Capping Arlington's Missing Middle At 6 Housing Units Harms Black Residents: NAACP

ARLINGTON, VA — The national office of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People sent a letter to the Arlington County Board on Tuesday asking why the board decided not to consider allowing eight-unit apartment or condominium buildings on residential lots currently zoned for single-family homes in its Missing Middle Housing proposal.

Reducing the number of housing units allowed on a single-family lot from eight to six will disproportionately negatively affect Black residents, Janette McCarthy Wallace, general counsel of the NAACP, wrote in the March 14 letter to the county board.

Arlington County's original Missing Middle Housing plan, which included seven- and eight-unit multiplex buildings, would have put "affordable rental and homeownership in Arlington in reach of Black and other community members of color," Wallace said.

Many supporters of the Missing Middle Housing plan have acknowledged that the proposal, even if it included eight-plexes, would not address the affordable housing crisis in Arlington. If adopted by the board, though, the elimination of single-family zoning could provide an entry point for higher-income Black and Latino people to purchase a home in the county, they contend.

The Arlington County Board will meet Saturday to review options and then likely vote next week on whether to authorize the Missing Middle Housing proposal. Before the board votes, though, it will hear a final round of comments from residents on the plan to eliminate single-family zoning in the county. A final vote by the board on the proposal could come on Tuesday, March 21 or Wednesday, March 22.

READ ALSO: Missing Middle Plan Wins Unanimous Approval From Planning Commission

The Arlington County Board voted unanimously on Jan. 25 to move into this final phase of crafting its Missing Middle Housing plan. At the January hearing, the board voted to adopt an amendment offered by Board Member Matt de Ferranti that would remove seven- and eight-unit apartment and condominium buildings from the Missing Middle proposal.

At its upcoming meetings over the next week, the board will decide whether to approve expanded housing options that include two-family dwellings, such as duplexes and semidetached (two side-by-side units separated by a common wall); townhouses with three units (three side-by-side units separated by common walls); and multiple-family buildings with at least three and no more than six dwelling units.

The local chapter of the NAACP and other groups criticized the Arlington County Board for voting in January to exclude eight-unit apartment and condominium buildings from its final consideration.

After learning of the concerns of the Arlington Chapter of the NAACP, Wallace said the national NAACP wanted to reiterate those concerns.

By not allowing seven- and eight-unit apartment and condominium buildings on single-family lots, Black and other people of color would be prevented from moving into Arlington, Wallace wrote in the letter to the county board.

“Consequently, the NAACP requests that the County Board explain its reasoning reducing the proposed maximum units per lot in Arlington,” she said.

If the county board votes to approve the Missing Middle Housing proposal in the next week but does not include seven- and eight-unit buildings, Wallace said the NAACP wants the board “to provide the NAACP with a thorough explanation of the reasoning behind this decision, including any evaluation of the potential effect on Black residents and other residents of color.”

Across the Potomac River in Washington, D.C., different types of new housing units were built over the past 15 years as part of a housing boom in Southwest D.C., increasing density in many cases by filling in vacant lots. Between 2010 and 2020, census tracts in areas along the waterfront in Southwest D.C. went from 66 to 41 percent Black people and 22 to 40 percent white people, according to The Washington Post.

“Just saying 'build more' does not actually achieve racial equity. We’ve got to build affordable. Even the affordable units are not possible for Black families,” Coy McKinney, a member of Southwest DC Action, a group that advocates for equitable development, told The Washington Post.

Arlington County Board candidate Natalie Roy, who is seeking the Democratic nomination, said in a statement last week that she believes most people who participated in the Missing Middle Housing process want to provide affordable homes for the most vulnerable members of the community and embrace diversity in the county's neighborhoods.

"What many of us do not embrace is the Board’s current sweeping, haphazard housing approach that has no clearly stated goals or guardrails against unintended consequences," Roy said. "There is nothing there other than the hope that the trickle-down theory of more 'by-right' density will magically increase Arlington’s stock of affordable and missing middle housing and produce more diversity countywide."

"It is pinning its hopes on the free market and developers to solve the County’s housing needs with no consideration for the environment, infrastructure, schools, transportation, parking or fiscal consequences. That is not a credible or responsible approach."

The Arlington County Board will hold its regular board meeting on Saturday, March 18, where the Missing Middle Housing proposal will be one of the agenda items considered. The meeting starts at 8:30 a.m. and the board's recessed meeting is scheduled for Tuesday, March 21 at 3 p.m.

The public is welcome to attend the meetings in person in the County Board Room on the third floor of 2100 Clarendon Blvd., or view the meetings online.

RELATED: Housing Reparations Policy Viewed As Better Option Than Missing Middle