Alexandria is one of 15 cities across the country chosen to receive between $450,000 and $750,000 each in grant funding to increase its housing stock.
Today (Oct. 15), Bloomberg Philanthropies announced that Alexandria is among the first 15 cities to get the grant funding, and that 30 nationwide will be chosen to combat a national shortage of homes. Alexandria was awarded the funds, along with Albuquerque, N.M., Charleston, S.C., Chattanooga, Tenn., Cleveland, Columbia, S.C., Durham, N.C., Louisville, Ky., Miami, Nashville, Tenn., Omaha, Neb., Pittsburgh, Portland, Maine, Providence, R.I. and San Jose, Calif.
Mayor Alyia Gaskins told ALXnow that the city of Alexandria is committed to expanding housing options for all residents by “creating the systems to speed and digitize permitting, and bringing every part of local government together to get the job done.”
“This Bloomberg Philanthropies initiative adds to the many ways I am pushing us to lead with innovation, and it will accelerate our One Start initiative and Housing 2040 Plan so that we can deliver quickly on resident housing needs,” Gaskins said.
With the City Hall renovation in Old Town as a backdrop, last year City Council approved the One Start initiative’s zoning changes to “allow additional flexibility to accommodate planned City Hall renovations, to allow small-scale additions to existing buildings without site plan approval, and to allow taller fences between residential and non-residential properties.”
The average sale price of a single family home in Alexandria is $1.2 million, a decline of 7.3% over last year. The number of home sales also declined last month, as elevated interest rates have chilled the city’s real estate market.
Nearly 20% of Alexandria’s 80,000 households with incomes up to $75,000 are cost burdened, with about 19,000 residents paying more for housing than recommended by federal guidelines. The city projects an increase of households to about 100,000 by 2035.
With a 62% decline in market-affordable rental units in Alexandria between 2000 and 2021, the city has pledged to produce or develop thousands of units to meet a 2030 regional housing goal set by the Metropolitan Washington Council of Governments.
In a release, former New York City Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg, the founder of Bloomberg Philanthropies, said that city halls across the country are addressing housing supply shortages.
“As local governments address this issue, we have a great opportunity to spread the best ideas across the country,” Bloomberg said. “That is what this initiative is all about: helping more mayors adopt proven ways of getting more housing built — and delivering.”
According to Bloomberg Philanthropies:
Each municipality selected will receive $450,000 to $750,000 in funding—for piloting technology to clear approvals, engaging architects to draft permit-ready plans, and hiring strike team staff—as well as expert operational support to implement quickly, delivered with Accelerator for America and other field-leading specialists, such as Public Digital. City hall participants will also network with their peers, sharing what is succeeding on the ground and strengthening their plans with the officials furthest ahead on housing solutions nationwide. Within two years, participants are expected to produce results: cutting approval timelines in half, doubling pipelines of Accessory Dwelling Units, and posting gains on citywide supply. The effort also aims to position them to capitalize on federal policy. The ROAD to Housing Act creates new incentives for these same reforms—modernized permitting, pre-approved housing plans, activated public land—and rewards the localities prepared to carry them out. That readiness is what the initiative helps mayors build: plans on paper, policy in place, and staff to execute when national investment arrives.
Results from the Bloomberg initiative will be included in the Bloomberg Cities Idea Exchange, a repository for successful projects with more than 1,000 participating cities.
