City of Alexandria, Virginia
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MEMORANDUM
DATE: JANUARY 22, 2026
TO: THE HONORABLE MAYOR AND MEMBERS OF CITY COUNCIL
THROUGH: JAMES F. PARAJON, CITY MANAGER
FROM: HELEN MCILVAINE, DIRECTOR, OFFICE OF HOUSING
DOCKET TITLE:
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Housing 2040 Plan Work Session
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ISSUE: Update regarding the Housing 2040 Plan, including discussion of select issues to solicit Council guidance regarding draft principles and goals, and proposed strategies and recommendations related to topics, tools and targets. Timeline for next steps to move the Plan forward for public hearing this Spring.
RECOMMENDATION: That City Council provide Housing staff with feedback regarding the Housing 2040 Plan and its proposed principles, goals, and recommendations.
BACKGROUND: The Housing 2040 Plan is an update to Alexandria’s 2013 Housing Master Plan which has guided city housing policies, projects, investments, and targets through 2025 since its adoption twelve years ago. In linking the City’s housing supply to its economic competitiveness, the 2013 Plan offered new opportunities for community understanding and consensus building. A mid-Plan Housing Summit in January 2020 confirmed the success of this approach, endorsed the City’s commitment to COG’s Regional Housing Initiative and its additive affordable and workforce 2030 targets, acknowledged new land use trends, and provided an opportunity for Alexandria to more explicitly align housing goals with considerations of equity and access, values affirmed again through the Zoning for Housing/Housing for All process.
Housing 2040, an update to the 2013 Plan was launched in September 2024 with an assessment of Alexandria’s housing needs which identified several key findings and questions, including:
1. Low and moderate-paying jobs within the service and hospitality sectors are the backbone of Alexandria’s economy. How will the City ensure its workers can afford to live here?
2. The majority of Alexandria’s multiunit housing stock (condos and rentals) is at least 40 to 60 years old. How can the City support aging condominium communities with capacity and tools to undertake projects to strengthen building systems and address deferred maintenance? With regard to rental housing, what tools are available to ensure landlords maintain apartments in a safe and habitable condition?
3.The fastest growing segment of Alexandria’s population is persons age 65+. What housing models can help meet the needs of a growing senior population?
4. The City’s population of persons aged 20-34 is shrinking. What housing typologies and price points might meet their needs and induce them to stay?
5. Differences in median household income highlight historical racial inequities, with white households, on average, earning nearly twice as much as black households. How can Alexandria address inequities in homeownership and wealth accumulation? How can pathways be created to empower renters to attain greater self-sufficiency?
6. 16,000 renter households with incomes up to 60% AMI ($78,720 for a 2-person household) are housing cost burdened. How can the City potentially intervene to reduce excessive costs and fees to enhance affordability and housing stability.
The 2040 Plan will be informed by the housing needs study, emerging demographic, land use and development trends, learnings from City small area plans, as well as by systemic inequities rooted in past practices of housing segregation and surfaced again during the COVID-19 pandemic and subsequent recovery.
DISCUSSION: Alexandria has been successful in achieving the goals established in the 2013 Plan and new targets set in the 2019 COG Regional Housing Initiative. While funding and implementation of Housing 2040 and its recommendations may be initially constrained by current market conditions and uncertainty regarding federal housing policy and resources which impact the City budget process, Housing 2040 is intentionally planned to be dynamic with regular opportunities for reassessment to ensure it is as responsive and flexible as feasible in meeting Alexandria’s housing and economic development needs over the fifteen-year Plan period.
FISCAL IMPACT: To be determined. The discussion with Council may help inform potential future financial recommendations and investments over upcoming City budget cycles.
ATTACHMENTS:
Attachment 1: Housing 2040 Presentation
STAFF:
Emily A. Baker, Deputy City Manager
Aspasia Xypolia, Deputy Director, Office of Housing
Tamara Jovovic, Housing Program Manager, Office of Housing
Christopher Do, Housing Analyst, Office of Housing