Efforts to provide more funding for Arlington’s Affordable Housing Investment Fund (AHIF) will require buy-in from elected officials, the development industry, the General Assembly, activists and the broader community to be viable, an advisory panel believes.
“We should take the time and get it right,” said Joe Ventrone, a member of the Housing Commission’s working group on revisions to the government’s affordable-housing ordinance.
New polling suggests broad support among Virginians for state-level legislation to support building more housing.
A survey of about 1,300 Virginia voters found that the vast majority of respondents — about 73% — believe that the state lacks enough homes that people can afford to rent or buy.
The Falls Church City Council has updated the city’s comprehensive plan with an increased focus on affordable housing.
A new policy document, unanimously approved after more than 18 months of discussion on how to align the city’s inclusive vision with fiscal reality, calls for a “dedicated, annual and indexed” source of city funds for affordable-housing efforts.
The Arlington Housing Commission is considering a push to make it easier for houses of worship to redevelop their land with affordable housing.
A subcommittee of the full commission discussed whether to press the issue in advance of next year’s legislative session, which opens in January. Whether County Board members embrace the proposal remains to be seen.
A County Board member has pledged that neither elected officials nor staff will try an end-around to raze the existing Melwood site for redevelopment until the historic-preservation process plays itself out.
“We have already implemented measures to ensure that no [demolition or use] permits are issued” before any decision by the County Board takes place, County Board member Julius “JD” Spain, Sr., said at the July 16 meeting of the Historical Affairs and Landmark Review Board (HALRB).
Arlington officials see the decision to phase out assisted living facilities at Culpepper Garden as part of a larger, nationwide problem with no easy fixes.
At a Saturday meeting, county leaders faced pressure to address the planned changes at the senior housing community, which are scheduled to go into effect next summer and impact more than 70 residents. However, they said that their ability to influence such issues is limited.
The Arlington Tenant-Landlord Commission is refereeing a dispute about living conditions at The Shelton affordable-housing apartments.
On one side is the Green Valley Civic Association, which contends the property owner is turning a blind eye to everything from drug use to needed apartment repairs.
A working group on affordable housing met last week to explore possible solutions to ever-spiraling costs for Arlington’s low- and moderate-income households.
Though the hour-long meeting on July 1 didn’t resolve any core issues, members suggested that pushing developers to provide more funding to the county’s Affordable Housing Investment Fund might be the best way to get more apartments built in Arlington.
True Ground Housing Partners has filed plans to redevelop an affordable housing complex in Waverly Hills with even more affordable housing.
The nonprofit developer, formerly the Arlington Partnership for Affordable Housing, filed site plans last week for a 10-story building with 249 committed-affordable units at the current Leckey Gardens site at 2031 N. Woodrow Street.
The Culpepper Garden senior-housing community has announced plans to close its assisted-living wing, leaving some families to scramble to find new homes for loved ones.
Current residents will be able to stay until at least next summer, which leadership hopes will give families enough time to find other housing. Still, the closure means Northern Virginia will be losing one of its only assisted-living facilities for low-income seniors.
A decision on whether there’s any historic value in a former schoolhouse bound for redevelopment in Aurora Highlands is unlikely until next year.
Historic-preservation staff will begin a study of the Melwood property “by the end of the year at the latest — like the December time frame,” said Mical Tawney, a historic-preservation specialist, in response to a question at the June 18 meeting of the Historical Affairs and Landmark Review Board (HALRB).
A local nonprofit is sounding the alarm about a worsening affordable housing crisis that’s driving homelessness to new heights across Northern Virginia.
Falls Church-based Homestretch released new data showing that finding affordable housing in the region has become increasingly difficult for many residents.
