Arlington to Open Housing Voucher Waiting List

The city of Arlington, Virginia will open its housing voucher waiting list to new applicants for the first time since 2012, reports Morgan Baskin in DCist. “On Sept. 13, eligible residents can apply online for a lottery that will select 5,000 people to add to the waiting list. The decision does not reflect any new voucher funding, and the county won’t administer all of those vouchers at once.”

According to Jill Norcross, executive director of the Northern Virginia Affordable Housing Alliance, “The fact that there’ll be a lottery for 5,000 people to get on this waiting list just speaks to the fact that there’s not nearly enough supply of vouchers to meet the demands in Arlington and the rest of the country.”

“One 2021 study on poverty in the county conducted by the Arlington Community Foundation shows that there are more than 8,000 renter households in the county that make less than 30% of the area median income, a metric used by HUD to calculate poverty levels. Of those 8,000-plus households, nearly half are “rent-burdened,” or spending more than one-third of their income on rent.” The study found fewer than 1,600 apartments renting for affordable rates in the area.