Real Estate
This map shows the additional households Amazon’s headquarters is expected to bring to the Washington, D.C., region.
Net household gain related to HQ2:
Numbers include households with direct or indirect/ induced jobs.
complexes that used to be afford- able to middle- and lower-income folks are now being gentrified and upgraded.” In Alexandria, only 7 percent
of privately owned apartment buildings were considered afford- able to families earning 60 percent of the area’s median income, which stood at $117,200 last year. A report by the Arlington-
based Stephen S. Fuller Institute at George Mason University says Amazon’s arrival will have minimal impact on the region’s housing stock and affordability. The tech giant’s move likely
Amazon’s impact The scarcity of affordable
housing is not a new issue in Virginia, but it’s become a hot topic since Amazon announced plans to locate half of its second headquarters, known as HQ2, in Arlington and Alexandria. The move will bring $2.5 billion in investment to the area and 25,000 jobs over 12 years paying annual salaries averaging $150,000. The project also is expected
to attract more people to a region
that lacks enough affordable hous- ing. The number of affordable units in Arlington and Alexandria has fallen dramatically in recent years despite efforts to boost the number of apartments reserved for lower- and middle-income tenants. “We’re seeing a rapid disap-
pearance of what we call market affordable housing,” says Nina Janopaul, CEO of the Arlington Partnership for Affordable Housing. “The older apartment
will raise home sales and rental prices but only slightly above increases that would occur if it didn’t locate in the region, according to the study. Amazon’s presence will boost housing demand, the report says, but that increase will be gradual and many of the company workers will settle throughout the region instead of concentrating in one area. These projec-
Winters
tions, however, are irrelevant because the affordable hous- ing problem already exists, says Michelle McDonough Winters, executive
director for the nonprofit Alliance for Housing Solutions, which works to increase the supply of affordable housing in Northern Virginia. “It’s going to add to the
demand, so we need to add to our supply and … our policy toolbox to address these issues,” she says. In connection with the
Arlington Partnership for Affordable Housing’s Nina Janopaul says the
Washington, D.C., region’s lack of reasonably priced housing has become a “dire crisis.”
Amazon announcement, the Virginia Housing Development Authority has pledged to provide an additional $15 million per year to the region for affordable workforce housing. Details on how the money will be used and distributed are still in the works. Alexandria expects to spend
at least $8 million annually on affordable housing during the
48 | FEBRUARY 2019 Photo by Stephen Gosling
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