From left: Monica Jefferson, Housing Opportunities Made Equal (HOME); Heather Crislip, (HOME); Jennifer Endo, AHC Inc.; Lynn Thomas, Community Lodgings; Kim Hart, Good Works; Sylisa Lambert-Woodward, Pathway Homes; U.S. Sen. Tim Kaine; John Welsh, AHC Inc.; Michelle Krocker, Northern Virginia Affordable Housing Alliance; Walter D. Webdale, AHC Inc.; Nina Janopaul, APAH; Nick Bracco, The Michaels Organization; Bobby Rozen, Washington Council Ernst & Young (retired); and Michelle Winters, Alliance for Housing Solutions. Photo contributed
Local housing organizations joined the Northern Virginia Affordable Housing Alliance and the Alliance for Housing Solutions at a Round Table this week to address housing issues from a variety of standpoints. The wide-ranging discussion included a legislative perspective from U.S. Sen. Tim Kaine, ideas for improving access to affordable housing, regulatory challenges, financing tools, and the importance of helping families stay in their homes and avoid eviction.
Kaine said,“The complexity of the affordable housing challenge is always tough. In Northern Virginia because of real estate prices, it’s even tougher.If you look at sort of Alexandria, Arlington, Fairfax for example — the number of affordable housing units in the last 20 years has dramatically declined. Just because [of] real estate prices, cost of living … everything's going up and that’s going up faster than salaries.”