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The city released its draft Housing 2040 plan six days ago. Saturday is the first chance to engage with it in person.
The Office of Housing hosts an open house at Nannie J. Lee Memorial Recreation Center from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m., where residents can review and respond to draft recommendations that The Alexandria Brief covered when they were released on Feb. 21.
The document spans 10 goals and addresses zoning reform, tenant protections, financing tools, and strategies to stem a displacement crisis decades in the making — one that has cost the city more than 11,000 affordable units since 2000. Units affordable to households earning up to 60 percent of the area median income have dropped from 18,000 in 2000 to 6,900 today.
The event is structured as a walk-in open house with four breakout sessions that each include a presentation and Q&A:
10:30–11:15 a.m.: Homeowner resources and common interest communities 11:30 a.m.–12:15 p.m.: Housing options for seniors and persons with disabilities 12:30–1:15 p.m.: Landlord-tenant rights and resources 1:30–2:15 p.m.: Affordable housing preservation
That last session may draw the most interest. The preservation section of the draft is among its most detailed, establishing formal Strategic Preservation Priorities and calling for a right-of-first-refusal framework that would let the city or a nonprofit step in when subsidized housing goes up for sale — a tool that requires state legislative authority Alexandria does not yet have.
The plan's most ambitious strategies don't rest solely on City Hall. Alexandria's 2026 Legislative Package asked Richmond for a set of tools the city cannot create on its own under Virginia's Dillon Rule: the right of first refusal when subsidized affordable housing sells, mandatory payment plans before eviction, and rental application transparency requirements. All three are now moving through the General Assembly as bills carried by Sen. Elizabeth Bennett-Parker — who was sworn into the Senate nine days ago after winning Adam Ebbin's seat — with the session set to adjourn March 14.
Whether those tools arrive in time to be incorporated into Housing 2040's implementation strategies, or whether the plan must account for their absence, is a question the city won't be able to answer until after the open house comment period closes on March 22.
The draft also proposes more than $100 million in near-term funding needs for affordable housing projects already in the pipeline — about $47 million for projects with development approvals and $60 million for projects in coordinated development districts. That number lands in the same week City Manager James Parajon presented a budget to City Council in which the average single-family home in Alexandria crossed $1 million in assessed value for the first time, up 4.44 percent to $1,045,750.
Feedback submitted Saturday will help shape the final plan, which goes to the City Council for public hearings in June. Residents who can't attend in person have until March 22 to submit comments online at alexandriava.gov/HousingPlan.
Saturday's open house is at 1108 Jefferson St. Interpretation will be provided in Spanish, Amharic, Arabic, Dari, and Pashto — register in advance and indicate your language preference. DASH Route 34 runs directly to the center. Parking is available nearby.
Ryan Belmore
Ryan Belmore
