Town of Arlington, Fair Housing Action Plan (July 2021)

Citation: Town of Arlington, Fair Housing Action Plan (July 2021)
Jurisdiction: Arlington (municipal)
Source: Official source
Original Source: https://www.arlingtonma.gov/home/showpublisheddocument/57214/637641171662530000 ↗

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• pp. 12-14 (Recommendations): There's a strategy I'm sure would help that's not listed: "Increase
revenues." Many obstacles are financial and could be much more readily solved with more money;
expanding our tax base and/or securing more state & federal aid can help address them.
• p. 23 (Disability Status): Regarding the statement "Outside of a high concentration in Boston, which has a
high degree of access to transit and services, it is not clear why this pattern exists." - is there no general
data about how disabilities impact average earnings, like the Arlington-specific data on the next page?
The map seems to show a fairly obvious correlation (though mathematical confirmation would be good)
between "towns/cities with lower % of disabilities" and "towns/cities with higher average housing costs",
and if disabilities lower average earnings, there's a very simple explanation of "people with disabilities
are being priced out of the more expensive markets".
• p. 50 (Legacy of Exclusionary Past): Thank you for calling out redlining, racially restrictive covenants, and
other such practices in "Legacy of Exclusionary Past". I don't know if it's possible to include a reference to
culture - few people want to live in a town where they feel their neighbors are hostile to them, and I'm
given to understand that Arlington was historically seen by the Black community as hostile - as it's much
harder to quantify, but it surely plays a part in making Arlington less attractive to minorities. (I feel like
the document does touch on this elsewhere, though I can't find the reference this moment.)

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Arlington Fair Housing Action Plan