Last Saturday, Alexandria’s City Council voted six to one to approve a contentious development project that will raze 2,500 affordable housing units and replace them with stores, offices, and 5,000 new apartments. Unfortunately, only 800 of these new units will be reserved for the existing low-income residents, uprooting thousands of families.
The decision follows months of protests by community members and advocates, who insist the Beauregard development project will displace longtime residents without providing them viable housing alternatives. Although current residents will receive one-time compensation between $2,300 and $3,100, opponents highlight that such measures disregard the human and community elements of forced displacement.
Proponents of redevelopment argue that the project will give life to the area, meeting increasing demand for high quality housing in the DMV and improving mass transit. Moreover, a richer and larger population and more business activity is expected to bring in hundreds of millions in tax revenue in the next decades, encouraging the region’s economic growth.
While the project is clearly a valuable enterprise for Alexandria’s residents, the city council failed to negotiate an adequate deal for its residents who depend on the low-income housing available in Beauregard. Because developer JBG’s promise of $158.6 million worth of new community infrastructure—including parkland and a fire station—is one of the largest developer contributions ever made in the region, the mere 800 affordable units are seen as an act of charity on the part of JBG. However, considering the ever-decreasing amount of low-income housing options available within the Beltway and the 21 years the city is estimating it will take for all 800 units to be available, ensuring sufficient affordable housing is not supererogatory—it is imperative.
According to a recent study conducted by the National Low Income Housing Coalition, minimum-wage earners spending no more than 30 percent of income on housing need to work 114 hours per week, 52 weeks per year, in order to afford the 40th percentile of rents in Virginia, or $1,078. In D.C., minimum-wage earners need to work 18 more hours to afford an even higher rent of $1,412.
When three minimum-wage jobs are needed to afford a two-bedroom apartment in the District, something is broken in our housing system. Such tendencies are blamed on gentrification, the combined economic and political forces that, in seeking to renew and revive older areas of town, raise living prices in an area and push out lower-income residents who can no longer afford to live in more expensive communities.
If we want to build an equitable, diverse, and vibrant District, development should still occur, but it should be approached holistically. This requires that the interests of poorer residents, whose right to a dignified standard of living necessitates affordable housing and living wages, be as seriously considered as those of wealthier residents. As such, the city of Alexandria should require JBG to build more affordable housing more quickly, and not allow them to raise rents to the point where already marginalized low-income residents can no longer afford to live in their longtime communities.
