Affordable housing advocates in Fairfax County will go before the Board of Supervisors on Tuesday to request a tax break on homes and apartments for low-income residents. Nonprofits that provide affordable housing — groups like Reston Interfaith or Community Preservation and Development Corporation — currently pay real estate taxes on their subsidized housing units and buildings, unless they were granted an exemption by the state prior to 2003. Now, they’re asking the county to use its authority to provide more exemptions.
The discussion of such a move points to signs of an economic turnaround in the county — one of the first jurisdictions in the area to see signs of recovery. Service agencies that have suffered cuts in recent years are starting to come back to the county for funding that was common before the recession.
“To provide affordable housing in the community is a policy goal for these jurisdictions,” said Michelle Krocker, executive director of the Northern Virginia Affordable Housing Alliance. “And absolutely the need has gone up — we have a real shortage of affordable rental housing in Northern Virginia.”
Krocker said that the familiar effects of the recession — families foreclosed upon, parents out of jobs — combined with an influx to the county of lower-wage workers, have not only combined to create a glut of people unable to buy a house, but also a large group unable to find an appropriate rental.
County supervisors weighing the tax break are struggling with whether to return to more generous spending habits as the economy recovers, or to hold fast to austerity as a buffer against future collapses.
“I definitely want to hear the pros and cons,” said Supervisor John Foust, D-Dranesville. “It sounds like a good thing to do, but I expect real fiscal considerations.”
