior to the motion’s passing, Supervisor Tony R. Buffington (R-Blue Ridge) expressed hesitation about the potential expenses and financial weight of the plan.
“Doing the affordable housing, which I very much support, costs money,” Buffington said. “It’s subsidized housing. Somebody’s paying for that. I want to make sure that we’re doing our fair share, but I also want to make sure that surrounding jurisdictions are doing their fair share.”
Though the Housing & Community Development staff did not have the exact spending distribution during the Public Hearing, Buffington asked them to provide the Board with those numbers via email later on.
The goal of 16,000 affordable units is expected to be met by both building new homes and enforcing affordability for what the county already has.
According to data from the American Community Survey’s five-year estimates for Loudoun County, the county has almost 140,000 total dwelling units, 52.7% of which are detached single-family homes. 29.9% are attached single-family homes, such as townhouses. The remaining 17.4% of dwelling places have more than one housing unit per structure, or are mobile homes and vehicles.
“We want to create more rooftops across the county, but we also want to give residents more options to live in various parts of the county,” Hall said.
13% of residents of the eight jurisdictions reported having faced monetary, racial or ethnic discrimination personally, according to the enclosed report within the Regional Fair Housing Plan. An additional 9.2% responded that though they had not experienced discrimination, they knew someone who had.
Of those who said they had been discriminated against, 75% did not report the incident. Over half of those chose not to report it because they did not believe it would make a difference.
“[The plan] doesn’t mean a handout,” Turner said. “It doesn’t mean you identify these groups and give them things simply because they’re in that demographic group.”
The accelerated push for equitable housing in the Washington Metropolitan Area comes shortly after the United States Department of Housing and Urban Development’s January proposal to “affirmatively further the purposes and policies of the Fair Housing Act.”
The Fair Housing Act of 1968 promised to eliminate discriminatory barriers in the housing system, but has faced widespread criticism that it failed to do so. HUD, under the Biden Administration, is attempting to fulfill that promise once again.
Loudoun awaits the approval of the remaining jurisdictions before a final version of the Regional Fair Housing Plan can be sent to HUD this fall and next steps can begin.
“If people don’t have a roof over their head, nothing else really matters,” Supervisor Juli E. Briskman (D-Algonkian) said.
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