City Council Meeting

Jamie ErgasstaffYes. The Affordable Housing Strategic Plan, which, as you know, we just adopted within the last several weeks, we do need to think of creative approaches to ensure that we can bring affordable housing projects into the city. I think this is an example of a creative approach to support a deeply affordable housing project. And like I started from the beginning, that is unique. It is hard to finance these sort of projects. This is going to meet a huge community need. And I think it does align with the Affordable Housing Strategic Plan as well as the priority populations and the comprehensive plan.

Stacy HallSo we had the opportunity to speak earlier, and so I asked a lot of questions then, and I'm just going to follow up on a few of the highlights and then some questions for Jamie Ergus as well. So the strategic plan that this specifically refers to, I believe, is Strategy 2.3, so Section 3.2.3. The reason why I bring that up is because what this states from the city's side is that the goal is to support the preservation of naturally occurring affordable housing. The city of Fairfax can develop targeted financial incentives for property owners by providing grants, low interest loans, and tax incentives. The city can encourage owners to maintain and renovate their properties while keeping rents affordable.

Jamie ErgasstaffAnd if I could circle back to the comments around the Affordable Housing Strategic Plan, I think the action and strategy that you're referencing specifically refers to the preservation of affordable housing. So we're looking at our naturally occurring affordable units and anything that's added through the ADU ordinance and figuring out what we can put in place in order to retain the affordability on those properties. So it's a little bit different from this project, which is redevelopment adding new units. So I think the affordable housing strategic plan It does open some doors to think about things a little bit differently, but as it is right now It's a framework. So I think the exact incentives and what that looks like

Stacy HallOkay, thank you. The reason why I brought up that one area of the strategic plan is just it's specifically referenced in the staff report where it says that the request is consistent with that section of the affordable So I just want to make sure I understood that properly. Thank you for the clarification.

Thomas PetersonCOUNCIL MEMBER PETERSON. THANKS. JUST TO SEE IF I CAPTURE A COUPLE OF TAKEAWAYS HERE CORRECTLY. ONE IS THAT THE SITUATION HERE IS A PRETTY UNIQUE ONE. THIS IS NOT JUST A GENERIC AFFORDABLE HOUSING ISSUE. THIS IS PERMANENT SUPPORTIVE HOUSING. This is reinvestment in services 24-7 that offset or reduce costs elsewhere and guarantee a level of safety that is otherwise not attainable. So this is a unique facility. And that seems to be very apparent. And that is in contrast, again, to more generalized affordable housing. The second thing is the strategic plan. And I think this was noted in the resolution we passed as we passed the furtherance of that strategic plan. It's a work in progress. It's a framework.