I write in support of the recommendations of the Missing Middle Housing Study. Additionally, I strongly urge the Board to take policy and other actions to support the potential for these housing units to be purchased by their residents.

The study’s recommendations strike a fair balance between the need to address the growing housing affordability crisis in Arlington and the desire of some residents to not see their neighborhoods’ built form change dramatically. Permitting the same scale of building as is currently allowed, while letting the design of that building provide housing for more than one family will allow more people to call Arlington home and help to bend the trajectory of unaffordability that plagues our housing market. I believe this is solid public policy, helping to make the benefits of life in our community more equitably available, and countering the trend toward the creation of a two-tiered community.

We have lived in Arlington since 2005, right after college. My now wife and I fell in love with Arlington’s diversity and energy, its walkable, bikeable, transit friendly accessibility, good schools, plentiful parks, and so much more. We rented a mid-rise apartment in an older building on Columbia Pike for more than a dozen years. We had our first child there and saved in the hopes of buying a home in the neighborhood.

Happily, in 2019 we were able to buy a small two-bedroom townhouse. Also, happily, we welcomed a second child soon thereafter. Now, we find ourselves in a situation that many of our friends who have left Arlington faced: We need a bit more space. But there are few housing options that offer a bit more space at a bit more cost. The next step up is almost exclusively a single-family home. We don’t need that much precious Arlington land. We would be very happy with a slightly larger townhouse, duplex, triplex, etc. But, sadly, too few of those in-between options exist. As a result the jump in cost is too much, and we feel stuck.

We and many like us are a neglected market, seeking smaller homes and multifamily living arrangements at a price we can afford. We don’t all want or need a single-family home. This proposal offers a free market solution to a failure caused by artificially restricted supply.

Too many of our friends, facing the same dilemma have left Arlington and greatly regret it. They have seen the price of real estate grow many times faster than their incomes and have given up. They left Arlington and kept on driving until they found a far-off housing choice that they know (and data shows) will have negative impacts on their families’ welfare, as well as that of our world. They are forced to drive more, take on the cost of additional cars, raise their children with less independence and fewer connections. They waste more time commuting, they pollute more and live a more sedentary life than they enjoyed here. They regret it every day. Free the market to supply more of what’s in demand and let us make such places our homes. Let us be neighbors. Let us not be a place that squeezes out families who make a reasonable, if not overly large income, and who are not beneficiaries of generational wealth. This is not the kind of community we should allow ourselves to become.

While I understand that more Missing Middle housing won’t appear overnight and this change is unlikely to make our personal dilemma easier to solve, I hope you as our leaders will make the decision that we should be a community that offers more choices to more residents so that others may benefit.

Support Missing Middle Housing. But, also, use your powers to promote ownership opportunities. Home ownership is key to a family’s long time financial stability in this country. We should do all we can to support the stability of those who call Arlington home, whatever their home may look like.