Housing Project Still Breathing

The patient was still breathing following the Falls Church Housing Corporation's latest encounter with the Falls Church City Council this Monday.

The Housing Corporation's struggle to win needed City support and federal tax credit financing for the senior affordable housing project it wants to build on West Broad Street inched forward at the City Council work session. Councilman Sam Mabry introduced a creative solution to permit the FCHC to move forward to apply for the tax credits by the annual deadline tomorrow.

FCHC Executive Director Carol Jackson said it would be months before the tax credits would come through, if the application were approved, although if there were a problem with the application, she would find out much sooner.

However, the chief financial officer for the Affordable Housing Corporation, which is partnering with the FCHC on the project here, told the Council Monday that he felt the application should be sound.
Mabry proposed the City move immediately to purchase the land in question from the Falls Church Volunteer Firefighters which the promise that it convey it over to the FCHC within the time frame required to apply for the tax credits.

Up until that proposal, City Manager Dan McKeever said he could not be comfortable with any scenario that would qualify for the application and neighbors to the proposed site permitted to speak at the work session had urged the Council to delay the application for a year.