Alexandria is lending its housing agency nearly $1.5 million for a project to redevelop public housing units at Glebe Park, after a private $2.3 million loan fell through in March.
The project has been a hot topic since October 2007, when the city approved a $5.6 million loan so the Redevelopment and Housing Authority’s development partner, Bethesda firm EYA, could redevelop the Glebe Park area and the beleaguered James Bland public housing units.
EYA was supposed to provide a $2.3 million equity loan investment to buy land from the housing authority, said Mildrilyn Stephens Davis, director of Alexandria’s Office of Housing. But the company couldn’t get the loan because of the poor development and lending climates, city documents said.
EYA has repaid $600,000 of the original $5.6 million loan, according to city documents. The project was awarded federal low-income housing tax credits worth $9.8 million in 2008.
The redeveloped Glebe Park would include 84 ARHA-owned public housing units — 60 new and 24 rehabilitated — costing $15.7 million, which would replace 40 public housing units in the current Glebe Park property in Arlandria and 44 units in the James Bland property in the Parker Gray neighborhood. The project also involves completing 18 homes for sale to the public, which would cost about $7.4 million. The $1.4 million loan will come from affordable housing funds.
Some residents of the public housing units on the James Bland property, though, are lobbying for better conditions in the apartments before they are torn down.
The group Virginians Organized for Interfaith Community Engagement organized a walk-through of some of the Bland units so Mayor Bill Euille could observe some of the conditions — including broken refrigerators and other maintenance problems — firsthand.
ARHA Chief Executive Roy Priest said he believed that the authority has addressed all the repair requests the group brought forth in March, plus more than 100 that weren’t listed.
“We made all the repairs that have been identified,” he said.
But Marsha Rhea of VOICE said there were still serious issues that may not be readily apparent in a simple inspection.
Of particular concern are problems with the sewer line in the housing units, which she said have created backups in the homes.
“We all think that’s a really serious public health issue,” she said.
