F.C. Affordable Housing Effort Hit By Dollar Deficit & Cut in Units

The Falls Church City Council is preparing to burden the Falls Church Housing Corporation with a $1 million construction deficit Monday as a condition for its approving a sharply-scaled back senior affordable housing project on the City of Falls Church's west end. Pressured by imminent deadline to qualify for federal aid with the project, the Housing Corporation will consent to terms, according to News-Press sources.

The vote Monday will come with quiet assurances that the City will assist the FCHC in finding the $1 million to plug the financial loophole that would otherwise scare off federal examiners.

But the $1 million, which may come from City taxpayers, is the price the City will pay for acquiescing to the pressure from some neighbors to the proposed project to restrict its size.

It also comes at a cost of scaling back the benefits of the project, itself, from an original financially self-sufficient plan for 70 affordable rental units to about 56.

At issue for the protesting neighbors is some neighboring undeveloped land adjacent the West End Park that they want added to the park, despite a history of underutilization to date.

But if Monday's vote goes according to current plans, City taxpayers will subsidize those neighbors' claim to a tiny portion of that undeveloped land by $1 million and with a sharply diminished effort at addressing the City's affordable housing needs.