Coraggio Consulting
Loudoun County Board of Supervisors, Transportation and Land Use Committee, Wednesday, February 21, 2024

Date: Wednesday, February 21, 2024
Place: Board Room, First Floor, Government Center, 1 Harrison Street SE, Leesburg, Virginia
Length: 56m (video)
Official meeting video (county, Granicus): https://loudoun.granicus.com/player/clip/7600
Agenda (Granicus): https://loudoun.granicus.com/AgendaViewer.php?view_id=73&clip_id=7600

Machine transcript (speech-to-text) produced by Coraggio Consulting. Not an official county record. Names and numbers may be misspelled; check the video at the timestamp before quoting.
Speech-to-text: whisper.cpp, model large-v3-turbo. Produced 2026-10-21. Timestamps are [HH:MM:SS] into the meeting video.

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[00:00:00] to request one pursuant to Virginia code section 2.2 37 8.3 and the board's rules of order supervisors glass is requested to participate in this meeting by electronic communication physical quorum on the board of supervisor is present in the boardroom and the board has made arrangements for the voice of supervisors glass to be heard by all persons in the boardroom supervisor glass made this request within the required timeframe and the county attorney determined that supervisor glasses request meets the qualifications to participate remotely.

[00:00:33] The board will record in its minutes that Supervisor Glass participated remotely from a secure location in her home due to illness. Supervisor Glass, can you hear us okay? Yes, I'm still squeaking. Okay, we're not going to ask you many questions, so, you know, thump on the microphone a couple of times if you want to say something, but this is an information item only, and we shouldn't require any participation, but by all means, reach out if you need to.

[00:01:04] Text Chair Randall if that's the best way to do it. Don't text Chair Randall. I was known to work last night. Tonight's little known but interesting and useless fact that if you have cream in your coffee, it will stay hot longer for three physics reasons.

[00:01:21] Number one, dark colors lose their heat faster than lighter colors. So when you lighten it with cream, it slows the cooling process. Number two, the cup draws off heat faster if it is hotter. So if you cool the cup slightly by adding cream to it, it slows the process of cooling.

[00:01:41] And the third one is viscosity. A higher viscous fluid, once you put milk in it, cools at a slower rate than a less viscous fluid. I'm sure you will need that the next time you're at the bar and are betting dollars on useless information. Please join me in the Pledge of Allegiance.

[00:01:56] I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands, one nation, under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. We have a very brief meeting tonight, and it is an update on the Unmet Housing Needs Strategic Plan.

[00:02:18] Oh, we've got to do the consent agenda first, sorry. The proposed consent agenda is as follows. Item number two, Historic District Review Committee Annual Report, countywide. Is there a motion to move the adoption of the consent agenda?

[00:02:34] That's moved by Supervisor Kirshner and seconded by Chair Randall. The consent agenda has been moved and seconded. Any discussion on the consent agenda? All those in favor, please say aye. Aye. Any opposed? Supervisor Glass, I assume you're an aye.

[00:02:53] One thump for yes, two thumps for no. Thank you. Motion has passed unanimously. We'll now move to the information items. And if I could have the staff up for the Unmet Housing Needs Strategic Plan second quarter update.

[00:03:17] Good evening, Chair Turner, Chair Randall, and members of the board. I'm John Hall, Director for the Department of Housing and Community Development. I'm joined this evening by the Assistant Director, Brian Regan, our Housing Policy Administrator, Brandy Collins, and our Housing Initiatives Project Manager, Christine Hillock.

[00:03:41] Together, we will present the second quarter of the fiscal year's report for the Unmet Housing Needs Strategic Plan, and we'll be available to answer questions thereafter. Thank you. Thank you, Mr. Hall.

[00:03:57] Good evening, Supervisor Turner, members of the committee. As Mr. Hall said, my name is Christine Hillock, and I'm the Housing Initiatives Project Manager with DHCD. Tonight, I will provide the second quarter fiscal year 24 report on implementation of the Unmet Housing Needs Strategic Plan.

[00:04:13] This is the eighth update to TLOC regarding the plan, which was approved by the Board in September of 2021. This report covers the period from October 1 through December 31, 2023. Attachment 1 to tonight's item includes progress updates for each of the 76 key actions in the short-term or one-to-two-year time frame, as well as updates for the 45 key actions in the intermediate or between the second and fourth-year time frame of the plan.

[00:04:43] Reporting on the 12 key actions in the long-term or fourth and fifth-year timeframe will begin in fiscal year 2025.

[00:05:08] Yeah, the presentation is not displaying.

[00:05:39] Good to go, thank you. Okay, the next floor slides of our presentation tonight highlight eight significant plan-related actions that were taken during the second quarter of fiscal year '24. Below each item, you will see noted the Unmet Housing Needs Strategic Plan strategy, which is associated with the activity.

[00:06:01] First, on October 2nd, the annual application closed for the county's affordable multifamily housing loan program, which provides gap financing through the housing trust for the construction of new attainable units. Two applications for this year's cycle were approved by the board last night.

[00:06:17] On October 3rd, the board approved an expedited disbursement of $500,000 of American Rescue Plan Act, or ARPA funds, to support an emergency eviction prevention program. Loudoun Cares was selected as the nonprofit partner to administer the program, which opened on November 21st, 2023, and will close on April 1st, 2024, or when funds have been exhausted.

[00:06:41] During second quarter, over $113,000 was distributed, helping 17 households to avoid eviction and remain stably housed. Next, on October 5th, DHCD accepted preliminary applications for the Loudoun County Housing Choice Voucher Waitlist for the first time in over a decade.

[00:07:05] Within approximately two hours, 132 applications were received in person at the DHCD office, and over 1,100 applications were received online. Staff have been working since October to verify eligibility of applicants, issue vouchers, and assist households with leasing new rentals.

[00:07:24] On October 26th, the county issued a request for expressions of interest for the development of attainable housing on a parcel of county-owned land, which was formerly the Ashburn North Park and Ride Lot. Applications were due on December 15th, and staff will present a separate item for board consideration.

[00:07:44] Next, on December 5th, the board approved the Finance Committee's recommendation to advertise the 2023 capital intensity factors for a future Board of Supervisors public hearing. The CIF item was considered by the board at their February 14th public hearing and has been sent to the March 19th board business meeting.

[00:08:03] Proposed changes include differentiating CIFs by housing size with the goal of incentivizing the production of smaller and more affordable units. On December 13th, the board adopted the Housing Choice Voucher Administrative Plan. This is the first time the plan has been updated since 2013.

[00:08:21] Key improvements of the new plan include the following. All required local policy decisions are now addressed within the document. A points-based preference system is now incorporated, whereas more preference points place a person higher on the wait list. And one bedroom is now assigned for every two persons, with some exceptions, reducing the number of bedrooms provided to some households and allowing the county to assist more families.

[00:08:48] Also on December 13th, the board approved the proposed 2024 legislative program. The program included an initiative to seek an amendment to the Code of Virginia that would stabilize year-over-year rent increases by establishing a maximum rate of growth and a requirement for a notice before issuing an increase in rent above a certain percentage.

[00:09:07] This bill did fail, but may be taken up again next term, and DHCD will continue to pursue ways to strengthen protections for renters. Finally, and certainly not least, on December 13th, the Board approved the Zoning Ordinance Rewrite. Several changes throughout the new ordinance, and especially in Chapter 9, attainable housing will remove barriers and increase housing affordability.

[00:09:31] Within the Unmet Housing Needs Strategic Plan, annual attainable goals are defined as any housing for sale or rent entering the marketplace each year affordable to households with incomes at or below 100% of the area median income. 100% of AMI for a family of four in Loudoun County is currently $152,100.

[00:09:51] The plan sets a goal that 20% or approximately 8,200 of forecasted new homes by 2040, as projected based on land use policies in the 2019 comprehensive plan, will be attainable housing. In addition, the plan sets a goal to preserve or create access to approximately 7,800 units for a total of 16,000 attainable units by 2040.

[00:10:16] This slide shows the number of new units added and units added through access or preservation for the second quarter of fiscal year 24. During the second quarter, 74 access and preservation opportunities were provided and 39 new attainable units were added to the supply.

[00:10:36] Midway through fiscal year 24, the county has achieved nearly a third of its goal for overall attainable units pacing ahead of goal for access and preservation, but behind for new unit production. During second quarter, new attainable housing opportunities were provided through the ADU Purchase Program and new leases at the Woods at West Park, which is a new low-income housing tax credit rental townhouse community.

[00:11:02] Access to or preservation of attainable rental units was provided through new leases at existing ADU rental communities, new leases through the Housing Choice Voucher Program, new leases at rental communities that receive loans through the Affordable Multifamily Housing Loan Program, and households assisted through the Emergency Eviction Assistance Program managed by Loudon Cares.

[00:11:24] Access to or preservation of attainable home ownership units was provided through ADU resales, loans through the Public Employee Home Ownership Grant Program, the Virginia Housing Sponsoring Partnerships and Revitalizing Communities Program, which offers reduced interest rates for home loans, a resale of a Habitat for Humanity home, and one rehabilitation project that was completed through the Home Accessibility and Repair Program.

[00:11:50] This slide provides a summary of the four attainable housing projects which are currently under construction in Loudoun. As noted earlier, the Woods at West Park has already begun to lease units. Developers and property managers for the other projects indicate that there were some construction and inspection delays, but they do expect initial certificates of occupancy will be issued in February and March of 2024, with initial lease-ups to be reported in the third quarter of this fiscal year.

[00:12:23] This slide provides a summary of two attainable housing projects which are currently in development. These two projects are expected to deliver an additional 310 new attainable units by 2026. Both projects, as well as two of those on the previous slide, were financed in part through the Affordable Multifamily Housing Loan Program.

[00:12:46] And our final slide tonight provides a look ahead to some initiatives that are currently in development. I'm going to turn it over to Mr. Hall to share some highlights on these items. And then, as Mr. Hall said, we are all happy to answer any questions you may have. Thank you, Ms. Hillock. Just to give you a preview of what we're working on through the remainder of this fiscal year, with the completion of the zoning ordinance rewrite, our staff is turning its attention to working with members of our advisory committees as well as owners, landowners, to develop a policy for transit-oriented development

[00:13:22] to try to create higher densities around transit so that households can have a little bit of alleviation on household budgets combined with housing and transportation-related costs. Staff is also working to identify the publicly owned land that exists but which parcels are suitable for affordable housing development.

[00:13:48] We've made some significant advances on that, And I will be briefing county administrations shortly with some of our preliminary results. And then with our American Rescue Plan Act procurement, we received approval from the board in December to allocate some unused ARPA funds in the amount of $153,000.

[00:14:14] That amount will be added to our interim eviction assistance program that will help. It's projected to help an additional 20 to 24 households between now and the springtime to stave off eviction during hypothermia season.

[00:14:34] And then staff is working to enhance and relaunch three of our down payment closing cost assistance programs that we have. And Mr. Regan can talk a little bit more about that. Sure. So the existing, the county's existing down payment closing cost assistance program or DPCC, we are looking to expand that and perhaps increase the maximum amount of funds that is currently available per household.

[00:15:00] We also have the public employee grant program or PEG that is available for first time homeowners that are employees of Loudoun County government, Loudoun County public schools. and that is a forgivable loan of $10,000 over five years. We are looking to increase that number of $10,000 being that, unfortunately, due to the market, $10,000 does not go as far as it once had.

[00:15:22] And then we also have what we're turning right now DPCC+, which would be available to households at 70% to 100% of the area median income because the current programs, being that they are funded by the Housing Trust, can only assist households between 30% and 70% of the area median income.

[00:15:38] So we're getting to that higher AMI threshold and also increasing the amount available for those households as well. So, again, making it a little bit easier for homeowners to become first-time homebuyers. So these are some programs we're working on, and we'll be able to provide further updates in our next quarterly update.

[00:15:57] But just wanted to give you a look ahead of what we're working on. At this point, that concludes our presentation, and staff and I are available for questions. Questions? TELIC members. Chair Randall. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Mr. Chairman, I may have several rounds of questions, just so we know.

[00:16:14] First of all, thank you. I know how hard this all is. You know that I've been working with all these discussions very closely. So if we go back to page two of the slides, we did the $500,000 for the emergency eviction prevention on October 3rd.

[00:16:36] It came out of the American Rescue Plan. And then those funds were set in one of our nonprofits, Loudon Cares, to be dispersed. What we know is when it goes to one of our nonprofits, it is not required that a person's status is considered.

[00:17:02] I am every single week, if not every, if not two and three times a week hearing from our, especially our immigrant communities, that they're just not getting the information that they need or the assistance that they need.

[00:17:21] One of the things I'm hearing on a very regular basis is that the requirement to have to have an eviction notice means that they have done everything else to pay their rent before they get that eviction notice. So they're not eating sometimes, they're not buying their groceries, they're not doing anything because they're trying to pay their rent.

[00:17:44] No one's going to not pay their rent first, they're going to do everything else. So I've had all the discussions with them about places they can find food. I've done all that, done all that. What is the rationale for having to have the eviction notice in hand?

[00:18:01] And is there anything else less, for lack of a better word, we can accept? And I get it. I get that we have to make sure that whoever is getting these monies actually have the need. I get that a lot of fraudulent behavior can happen.

[00:18:18] I get that. But it's anything from nothing at all to eviction notice. That is a very big gap, eviction notice in hand, because I think that's hard. And is that something that we have put in place?

[00:18:34] I don't believe Loudon Cares put that in place. I believe that's our, that is what we put that in place, correct? Affirmative, yes. That's ours. Is there any other standard that could be considered before we start talking about having an eviction notice in hand?

[00:18:49] because I'm worried that people are in such bad straits by that time. And, Mr. Chairman, I will have many other questions. Madam Chair, the response to your question is a little bit detailed, so bear with me.

[00:19:05] The ARPA tranches that we have, there are three that we laid out. The housing for displaced residents in a mobile home park and also displaced from our expiring affordable dwelling unit apartment complexes throughout the county.

[00:19:22] Our second tranche was for temporary rental assistance. And the third tranche is this eviction assistance program. In the fall, we were alerted that there was an uptick in evictions happening throughout the county, actually throughout the country.

[00:19:41] And the concern was to help stabilize households so that they would not be displaced during the winter season. So as we launched that particular tranche three of our ARPA dollars, we focused in on ways that we could help households stay stabilized.

[00:20:01] That was for the tranche three. Now, tranche two is for temporary rental assistance. That is a larger bucket. It's about $5.7 million, I believe, that will be available. Last fall, we did a procurement, which ended, and it has been awarded.

[00:20:19] So we're hoping that that program will launch. I'm pushing for early spring so that that will be more flexible. It will help households just who need help either with paying their current rent and or receiving housing counseling services to assess if they are rent burdened.

[00:20:43] And then we would have that housing counseling go into relocation type of services to make sure at the end of the day that household can find a place that they can afford. So long term strategy is to stabilize housing. So the short answer to your question is we focused on eviction prevention.

[00:21:06] We knew that from consulting with legal services in Northern Virginia and a couple of other HUD-approved housing counseling agencies that that eviction summons was really the source document that would identify a true eviction to make sure that the money that we were giving to our household was going for the purposes intended.

[00:21:26] and that is we did not ask for residency status. They just have to be on the lease, present a valid lease, and be income eligible. Those are some of the key criteria that we used, and we allocated the $500,000.

[00:21:43] That money has been encumbered now. It took a little bit longer than we anticipated. We thought it would run out sooner. The entire $425,000, which was available for eviction, that has been encumbered. It was a $75,000 admin fee, so that makes up $500,000.

[00:22:03] And then we have another tranche of $153,000 that we are teeing up to help an additional 20 to 24 households. Okay. I will have some follow-up questions and then other questions. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. So I want to keep on that rental assistance program.

[00:22:24] I've heard from different groups that it's $6 million ARPA money. Is that, was that the? $5.7, roughly. Was that for the temporary rental assistance, not for the eviction? That's correct. So $5.7 for the temporary rental assistance, which we have not launched yet.

[00:22:42] The eviction assistance program was $1.5 million. Last fall, the board agreed to carve out $500,000 of that $1.5 million so that we could get the interim program going so we have a million remaining we are in a procurement right now we're reviewing proposals and we should have an award hopefully soon okay so how much has been given out to the basically the 425 000 out of the 500 and that takes us to april because i saw aladdin cares kind of has a deadline of end of april yeah that's just the

[00:23:19] april first deadline is just with hypothermia season and then we just tied it to that but it's until the funds run out, and it looks like it's going to run out this month. So we have an additional $153,000 that's coming from a different pot of funds, from federal funds, CARES Act, not to be confused with ARPA.

[00:23:37] But the CARES Act, with our Community Development Block Grant entitlement, we received a separate allocation during the pandemic. So these were unused funds that we had to reallocate for eviction assistance. Okay. All right. Yeah, I think people were concerned that it wasn't getting out.

[00:23:55] soon enough um different community members that loudon cares that it takes a while to get that set up and that it wasn't getting out to families who were being evicted so i just wanted to make sure that you mentioned that yeah so the second thing is since i have a little more time is um how do we set up a housing authority in the eda is that something you guys have considered um because apparently according to um people in the development industry other there are other housing authorities and other parts of Virginia that are within the EDA to develop own and operate affordable housing and I'm just wondering if that's

[00:24:35] something that we considered as a strategy because then we can use the funding from EDA for how and can we use the funding from EDA for housing projects because I know EDA has their own source of funds because I saw that we get loans there's some EDA loans that go out to the affordable housing I'm wondering if that's something we've considered setting up a housing authority i believe the county has considered it previously i may have to defer to mr hemstreet or get back with you when i started i remember that question came up with the town of leesburg was inquiring and we and we did some research so i would have to get back with you on that particular

[00:25:13] specific response thank you mr chairman yeah yeah so the staff recommendation at this point is not to set up a housing authority. The efforts of the county right now, we would recommend be controlled by the Board of Supervisors as opposed to an independent authority that is funded by the board.

[00:25:35] So that has been the previous discussion and the previous recommendation from staff. Thank you. I've got a couple of questions here. I'm going to have to come back around to the down payment and closing cost assistance program.

[00:25:51] I think you mentioned on your slide that you're thinking about expanding it. I think there's tremendous potential there, certainly with the access numbers in the chart. Can you expound on that just a little bit more? Sure. So this is funding that stemmed from the dissolving of the Belmont Trust a while ago, and that equated to about $725,000, $750,000.

[00:26:17] So one of the aims that the board decided to use that on is homeownership assistance. So what staff decided to do was, again, to create a similar program to the one that the county has now, only to higher incomes, because we see that those that are earning between 70 and 100 percent of the area median income still need that additional boost, especially when you think that, you know, with the way the market is, a lot of individuals are still anticipating and expecting 20 percent to be used as a down payment.

[00:26:44] So what we're doing is we are preliminarily looking at awarding funds for these households at 10% of the sales price or around $70,000, which is about $700,000 is the average sales price right now of whatever is less, to be able to provide an opportunity for that household to become first-time homeowners.

[00:27:04] Do we think that's going to be a high-leverage program? I mean, if that's going to have really kind of leverage of getting our access numbers up, then is there anything we can do in the budget to expand the amount of money that's available in that program? I would say from where we currently are with our output, we're averaging less than 12 homeowners a fiscal year.

[00:27:28] So by increasing, we wanted to see if that would spark more interest and demand. And hopefully, you know, I'm hoping the first year we would double those numbers as our kind of internal target goals. But until we see if if that increased amount is going to incentivize people enough to come to the table.

[00:27:47] And is it a grant? It's a grant program. Yes. A loan program. Right. It would be a grant. And we already had preliminary input from representatives from DAR and the lending community saying that this is a fantastic idea and they can't wait to be our partners in getting the word out.

[00:28:03] It's, Chair, if I might add, it's a grant, but it does require a long-term residency, so 15-year residency before they could sell the property. That makes sense. There's accessory dwelling unit legislation that's pending right now in this session, isn't there?

[00:28:26] Are we, and I can't remember what our synopsis was on that. Are we tracking it, but we're not for it or against it? We're just tracking it, and what's your opinion about that legislation, and will that help? That is accessory dwelling units. I remember Mr. Freeman sending us information.

[00:28:44] So Ms. Collins, do you have that handy? I think the legislation increases the minimum size or the maximum size from 1,200 feet to 1,500 square feet, if I remember reading it. There was a bill in both the House and the Senate, and they were very similar. The differences between the two was one had a maximum permit fee of $100.

[00:29:04] The second one had a maximum permit fee of $250. Both bills did not... advance. So they were both killed in session. Okay. And I'm out of time. We'll come back. Chair Randall. Mr. Chairman, I have two questions from Ms. Glass. And so I like that to not be counted against my time because these are from Ms. Glass. She asked these two questions. Can staff give us more information on the Amazon Reach program? I don't remember you all talking about it. And then she says, I believe it's different from the Amazon Housing Trust Fund. So those are

[00:29:38] heard two questions. The Amazon Reach dollars, it was $10 million and that has been fully committed to some projects that have not started. I'm going to defer to Mr. Regan for all of the projects. I know that there were two or three. Yeah, this is a one-time funding pot that Amazon used as sort of a regional approach to the introduction of the second headquarters in Arlington. So they made these funding availabilities available to surrounding opportunities not just Arlington

[00:30:17] County but surrounding jurisdictions that would be impacted by the introduction of of the second headquarters so there were several projects in Loudoun County that were provided these reach funds specifically those that participated in the low-income housing tax credit program in order to leverage those those state funds and so those projects are the tusks I believe are Tuscarora and then Avonlea, which have not started construction yet.

[00:30:43] Oh, Tuscarora is one of those? I believe so, yes. Thanks. Thank you. Mr. Chairman, I'd like to ask some follow-up questions for myself now. Sure. So, John, with respect, I probably missed it, but I didn't actually hear the answer to my last question.

[00:31:01] I understand how you all got to the place where you decided that the eviction notice was, you know, after talking to HUD and other people, that's what you're going to use. My question was, can we make the decision to do something different or something less or something different between nothing, because obviously it can't be nothing, and an eviction notice?

[00:31:25] Do we have that power? And have we thought about doing that? Because from what I keep hearing from people is eviction notice, by the time they get there, they are in such dire straits, it's hard for them to pull themselves out of things by the time they get there.

[00:31:41] So that was my question, is a decision that we can make, and have we thought about doing that? My other question, and I ask this, no kidding, with all huge respect for this department and all that you've done, because I know how hard you work, and I know what a very heavy lift this is.

[00:31:58] But we have been talking about getting money out on the streets for our temporary rental assistance program for 18 months. We have moved that timeline back and moved it back and moved it back. Now we're saying early spring, which is literally about a month from now, early spring.

[00:32:15] And so I'm wondering, I mean, I know some of the glitches of what happened with that, but, you know, this has been like a really long time. Can you tell me what's going on with that? Okay, certainly. To go back to your second question, the short answer is yes, we can modify any program design to meet the board's goals.

[00:32:40] The challenge in this particular case is that we've encumbered all of the eviction assistance program funds, the $500,000. Now, we still have a million that we have not allocated, but we are in the final stages of reviewing respondents' proposals for that last tranche of a million.

[00:33:02] But the focus was to get the temporary rental assistance program launched that would have more flexibility and latitude to help the remainder of residents who are not facing an eviction to be able to get those dollars to them.

[00:33:21] And so working, and this kind of goes to your next question, the timing of why is everything taking so long, it's the collaboration that we do to ensure that our work is sound and compliant.

[00:33:36] And so working with the support services groups internally, as well as our sub-recipients, to actually launch the program, it unfortunately has taken more time than I anticipated. Okay. I understand the answer to that question. I still don't understand the answer to the eviction question. I'm sorry, I don't.

[00:34:01] Okay. So, yes, we can modify program design. However, we've encumbered all of the $500,000 that is already out on the street. We've already encumbered almost $425,000 of the funds that were for the house.

[00:34:18] not worth it doing it right now. Okay. Okay. Thank you. Mr. Chairman, I'll come back again. Supervisor Kirshner. Thank you, Chair. Thanks, guys, for coming. Just a couple quick questions. I'm a goal-oriented person. Obviously, I like looking at the goals and how we're doing each time you come and give us this quarterly update. According to my quick tabulation here, if you take the new units and the four attainable rental communities that are coming online or partly online. You subtract them out and add it. We have about 349 units that we expect to come this year.

[00:34:54] That's one short. Come on. No, I'm just messing with you. That's pretty good. I'm kind of impressed. Do we expect any others than what's mentioned in here in terms of the new units? Not this fiscal year. So we have, I think one of the next slides show some more projects that we have in queue with both phases of Tuscarora and Avonlea. And then the two projects that were just approved last night would give us, I think, an additional 167 units, but not in four years.

[00:35:30] But not actually online at this point. So when our goal is set 350, those are actually 350 in use. Is that? Yes, fiscal years. Okay. So, yeah, you're right. It's a fiscal year. I guess I didn't realize that when I was adding up the number. So we're probably a little bit short in terms of the fiscal year.

[00:35:47] we're, in terms of the actual year, I think we're going to hit it pretty good. Just to jump real over to the units preserved or provided access, we're at 100, our goal is 150, 103 is what we have to date.

[00:36:04] There wasn't, unless I missed it in the item, there wasn't a lot of discussion as to what we anticipate for the rest of the fiscal year going forward. But again, I didn't read it all real thoroughly. Yeah, in short, we should definitely exceed the 150 because we are issuing housing choice vouchers.

[00:36:24] We are anticipated to issue a total of a minimum of 300 housing choice vouchers. That would fall under that? Yes. Okay, all right. All right, thank you. Appreciate it. Madam Vice Chair. Thank you, Chair. So the housing choice vouchers, is there any way that we could give a preference to first responders and teachers with that?

[00:36:46] Because I actually met with a few first responders last year, and they were asking if there's any way that they could give a preference in the line, you know, in the list of everybody applying to our first responders and teachers.

[00:37:04] I would have to consult with HUD to see if that would be allowable to make sure that we're within the realms of fair housing, to make sure we're not giving preference to a certain employment sector as opposed to others. But that is a possibility of amending our administrative plan to include that as a priority.

[00:37:24] So I can check to see if that would be possible. Thank you. Yeah, thanks. And then the loan program that we give to county employees, is that for down payment housing assistance or is that for a loan?

[00:37:40] Yes, that would be for down payment assistance. So that is a $10,000 grant that is forgivable over five years. So as long as they stay with their position with Loudoun County and live in the same home five years later, it is totally forgiven. Wonderful. That's wonderful. Thank you. And then I know I asked you this question, John.

[00:37:58] So LIHTC funding, I've heard from a lot of developers that you can only get LIHTC funding and loans if you do multifamily. So I just wanted to confirm that LIHTC funding does give you flexibility to do other units because I've heard from different nonprofit groups that people want other units besides multifamily, you know, maybe quads, maybe some townhomes, a different product.

[00:38:28] So I'm just wondering if LIHTC funding is available for that and if it's easy to get that type of funding. The short answer is yes. Section 42, low-income housing tax credits, can be used for rental housing.

[00:38:44] We mostly see it in multifamily. I've been in places where I've had scattered sites, single-family units. However, the challenge goes to the investor that buys the tax credits.

[00:38:59] A lot of the investors, I've rarely seen one, so I know they have to be out there, but it's really rare for an investor to want to invest in single-family, let alone scattered site, because they are too difficult to manage.

[00:39:18] They prefer, if they're going to invest, to have their portfolio all in, like, together. It's not impossible, but it's just very challenging to find an investor to buy the credits to invest in the property.

[00:39:34] But single-family attached would probably be okay. Like a quads, a quads. Yeah, and Supervisor Tocroni, there are actually two developments in Loudoun County that are townhome LIHTC communities, and there's a proposal going through the rezoning process right now that is proposing single-family detached as LIHTC units.

[00:39:51] So the possibility is there. Right, I think that's our fuller farms, right? Yes, ma'am. Yeah, okay. Thank you. As I look at the chart that's up there right now, just based on the empirical evidence, I would say we're three years into the plan now, right?

[00:40:08] Three years? This September we will be. Yeah. As I look at that, I want to feed the 68.7%, whatever's going on there is working, and I view the 14.6% as a failing paradigm. That sounds harsh, harsher than it is.

[00:40:25] I'm talking in purely statistical terms. But that 14.6% tells me we need to look at the paradigm we're using for that because we're not going to get there from here at that rate. Something's got to change fairly dramatically. So the point that you just made, and that's come up recently, and I agree with it, that the investors are leery about single-family detached ADUs. That tells me we probably need to be thinking about incentivizing the LIHTC process, accelerating it, encouraging and incentivizing developments rather than having the onesies and twosies ADUs spread out through the

[00:41:03] development to have an actual LIHTC building. And I think if you go to the next slide, aren't all those projects that equal the 322 LIHTC projects, or are they not? I know Waxbowl crossing is i know the woods at west park is poland hill is wax pool is view at broadlands they may have received four percent tax credit so i believe view at broadlands is okay um it just um i think that might that might be a key to boosting our our new homes i really do think that might be part of the key because those those seem to be that the board likes them we vote them in more

[00:41:43] often than not and in fact i can't remember the last time we voted one down and i think they really give a shot in the arm to new developments. So that would be one that I'm looking for. I'm just curious what the mechanism is that we re-evaluate. Are we at a point now where we re-evaluate and say, what can we do? Let's change the paradigm here because we're not getting there on the new houses. Your assessment is, you know, is right on mark. And we are starting to turn our attention to doing a program evaluation by the time we get to that three-year mark of the Unmet Housing

[00:42:21] Needs Strategic Plan. I've had some preliminary conversations with county admin as well as DHCD staff. So over the next six months, we will begin working to update and to analyze and refocus our attention on how do we get there. And is, you know, the 16,000 unit number, Is that the right number, or how do we come up with a better strategy?

[00:42:49] Okay. In my last 10 seconds, we have been giving a pass to capital intensity of factor on affordable units, practically, not de jure, de facto. The board has voted to, okay, the developers are not offering CIF proffers. Has that had any impact?

[00:43:05] Do you think that's had any impact? Because I haven't perceived any necessary impact. In terms of impact, I know that I've received feedback from discussions held at the Affordable Dwelling Unit Advisory Board, Housing Advisory Board, and that there is pushback in terms of if I don't have to pay the fees for an ADU, why would I have to pay it for even a unit at lower AMI?

[00:43:30] So if I'm going to provide a rental unit that caters to households that are between 0% and 30%, why am I paying it there but not for a household that is earning 30% to 50%? So I think the constant comments that I've heard, at least, have been that it should be applicable to the attainable spectrum from zero to 100, where if it is a household that is earning zero to 100, then it should be exempt from providing those fees.

[00:43:53] Can you send me an email with that comment, that feedback on it, just as a reminder, and I'll carry that to Fick, and we'll have that discussion. Gladly to. Thank you. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. John, the other thing, I think I didn't ask the question very well, and so when I later on gave thought to your answer, Your answer made perfect sense to the question that I asked, but I didn't ask the question I was trying to ask very well, so let me try it again.

[00:44:19] If I'm not mistaken, a half penny on the tax dollar last year was about $6 billion. Is that thing that's about right, right? For fiscal year 24, yes, $5.9 million, and fiscal year 25, it's estimated to be $7.4.

[00:44:39] Okay. All right. So it is my intention to make a motion this budget season to do another half penny on the tax dollar, making it a full penny. What I was trying to ask was, how have you leveraged that $5 million? And I think that what I actually asked was, how have you leveraged all the money in the housing trust fund which which i know that there's more money in and i and i'm using house trust housing trust fund loosely valmarie taught me that but i but so i'm not

[00:45:18] just asking how have you what have you done with that five million from last time i'm asking how how do you use that to leverage other monies knowing that there's still more monies in the housing trust fund because the goal really is not to spend the housing trust fund down to zero is to build it up so we can use it so before I make that motion to do another half penny which is my intentions how have you leveraged the five million from last last last year that's a much clearer way to answer that ask that yes and chair Randall and when you posed the the question last

[00:45:55] week I I reflected on on your question and I thought afterwards I thought you might have been asking a different question. But the response to the question you're posing on the half cent or the local tax fund dollars, roughly 5.9, we have not expended those funds to date. The plan is to use this totals. So in fiscal year 23, we received 2.2 million from local tax. I think that sometimes

[00:46:30] is referred to as a cigarette tax 2.2 million we have an additional 4 million of proffers and then the 5.9 and the anticipated 7.4 so that would put us at about 12.1 million the plan of action to use these funds are one is for the adaptive reuse project with old arcola which will be 2 million

[00:46:57] That takes us down to $10 million, and then we are planning to do a consolidated request for proposals where we will take these $10 million that we have, coupled with some of our community development block grant dollars, we have about a million dollars there, and to present that to the public to see what projects are shovel-ready that will help us increase our housing unit output.

[00:47:23] So then what I heard was correct. You have not expended the money from the 0.5 from the housing that went to housing from last year because you're trying to amass it for things, basically.

[00:47:44] And then that was my next question. I'm sorry, I'll be quick. The syntax money, which is what I call it, that's 2.2. That has been just put into the bucket also. That hasn't been expended. it well that's gonna put me in okay I'll come back thanks chair so John you mentioned that you're gonna go through a program evaluation of the amount housing needs plan I would encourage that you work with cog on like kind of a regional approach because you mentioned the 16,000 figure and I've been kind of questioning where that figure came from too and really housing affordability is

[00:48:23] a regional issue so I almost think it would make sense to work with cog and come up with numbers for our regional partners you know so that we can you know as a team you know address this issue versus you know Loudoun County doing 16,000 units I think it makes sense for the whole region to look at it and I don't know if that's something you considered working with COG because they do have a housing and economic resource legislative agenda and and I know that that's a priority for COG. So I don't know if that's something you could look at. Yes, we work

[00:49:02] with COG and the regional goals for housing that we're behind is 320,000. Okay. And last summer we compiled all of the jurisdictions and what everyone's goals were. I'll be sure to send you that. But even after all of that was compiled, there was still a shortage of about 75,000 units for the region. And so talking to COG, the first strategy is if everybody at least does what they are planning to do. But that was where we were last summer with that exercise.

[00:49:41] Okay. And another idea, and I thank you for doing this, is looking at extending the ADU covenant affordability period beyond 15 years. I've always questioned what happens. We keep losing units i know we have a a resale where we buy them back but i don't think we buy them all back and so we're at a deficit you know um so i i do appreciate um you looking at that um for for sale and rental units i assume you're going to look at it for both right yes ma'am okay and that is one of the objectives in the unmet housing strategic plan and i can tell you that the affordable dwelling unit advisory board is currently looking into that yeah as we speak

[00:50:21] I think that will help us. And then also going to 20%. I know that was in the unmet housing needs plan is trying to get 20% on new developments. I know Mike, Chair Turner, is aware of that, but we're not really there. So I think that may be why we have that deficit up on that table is because we're not getting to that 20% that we had forecasted.

[00:50:41] So just something to think about. All right. Will do. Thank you. Now I do have a couple questions. I didn't think I did. I don't get the sense, and this is just a comment, I don't get the sense that the tools that we're using to incentivize developers to create ADUs are having the leveraging impact that we intend them to have.

[00:51:05] That's when we do the analysis of how are we doing at the three-year mark on the plan. I would really drill down, if you can, on that and maybe talk to developers and say, what would incentivize you to build more ADUs? Because I'm not sure we're hitting that mark. We can say 20 percent all day long, but if we don't analyze not the lag indicators, did we get there or not, but the lead indicators, what do we need to do to incentivize to get to the 20 percent?

[00:51:30] I think that's where we need to focus, and I'm not sure what that is. Developer answer may be, there's no way I can make my pro forma work in any kind of incentivized way, and that just means the county's got to put more skin in the game, and how are we going to do that?

[00:51:46] But that's just a thought. Madam Chair. So, this will be my last time, Mr. Chairman. So, it is completely unrealistic to think we can meet our housing goals with the, as Mr. Turner's words, onesies and twosies through what the developers do.

[00:52:03] It's just not realistic. I've actually been fairly grateful that the developers routinely do more than is requested from them to do. Sometimes with a density request, sometimes not with a density request, sometimes they've just done it. There are some developers who have done amazing projects.

[00:52:21] Michael Gabretti is absolutely one of them. But we're not going to get there from here. I am two things. One, understanding of how you all are working on that kind of hamster wheel as fast as possible.

[00:52:37] And I understand that, and I appreciate that very much. At the same time, I'm very concerned by how long this is all taking. Come talk to me later on, John, about what we need to do to, I don't know, make this higher profile, what you need in the office.

[00:52:54] I really don't know what the answer is. I know that we have stood up this department in no time at all, and you all have done quite a bit since we stood it up, but the need is so great. And as I said the other day, that need was reflected even more at NACO when they talked about the fact that this is not a Loudoun issue.

[00:53:16] It's not a regional issue. It's not a Virginia issue. It's a countrywide, it's a nationwide issue. But what hit me more was how much more it costs not to put people in homes than it does to put people in homes. like how much more it costs to have people who are either homeless or precariously housed, how much money that people have to spend in their, and how little disposable income they have, and really how it affects people's quality of life.

[00:53:41] So I am feeling almost at a panic place. And I know that, you know, Loudoun cannot fix the country, but we can fix our little corner of it. And I like to do that as expeditiously as possible with as many partners as possible. So are we leveraging our faith-based community?

[00:53:57] Are we leveraging our nonprofit community? Who are we leveraging to do this, to this really, really hard and important work? You know, are we doing enough with adaptive reuse? And is our zoning broad enough and wide enough that we can do something with it?

[00:54:17] Or is it too narrow? Whatever we have to do to put homes in the appropriate places, because not everyone's appropriate i i'm feeling a little i'm a little panicked about it and i'm i'm feeling equally as panicked about you know who's not getting homes in loudon county um and the demographic that we don't see moving into homes for purchase and not even right now sometimes good homes for rental and so we have a long way to go i'm very appreciative what we've done already but come talk to me about what what what it looks like on the horizon so thank you very much okay

[00:54:49] will do thank you thank you mr chairman thank you all very much we appreciate your hard work thanks for the update thank you uh that's all we have but um i'm glad mr boykin is still here uh if you could pass on to tom and carolyn i talked with mr hemstreet um my understanding of the process to where we are right now is that uh our original initiative was a fa community round table we finally acknowledged that was the way to go then there was a decision made to back off to a narrow focus on a smaller community group and then the fa came back to us just recently and said wrong

[00:55:28] way we need to do a full FAA roundtable so we're now going back to the FAA and saying please tell us the specific actions that you need to see from us in order to stand up the FAA roundtable that's where we are and right now we're looking at a May timeframe probably for a stand-up of the FAA roundtable okay anything else from the dais thank you all very much have a great evening we are adjourned

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