Demonstrators organized by New Virginia Majority demand action on a long-stalled rental assistance program outside the county Department of Housing and Community Development Friday, June 30, 2023.
More than a year after county supervisors voted to earmark $12 million in federal funding for housing assistance, community members are still waiting on the first dollar of rental help.
Members of New Virginia Majority protested in the rain outside county government offices in Leesburg Friday to demand action on the long-stalled funds.
Supervisors in April 2022 voted to set aside that money from the county’s last tranche of American Rescue Plan Act funding for preserving affordable housing and offering displacement services, without a specific plan. Organizers with New Virginia Majority worked with the county Department of Housing and Community Development over six months to craft a rent buy-down program that would send money to landlords to replace part of rent payments.
But those plans first sat unused, then disappeared when on Jan. 10 the Board of Supervisors voted for a different set of programs, including only $5.75 million for rental assistance. Another $1.5 million was targeted for legal assistance for people facing evictions, and $2 million to stay with the county itself to replace a computer system in the Department of Housing. The balance was to go to extending the terms of rent-controlled homes and helping residents of the mobile home park in Lucketts, which was up for sale, relocate if necessary.
In the meantime, Loudoun has seen a spike in evictions as protections and rent assistance were allowed to run out, and as apartment rent prices climbed more than 10% each year.
Demonstrators organized by New Virginia Majority demand action on a long-stalled rental assistance program outside the county Department of Housing and Community Development Friday, June 30, 2023.
The demonstration Friday was the second time New Virginia Majority organizers showed up to the county offices demanding action, after a previous demonstration in December. Once again, they asked to speak to housing department Director John Hall; once again, although demonstrators were permitted into a conference room as the rain picked up, as of 3:30 p.m. with the demonstration still ongoing Hall stayed inside his office.
Single mother of two Heidi Vasquez said during the demonstration outside that she has difficulty between rent, medicine and food for her children, a babysitter, and having to take unpaid time off from work to take care of her daughter.
“Therefore, I am asking for the director to tell us when he’s going to be able to release that money, because every month I have to see where I can get the money,” she said speaking through an interpreter.
New Virginia Majority organizer Liliana Weinberg said the county is taking too long to spend the money.
“The ARPA funds are emergency funds from the federal government, and they were emergency funds during COVID, and I think they need to be ready,” she said. “They need to spend it now.”
The county government provided a written statement to demonstrators, saying funds are expected to be available this fall.
Demonstrators with New Virginia Majority gather inside a conference room in a county office building Friday, June 30, 2023.
The demonstration also came as the county government has scaled back its assistance in the community with another source of federal funding, the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development’s Community Development Block Grants. Last year, most of Loudoun’s $1.3 million through that program went to nonprofits that collectively proposed to use that money to serve almost 4,000 people, ranging from dental services to job training and placement.
This year, although the county received roughly a $100,000 bump in block grant funding, supervisors voted to keep most of that money for the county itself, distributing less than $400,000 to nonprofits and funneling most of that money into the county’s housing programs.
That also contributed at least in part the collapse of one Loudoun nonprofit, INMED Partnerships for Children, which formerly had been a major recipient of block grant funds and closed abruptly earlier this month, citing “a perfect storm of financial challenges.”
This year, that money will support nonprofits’ service to an estimated 1,110 people including dental services, job training and placement, and case management and renovations at LAWS domestic abuse shelter. Another $150,000 that stays with the county government is expected to help one family achieve homeownership. And another $772,000 will go to a developer seeking to develop affordable housing in the county, with its impact uncertain.
Lorenzo Salas is a rising sophomore at James Madison University interning at Loudoun Now.