$700K Approved To Fund Lamb Center's Hy-Way Motel Redevelopment

FAIRFAX CITY, VA — Fairfax City Council voted unanimously Tuesday night to approve a $700,000 appropriation to help fund the redevelopment of the Hy-Way Motel property on Fairfax Boulevard for permanent, supportive, low-income housing.

The funds were part of a supplemental appropriation resolution of $3,301,388 that council members approved to cover expenditures in the second quarter of Fiscal Year 2023.

In the original resolution introduced Tuesday night, $825,000 had been allocated for the city's Affordable Housing Initiative. However, Councilmember So Lim introduced an amendment reducing that to $700,000. Councilmember Jon Stehle seconded the amendment.

In making the amendment, Lim said she'd wished that there'd been a more thorough study of how the city could use the existing Housing Trust Fund. As proposed, the full $825,000 appropriation would be used to fund the Hy-Way Motel project, which the city council approved on Dec. 18, 2022.

On Dec. 23, 2022, The Lamb Center and Wesley Housing requested an appropriation of city funds for the Hy-Way Motel project.

At the Jan. 24 city council meeting, the resolution was introduced for the $825,000 supplemental appropriation. The money originated from two proffers contributed to the city by developers. The proffers stipulated that the money, which has sat untouched in city accounts since 2015, was to be used for affordable housing.

Wesley Housing and The Lamb Center announced in January that they'd finalized the deal to purchase the motel property. They intend to construct a five-story building, with office space on the ground floor and 54 apartments on the remaining four floors.

Related: Hy-Way Motel Redevelopment By Lamb Center OK'd By Fairfax City Council

Once construction is completed, the building will be the largest permanent supportive housing community in Northern Virginia and the first of its kind at that level of density.

The new permanent supportive housing units would be occupied by homeless people, mainly older adults, many with disabilities, who earn 15 percent or below of the Area Median Income ($14,999), according to Wesley Housing.

"There are other citizens here in our city, public safety staff, public works, teachers," Lim said. "I would also like to have an opportunity to help these individuals to purchase homes or rent."

Councilmember Kate Doyle Feingold echoed Lim's sentiments, adding that this wasn't about the quality of the Lamb Center-Wesley Housing project.

"It was about the process and fairness for other nonprofits," she said. "We have A Place to Stand in the city that provides emergency financial funding for people who are at risk of losing their housing."

Some nonprofit groups had reached out to Doyle Feingold, wanting to know how they could have applied for funding as part of the appropriation process, which she said was lacking in transparency.

Related: Lamb Center, Wesley Housing Finalize Purchase Of Hy-Way Motel

"We need to make sure that we're fair and have access to all the groups and all the nonprofits working in this really important area," she said.

Councilmember Billy Bates noted that the council's meetings have been public and that the council has received feedback from the community.

"Frankly, yes, we should have already had a process for dispersing the funds and also perhaps for replenishing the funds," he said. "Hopefully, that's something that we can work on in the future. But for now, I believe that we've done the best we could, given the timeframe and the resources at our disposal."

After unanimously adopting Lim's amendment, the city council voted 5-0 to approve the supplemental appropriation resolution of $3,301,388, which included the $700,000 for affordable housing. Councilmember Jeffrey Green was absent.

Earlier in the evening, the city council approved two other resolutions related to affordable housing as part of the consent agenda.

The first was to establish a City of Fairfax Homelessness Taskforce. Lim originally proposed the measure in December to address some of the concerns raised by city residents and business owners during the approval process of the Lamb Center-Wesley Housing project.

The second resolution was to designate 9640 Fairfax Blvd., which is the current location of the Hy-Way Motel, as a Revitalization Area.