City of Alexandria Showcases Alexandria’s Affordable Housing Projects to U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development

For over five decades, the City of Alexandria has been committed to ensuring residents and workers have access to affordable rental and homeownership options. To achieve this goal, the City has used different sources including the City's Housing Trust and Housing Opportunity Funds, the federal Community Development Block Grant, and Housing Investment Partnership (HOME) Programs. These federal grant programs have provided down payment and closing cost assistance to enable low- to moderate-income homeowners to pay no more than approximately 1/3 of their gross income on mortgage payments, property taxes, and insurance. Additionally, through partnerships with local non-profits and state agencies, the City has created plans to develop more affordable homeownership and affordable and workforce rental housing in Alexandria.

The success of these initiatives led to the City's Office of Housing receiving a visit from the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development's (HUD) Region III Administrator Matthew Heckels and HUD's Washington D.C. Field Office team on Monday, May 20. HUD's trip to Alexandria allowed the Housing Office to take Heckels and his colleagues on a walking tour of a few of the federally assisted properties in the Braddock Metro community.

Joined by representatives from the Alexandria Redevelopment and Housing Authority (ARHA), the Department of Community and Human Services, and community partners, including nonprofit housing developers, the tour featured stops at Old Town Commons, the Pendleton Rooming House, The Bloom/Carpenter's Shelter, Samuel Madden, and The Lineage. Throughout the tour, City staff and partners provided insight regarding the properties and their contributions to the community. "We were able to show HUD our Braddock neighborhood where we have affordable housing and public housing that is being redeveloped into mixed-income communities that are using federal funds," said Office of Housing Director Helen Mcllvaine. "In each case, public housing units are being replaced on a 1:1 basis, and new density is adding affordable and market-rate units."

Following the tour, HUD officials were given a presentation from ARHA and Mayor Justin Wilson on the importance of affordable housing in Alexandria and how cooperation among the City of Alexandria and its partners has been essential to creating more affordable homes in the city. "Collaboration between ARHA, residents, the City, and HUD is the key to maintaining already established affordable housing and developing more," said ARHA's Development/Portfolio Manager Martin Lucero.

Heckels shared his view with attendees on the need for affordable housing, "It's important that we make sure people have a place to live, where a kid is able to do their schoolwork at the kitchen table or someone who is older can age in place." Heckels also expressed his appreciation for what Alexandria has done in creating housing solutions for a mixed-income community. "What's really neat about Alexandria is that you have units in the same building that are affordable to people with low incomes, but also people who have jobs that pay them a lot of money." He noted that he could immediately appreciate the collaboration that has led to Alexandria's success when he saw the diversity of partners on hand to discuss how the City approaches its housing challenges.

We look forward to continuing to work with our partners and HUD to create more affordable housing initiatives in the City of Alexandria. Learn how the day unfolded and watch the interviews with a few of the participants.

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Alexandria at 275: Connecting to our past to define a brighter future.

Since its 1749 founding, the historic city of Alexandria has played a major role in our nation's story and reflected its progress toward inclusivity. Join us at events from April through September as we mark Alexandria's 275th anniversary and embark on the next chapter in our city's vibrant history at alexandriava.gov/ALX275.