Overview
Housing for All is Alexandria’s program to explore and understand the extent of past discriminatory housing policies and their continued impact, especially on people of color and/or low-income.
In addition to the need to provide more housing units in a manner that considers choice, type, tenure, price points and dispersion – there is a need to redress how segregated laws and policies of the past have influenced land use patterns of today, creating vestiges of concentrated affordable housing and/or housing of inferior and declining conditions and neighborhoods without sufficient infrastructure and services. Housing for All will help promote individual and collective understanding of these past laws and policies on the current day Alexandria housing market and neighborhoods and the moral imperative to correcting them.
Housing for All Interdepartmental Subcommittee
Background and Purpose
The Housing for All project was initiated by an interdepartmental team within the City of Alexandria in 2019 with the purpose of generating reference resources to help promote individual and collective public understanding of the morale grounds behind the zoning reforms proposed under the City’s Zoning for Housing program. The quantitative need for the City’s Zoning for Housing program was already established at the time based on the high number of cost burdened renter households who pay more than 30 percent of their income of $75,000 or below on housing – 15,000 in the City of Alexandria (Source: American Community Survey 2015-2020 Estimates).
The interdepartmental team consisted of City staff who participated in the first Metropolitan Washington Council of Government’s (MWCOG) Government Alliance for Race and Equity year-long training 2019 – 2020. Following that training, the group continued its work, and since many of the members were also members of the City’s Equity Core Team, they titled themselves the Housing for All Subcommittee of the City’s Core Equity Team. Through its work and commitment, the Housing for All Subcommittee identified a body of new and existing reference tools to facilitate the educational process towards a joint community understanding of the history of housing discrimination and why it is important to redress the land use impacts of the remaining vestiges of that discrimination today. Thus, Housing for All is the equity component of Zoning for Housing.
The Subcommittee engaged Dr. Krystyn Moon to help finalize some of its newly created work and to add some other new resources that were identified as needed by the Housing for All Subcommittee. Beyond that, the Subcommittee identified other resources from related works of the City, such as the Office of Historic Alexandria and from several non-governmental resources. Many thanks to the City’s interdepartmental Housing for All Subcommittee Members: Department of Planning & Zoning, Office of Equity, Office of Human Rights, Department of Community and Human Services, Office of Information Technology, Office of Housing, Department of Fire and EMS, Department of Parks and Recreation, Office of Professional Accountability, Alexandria Police Department, City Attorneys Office and the 18th District Court Service Unit. Also, many thanks to those external resources committed to similar efforts.
More reference materials will be added to this page, as completed by and for the Housing for All Subcommittee.
Resources and Information
Equity Index Map
The Equity Index Map identifies disparities in key socioeconomc outcomes to help staff and community partners make equitable and inclusive decisions. This new resource will promote the intentional use of data to eliminate systemic and institutional inequities experienced by residents.
Release Form for Prohibited Covenants
Clerk of the Courts’ Release Prohibited Covenants Form - Due to Virginia and City law certain restrictive covenants are considered invalid and unenforceable. To release a certain prohibited covenant, complete this form.
The Color of Law, A Forgotten History of How Our Government Segregated America
The Color of Law, A Forgotten History of How Our Government Segregated America, by Richard Rothstein (Liveright Publishing/W.W. Norton and Company) Available in bookstores and online outlets such as Amazon.
Just Action
Just Action by Richard Rothstein and Leah Rothstein (available for sale on June 1, 2023)
Zoning and Segregation in Virginia
Metropolitan Washington Council of Governments
Enterprise Foundation - You Don't Have to Live Here
Montgomery County Planning - Mapping Segregation Project
Related Sites
- Other related information can be found on these sites:
Questions?
Contact the interdepartmental Zoning for Housing team at ZoningforHousing@alexandriava.gov.