This past Thursday a step was taken to provide affordable housing to Fairfax County residents: a seminar at St. Matthew's United Methodist Church attracted more than 250 attendees to Annandale.
"Affordable housing isn't just one thing," said Supervisors Sharon Bulova (D-Braddock). "[Affordable housing is] a young person who is trying to buy a home for the first time ... senior citizens, older folks, they're retired; they're living on Social Security ... and then there are people working in Fairfax County living in shelters or out of their cars." Supervisors Stuart Mendelsohn (R-Dranesville) and Catherine Hudgins (D-Hunter Mill) also expressed their concerns over the diversity and severity of the problem. "It's a problem I can see every day from my office," said Hudgins.
"[It is a problem] we're going to hear more and more clamoring building for the next couple of years," said Mendelsohn. Land is becoming prohibitive ... [and] with double-digit increases in the property tax for the past three years ... [it is particularly] hard on seniors."
"Making Housing Affordable" was addressed to faith-based organizations (FBOs) involved in providing housing opportunities to those with lower income or disabilities. Conference speaker Laurence Payne, executive adviser for the Educational Excellence Resource Group, believes for the next five years more, people will find it impossible to find housing they can afford. To provide for those without sufficient means, Payne believes "the faith-based community must embrace activism" as FBOs expand their role to fill their communities' need.
MARIAN HOUSE is a specific example of an FBO affordable-housing success, according to Bulova. Marian House, a group home in Fairfax for five women with physical and mental disabilities, is run by a nonprofit organization, St. Mary of Sorrows Knights of Columbus.
With 6,000 people on a waiting list for public housing in Northern Virginia, Virginia's budget shortfall currently estimated at $5 billion, and rising property taxes in Fairfax County, affordable housing is a severe and growing problem. An early indicator of how troublesome this issue might be was the attendance at the conference, including county supervisors Mendelsohn, Hudgins and Bulova and state Sen. Patricia Ticer (D-30th).
Beyond budget woes, affordable housing initiatives also face the growing problem of not-In-my-back-yard (NIMBY) resistance. Bulova sees FBOs as of particular help in blunting communities’ NIMBY fears. Still, even the well-laid FBO plans can be thwarted by public concern. Heart Havens, a Richmond-based FBO, is drawing NIMBY criticism for a housing unit that seemed to be in an area with an accepting community. Complaints started almost immediately. "People think it's OK to call a public official to complain about a person with a disability [merely living in their neighborhood]," said Heart Havens’ executive director Martha Stokes.
The future of FBOs and affordable housing is uncertain. But affordable housing is a problem that will not go away, and eventually "this community will have to have a discussion," Mendelsohn said. "Do they [the community] want people who work in the community [to be able to] live in the community, and do they want seniors there?"
Believing that "faith-based community and politics have a direct connection," Payne sees FBOs as being one of the organizations that can expand to fill the need.
AN INTERFAITH EVENT, the seminar included opening remarks by the Rev. Ronald F. Christian, the Rev. David Jones, Rabbi David Kalendar and Imam Mohammed Magid. Workshops included Housing for Persons with Disabilities, Housing Support Services, Providing Affordable Housing, Housing Advocacy and Housing Choice Vouchers.