In marked shift, Fairfax County turning from housing buys
By: William C. Flook
Examiner Staff Writer
July 5, 2009
Fairfax County supervisors are exploring how to spend the little money left for affordable housing without directly buying up apartment buildings, turning away from a costly and controversial program that began with Northern Virginia’s building boom.
Officials are now looking into several new strategies that don’t involve purchasing real estate, after having taken more than 2,000 units out of the private market during the last four years.
The $20 million fund that bankrolls the program was effectively gutted in the most recent budget talks, when the Board of Supervisors voted to halve the fund to prevent greater layoffs among county employees.
The original plan to buy rental units emerged out of fears that low-cost housing would be converted to condos in the white-hot market of recent years. But critics say that with the real estate crash, the justification for increasing the county’s housing stock has vanished.
“Now the economy is different, and we’re not seeing condo conversion, and in fact, with the recession, what we’re seeing is a human service need for the very poor, the homeless, the people who are disabled and unable to find housing,” said Braddock District Supervisor John Cook.
The board is weighing whether to invest the scant available money in housing subsidies for extremely poor or disabled residents, groups that were little-served under the purchase program.
Because the county would to buy occupied units, or partner with nonprofits to hold down their rents, those sitting on waiting lists for low-cost dwellings tended to remain there.
While the failure to dent the waiting lists are a concern, Mason District Supervisor Penny Gross said the affordable housing purchases are “working very well.” Gross, who opposed gutting the housing fund, said she is not yet fully sold on shifting the money to subsidies.
But with a looming budget shoftfall for the fiscal year starting next July, there will be little money for any such plans
“We have a $315 million budget shortfall,” said Springfield District Supervisor Pat Herrity. “We have sunk significant resources into affordable housing; we can’t afford to be sinking more money in right now.”
