The Connection

“Some people work two jobs, 80 hours a week, and still can’t afford to pay rent on a place. This gives them a hand up, not a hand out.” — Gay Shane, Operation Renewed Hope Foundation

More than a dozen volunteers from the consulting firm Accenture spent the afternoon on Nov. 11, Veterans Day, improving the grounds at Huntington Gardens residential community.

The effort was a “Day of Service” project organized together with Operation Renewed Hope Foundation, an Alexandria-based non-profit organization that supports homeless veterans.

Gay Shane of Franconia is the foundation board’s Housing and Veterans Services Committee chair.

“They’ve been policing and cleaning up for three and a half hours,” Shane said. “They do a wonderful job — they don’t stop until they’re done.”

The volunteers picked up trash, did some planting and spread soil and mulch around plants and in the playground area.

Shane has worked with Accenture volunteers on four previous projects, and immediately thought of them when she heard about the Huntington Gardens purchase by another Alexandria-based non-profit — Christian Relief Services — which filled the 113 units with low-income renters.

CRS CEO Brian Krizek explained they bought the property in September of this year, taking advantage of a $12.6 million mortgage from Federal Housing Administration-Housing Urban Development and a $5.65 million affordable housing mortgage from Fairfax County.

Then CRS added $1.5 million in equity from their own organization’s supporters.

“Donations give a charity leverage that individuals would never have,” Krizek’s brother Paul said. “Some people say, ‘Wouldn’t it be better if I give $20 to a homeless person,’ but if everyone gives $20 to us, we can actually house someone, a family.”

Paul Krizek is a delegate to the Virginia General Assembly representing the 44th District and serves as CRS executive director and general counsel.

CRS rents out all the units to people making no more than 60 percent of the area’s median household income, the brothers said. Twenty-eight of those are specifically set aside for residents who are placed by Fairfax-based non-profit Pathway Homes.

Pathway supports adults with serious mental illness and other disabilities, including homeless individuals and people making even less than 60 percent MHI.

Most of the rest, Paul Krizek said, are referrals from other charities.

Especially with nearby access to the Metro’s Yellow Line and possible expansion of Metro south along the Route 1 corridor, housing costs could become much less affordable than they already are.

“This would be like rent control for 35 years,” Paul Krizek said of the housing being offered at Huntington Gardens. “At the very least, 113 units are going to be affordable housing right near a Metro.”

Presently all but a few of the Gardens’ mostly one- and two-bedroom units are filled.

“Housing that people can afford is so scarce,” Shane said. “Some people work two jobs, 80 hours a week, and still can’t afford to pay rent on a place. This gives them a hand up, not a hand out.

“For this to be a place where people feel safe, and clean, it makes them proud to tell people where they live,” she continued. “It gives hope to the community.”

Paul Krizek acknowledged there’s an understandable element of surrounding community members having concerns about low-income renters living next-door.

“They’re people too,” Paul Krizek said, “hard-working people who care about the community they live in. Everyone deserves a place to live.”

At the same time, he said, “Our goal is to provide housing but don’t do it at expense to community. We want to be responsive and supportive of the community, and active in it. They know they can come here and call us any time.”

CRS owns 98 single units —condos, townhouses and single family homes — around Fairfax County that it similarly rents out to low income tenants.

“We’ve been going to community association meetings and have a good dialogue with them,” Paul Krizek said.