Alexandria City Council at its Saturday meeting approved measures aimed at preserving 60 affordable housing units in the Quaker Hill community.
The units are located at the corner of Duke Street and Quaker Lane and are managed by the Alexandria Redevelopment and Housing Authority. Though the authority has been managing the units since 1990, it is not the owner.
The owner of the property now wants to sell the units, but the authority did not have the money to buy them.
The City Council passed a measure that continues a $1.2 million loan to the housing authority, and approves a new $3.5 million loan to purchase and rehabilitate the units. It also approved a measure exempting residents of the units from the city’s real estate tax.
The council voted to oversee how the loans to the authority were being spent.
“This plan will provide the city with adequate guarantees to ensure its funds are being used appropriately to help address the ongoing crisis in affordable housing,” said Alexandria Mayor William Euille.
Euille added the city must act to counter cuts in federal funding for public housing.
“The plan approved by City Council is a responsible solution to the challenge facing the city of Alexandria and ARHA to preserve the 60 needed affordable housing units at Quaker Hill,” he said.
“Without city involvement, these units would likely revert to market-rate rents and become unaffordable to the current residents. The council cannot allow that to happen.”
