AND AHOME FOUNDATION
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AHOME HISTORY AHOME is a non-profit coalition of community businesses, developers, business organizations, unions, resident organizations, and other non-profit public service groups interested in finding ways to meet community needs for affordable housing. Now serving Alexandria, Arlington, Fairfax, and Loudoun, and Prince William Counties, it was established in Fairfax County in 1986 to promote the development and passage of Fairfax County's Affordable Dwelling Unit (ADU) Ordinance. The Fairfax Board of Supervisors adopted the Fairfax ADU Ordinance in 1990. The Loudoun Board of Supervisors adopted its ADU Ordinance in 1993. "Nimby" efforts to repeal or weaken both County's Ordinances in the late 1990s were quashed when AHOME heralded the successes in both counties and rallied strong community support for their continuance. AHOME was successful in securing passage in Fairfax County in 1995 of what AHOME promoted as a "Kate and Allie" Ordinance. It permits two single parents and up to six of their children to live in a single dwelling unit. AHOME has recently become a strong advocate for the preservation of HUD-subsidized affordable housing projects built in the 1970s whose 25-year HUD mortgages are now expiring. A House of Delegates resolution introduced in the 1999 session by AHOME Board Member and Delegate Jim Scott (D-Merrifield), unanimously adopted, endorsed the concept of establishing a consortium to assist in the preservation of low-income rental housing. When the Virginia Foundation for Housing Preservation was established in May 2000, its first $1000 of "start-up" funds were supplied by AHOME. The Foundation is establishing a "gap closing fund" from private-sector supporters, mostly from banks seeking "community reinvestment credits" for funds contributed. Various banks have already pledged $30 million to this AHOME-initiated project. Both HUD-financed low-rental projects and conventionally financed older housing complexes will be eligible for assistance designed to continue the properties as "low rental preservation projects" at a time when expiring mortgages (and exhausted tax depreciation allowances) often trigger expensive renovations followed by much higher rents or sales of individual units as single condominiums. AHOME provides educational seminars and technical assistance relating to ADU's, periodically conducts bus tours of successful projects for newly elected officials and other policy-makers, and acts as a catalyst to bring together groups with divergent attitudes and goals. In 2004, a three-year effort involving several AHOME Board Members established the "Chesterbrook Senior Citizen Assisted Living Project" which is now building a 98-unit low-income housing complex in McLean. Neighborhood opposition to a zoning variance in the residentially zoned area was overcome after AHOME endorsed the project and rallied overwhelming public support at the Fairfax County Planning Commission and Board of Supervisors hearings. Also in 2004, AHOME was one of the several co-sponsors of Fairfax Board of Supervisors Chairman Gerald Connolly's June 2nd Conference on Affordable Housing Preservation which drew 202 participants. Its follow-up was the appointment of a 35-member "Fairfax Affordable Housing Preservation Action Committee"; seven of the 35 are AHOME Board Members; both of its two co-chairmen are AHOME Board Member; three of its four subcommittees are chaired by AHOME Board Members. Also in 2004, the AHOME Board reviewed and endorsed several staff prepared "housekeeping amendments' to Fairfax County's ADU Ordinance which would provide 2004 matching with other Fairfax County land-use and other ordinances.
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