Alexandria's Housing Authority Needs $54.5 Million in Repairs Over 20 Years - and Is About $20 Million Short

Alexandria's public housing is carrying a repair bill its owner cannot pay alone. The Alexandria Redevelopment and Housing Authority told the City Council on Thursday night that keeping its public housing in habitable condition will cost $54.5 million over the next 20 years - roughly $20 million more than the authority expects to have - and it asked to be written into the city's capital budget.

Mayor Alyia Gaskins called the shortfall the biggest takeaway of the two-hour work session, and asked the city manager to add 30 minutes on ARHA's capital needs to the Council's budget work session on November 7. The session, held at the Del Pepper Community Resource Center, ran half an hour past its scheduled end. It was a one-year check on the board the Council installed last October, after eight of the authority's nine commissioners resigned under pressure from the Council.

The capital request lands in a hard week for housing authorities generally: the same day ARHA presented its plan, the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development told authorities nationwide to stop issuing new vouchers, according to the Alexandria Brief's account of the session. For Alexandria residents on ARHA's waiting lists, the arithmetic is now on the public record - a $54.5 million need, about $20 million of it unfunded - and the first test of whether the city will help close it comes at the November 7 budget work session.