2022 Candidate Profile: Matt De Ferranti For Arlington County Board

ARLINGTON, VA — Matt de Ferranti was first elected to the Arlington County Board in November 2018 and is seeking reelection in the Nov. 8 general election.

De Ferranti (D), who was elected as chair of the county board by his colleagues in January 2021, is running against Audrey Clement (I) and Adam Theo (I). This is the only county board seat on the ballot in 2022.

He was also elected in January to serve as the secretary-treasurer of the Northern Virginia Transportation Commission.

In-person early voting in Arlington County began Friday, Sept. 23 and will continue through Saturday, Nov. 5. Election Day voting will happen from 6 a.m. to 7 p.m. on Tuesday, Nov. 8.

Patch asked each of the candidates in the Arlington County Board race for their answers to the same questions. Here are de Ferranti's responses:

Name

Matt de Ferranti

Campaign Website

https://mattforarlington.com/

Age (as of Election Day)

49

Family

My wife is Brooke Tansill de Ferranti. Our dog is Arizona.

Education

Bachelor of Arts, Duke University, Juris Doctorate; University of Texas at Austin, Master of Public Affairs; and the LBJ School of Public Affairs.

Occupation

Currently: County Board Member full time. Career: attorney, advocate for economic and educational opportunity, and teacher.

Please include years of experience.

4 years of experience on the County Board. 5 years as an advocate. 5 years as an attorney. 1.5 years as an organizer. 2 years as a teacher.

Previous or Current Elected or Appointed Office

County Board Member

Affordable housing is the most pressing issue we face as a community as we evolve economically:

To be clear, affordable housing is distinct from what I call housing attainability. Here’s what that means: “affordable housing” is the housing we provide for those earning under 60% to 80% of area median income. Roughly, depending on the size of one’s household, that is in the range of $75-$85k per year or less for a household of 3 people. Larger and smaller households would have more and less income than that range, but housing that is affordable for those earning about that amount and less is what I consider “affordable housing.” By contrast, housing attainability is the conversation we are currently having as a community under the broad phrase “missing middle” housing.

To be clear, my top priority for the next four years is what I define as “affordable housing” above. Arlington continues to lose what we call “market rate affordable” units to renovation and redevelopment. We have been working hard to replace these apartments that are affordable on the private market with what we call “committed affordable units.” Such units are ones that the County and affordable housing nonprofits partner on or units dedicated as affordable on-site units as part of the requirements of Arlington County’s ordinances. Keeping up with the loss of market rates units is very difficult and expensive. We have our Affordable Housing Investment Fund and our Housing Grants programs, both of which I support investing more in.

If we don’t invest in affordable housing, we risk displacing current residents that teach and care for our children, care for older adults in our community, cook and serve food for our community, build the buildings we live and work in, and clean our schools and workspaces.

Affordable housing is key for our hearts — it is the right thing to do. It is critical for our economic growth as we need an economy that enables us to be resilient should any sector falter.

In addition, part of affordable housing is investing in homeless prevention in Arlington, we also must commit to 10% of our affordable housing units being affordable to those earning 30% and below of the median income. This commitment is not easy and it is important that such units be dispersed across our community and not concentrated in any one affordable housing development. This priority is one I support as critical to our efforts to be a just community where all are valued, even and especially those most in need.

I also will push for additional staff for our Housing Division. I also believe we need to push for a Community Land Trust which would help make shared equity homeownership possible for households where the sole income earner may be a teacher, firefighter, or police officer. Such an entity will take additional staff time and resources.

Missing middle housing is distinct from “affordable housing” as defined as 60 to 80% of median income in Arlington. It is related because increased attainability for those earning greater amounts will help over the long term with housing that is affordable for those earning less by increasing supply. See my answer below for more thoughts.

What are the critical differences between you and the other candidates seeking this post?

My work over the last four years on the County Board has shown that I listen and engage with all Arlington residents. I share the thoughtful, progressive ideals that Arlington supports, have sound judgment, and I can lead the County Board and community. Over each of the last four years, I have led the Board in making progress on our climate response. Last year, I served as Chair of the Board in the midst of the efforts to distribute vaccines. I worked relentlessly and advocated for additional vaccines successfully. Most residents I talk to acknowledge that we did well in the pandemic in vaccinating those most in need and in communicating regularly and thoughtfully on distribution.

What are your views of the residential zoning changes suggested by Arlington County’s Missing Middle Housing proposal?

I support tiered changes to our zoning policies to increase the supply of housing that is available for homeownership for young families and seniors who wish to downsize.

Here’s why I think the status quo is not sustainable. Over the last 15-20 years, the price of homes with three bedrooms or more has skyrocketed. If we do nothing, the status quo will not work for our children or grandchildren — they will not be able to afford to live in Arlington. I honestly believe that if we do nothing, in 15 years one will need to make $400,000 per year to be able to afford to buy a home.

We cannot afford to subsidize homeownership through our budget. Our corridors also are not the solution: they do not produce enough three-bedroom units. Instead, we should make ownership more possible by allowing for duplexes on our smallest lots and triplexes on larger lots. I do not support eightplexes, since I believe the cost is not worth the benefit.

I want to note that my views on this topic are focused on finding thoughtful policies that address concerns and reach consensus. Not unanimity, but consensus. Another way of putting it, the details” of missing middle proposals matter immensely to me and I believe they should matter to you, too.

Describe the other issues that define your campaign platform.

I ran for the County Board in 2018 to expand opportunity for all Arlington residents. As I did, I focused on five issues. Since then, the COVID 19 pandemic happened. And George Floyd’s death called us to address inequity and racism. As a result, here are my priorities:

• Investing in small and independent businesses to help Arlington recover from the economic impact of the COVID-19 Pandemic, create jobs, and broaden our commercial tax base.
• Partnering with our schools to address educational needs post-COVID and, over the coming years, capacity needs at all age levels.
• Working persistently and creatively to make housing affordable so that our neighbors in need, teachers, first responders, millennials, County employees, and young families can live here and our seniors can age in place.
• Committing to 100% renewable electricity in Arlington by 2035 by working through Arlington’s Community Energy Plan to fight climate change.
• Leveraging our greatest resource — our people — to position Arlington as the research and development capital of Virginia and the region.
• Confronting systemic racism and inequity to ensure Arlington is inclusive and diverse.
• Addressing hunger in Arlington.

What accomplishments in your past would you cite as evidence you can handle this job?

COVID Response:

• During the first 6 months of 2020 while Chair, I successfully advocated to the Governor for the distribution of more vaccines and communicated relentlessly with community members to provide information about these vaccines.
• Throughout the pandemic, I relayed specific constituent concerns communicated daily with board colleagues and the County Manager.
• Distributed newsletters via email 16 times during the first 25 days of the COVID Pandemic in March 2020 and continued to communicate regularly on COVID via newsletters to serve residents throughout the pandemic.

Affordable Housing:

• Supported affordable housing projects to help with geographic diversity of affordable housing such as Queen’s Court, supported zoning policies to allow for more affordable housing near metros, funding to ensure that the more than 1100 households living at the Barcroft Apartment can continue to live there.
• Held numerous hearings on the Serrano as Chair to support better quality housing for residents.

Inclusive Economic Growth:

• Worked with the Carpenter’s Union to develop a partnership to prevent wage theft and value work.
• Passed Collective Bargaining Ordinance and Prevailing Wage Ordinance supported by labor while Chair.
• Supported two rounds of small business grants.
• Supported the partnership agreement with Amazon which has resulted in no hotel incentive funding for Amazon from Arlington so far, but has or will lead to more than $500 million in funding for affordable housing for Arlington.

Racial Equity:

• Supported the County’s 2019 Racial Equity Work by passing the 2019 Ordinance and supporting work and funding to implement racial equity framework and lens for action.
• Worked with advocates to change the Arlington County Logo from the Lee House, to change the name to Langston Boulevard from Lee Highway, and supported the change to Richmond Highway.
• Supported subpoena power in the police Community Oversight Board and enacted an Ordinance to implement a Civilian Oversight Board with numerous revisions and additions sought by the community.

Education:

• Supported additional funding in the Budget in 2019 to help close the budget gap due to enrollment growth.
• Worked with Arlington Public Schools to provide funding for outdoor lunch in 2021.

Climate Change:

• Successfully advocated for 2025 goals for County Government, 2035 goal of 100% renewable electricity, and carbon neutrality by 2050 during the rewrite of the Community Energy Plan in 2019.
• Strongly supported solar farm agreement in 2020 that helps reach 2025 goals.

Hunger:

• Secured Food Security Coordinator and established Food Security Task Force to help assess and address the problem of hunger in Arlington.

Gun Safety:

• Voted to enact common sense protections in parks and public spaces in Arlington.

Why should voters trust you?

I have shown that I work hard, follow through on my commitments, and share the ideas that Arlington believes.

The best advice ever shared with me was …

Be good, do good work. This is the advice that Elaine Luria shared with a small group I was part of this summer.

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• 2022 Candidate Profile: Audrey Clement For Arlington County Board
• 2022 Candidate Profile: Adam Theo For Arlington County Board