CommunityScale begins Housing Needs Assessment for the City of Alexandria, VA

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CommunityScale has begun work on a Housing Needs Assessment for Alexandria, Virginia, a foundational step toward updating the City’s 2013 Housing Master Plan. A great deal has changed since that plan was written, but the City’s commitment to equity and attainable housing remains strong. The assessment will help Alexandria recalibrate its understanding of community housing needs and reshape its policy toolbox for the next 15 years of managed growth and strategic investment in affordability.

CommunityScale is excited to begin work on a Housing Needs Assessment for Alexandria, VA as a foundational step towards an update of the City’s 2013 Housing Master Plan.

As we have learned through this process, a lot has changed since then, but the City’s commitment to equity and attainable housing remains strong. Our work will help the City recalibrate its understanding of the community’s housing needs and reshape its policy toolbox for the next 15 years of managed growth and strategic investments in affordability.

Choropleth map of Alexandria, Virginia showing the count of cost-burdened rental households by Census tract, labeled by planning area — Alexandria West, Central Alexandria, Van Dorn/Eisenhower West, Del Ray/Arlandria/Potomac Yard and Braddock/Old Town/Eisenhower East — with the highest counts, over 1,700, in Van Dorn/Eisenhower West.

The City of Alexandria will use our Housing Needs Assessment to help address income and cost burden disparities between the city’s wealthier east side and more mixed, suburban west.

Bar chart of housing units under construction by quarter from 2014 to 2024, peaking at 9,472 units in 2021 and falling to 3,818 by 2024, with a dip to 3,223 in 2016.

As construction activity trails off in Covid’s wake, Alexandria’s persistent housing needs are increasingly difficult to meet, demanding new and creative solutions to jump start production and also increase development of units sized and priced for a more representative portion of the community.

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