Glebe View in Fairfax City VA – Affordable Housing

(Oct 4, 2021) Catherine Read talks with Andy Blomme, a member of the Fairfax Presbyterian Church, about the housing project known as Glebe View. Their church decided to provide a 99-year land lease for constructing ten townhouses on their parking lot to meet the needs of low-income families. Their initial Request for Proposals (RFP) to three area non-profits turned into a collaboration of those three organizations to develop and construct these 3-bedroom townhomes in Fairfax City.

Habitat for Humanity Northern Virginia, Homestretch, and HomeAid Northern Virginia will all be involved in the construction of the homes. Habitat for Humanity will vet prospective families through their rigorous process. Eight of the homes will be sold to households earning 50-100% of AMI. The other two homes will be owned and managed by Homestretch, providing transitional housing to families in their program.

Members of the Fairfax Presbyterian Church have done extensive outreach to residents in the adjacent neighborhoods of Cameron Glen, Autumn Woods, and Westmore. There have been public meetings throughout this process which began in 2018. The first application for this project was submitted to the City of Fairfax in 2019. Since that time there have been additional requirements such as traffic studies, an archaeological site study, additional landscaping, fencing, and other modifications requested by the City. There have been questions about ownership and maintenance of an adjacent path, lack of sidewalks, and where children will catch the school bus. The full project application timeline can be found at bit.ly/FXHousing.

Andy Blomme and other members of the Fairfax Presbyterian Church are hopeful that the project will be approved by the Fairfax City Council without further delays. Their church community is committed to using its resources to welcome families into Fairfax City by providing housing they can afford.