The View From Over Here: Marching to Support Crescent

The long-ignored residents of the Crescent Apartments at Lake Anne finally found their V.O.I.C.E.       

Their landlord, Fairfax County, is entering negotiations with a developer who is being selected to replace the 181-unit apartment complex as part of a much larger redevelopment.                 

A few years ago, when Fairfax County drew up a new comprehensive plan for high- density development to revitalize economic activity at Lake Anne, Hunter Mill Supervisor Cathy Hudgins assured the community that the 181 affordable units at Crescent would be replaced on a one-for-one basis.  They would be built among the 750 or so high-end condominiums on the site. 

We expected the high-end units would be on the hilltops so that the lofty ones might have a view of not one, but two lakes — Lake Anne and Lake Newport.  The new affordable units would be in the same neighborhood and remain part of the Lake Anne community.                    

But, it turns out that the criteria for the “affordable” units have been increased.  Thus, most of current resident families whose income averages around $45,000 won’t be able to make the cut to be future residents.

The county’s Request for Proposals from developers specifies that 70 percent of the so-called “workforce” or “affordable” 181 apartments will go to families making up to $65-70,000 per year, 20 percent to those earning up to $54,000 a year and just 10 percent to those making up to $32,000 each year.  (Note: I love the county’s term “workforce housing”!  It says a lot about rampant inequality in America today.)

The bump up to $70,000 from $45,000 is substantial and will eliminate a lot of lower income families from Crescent and, effectively, Reston.

The nonprofit V.O.I.C.E. (Virginians Organized for Interfaith Community Engagement) and the faith community working with Crescent residents estimate that 80 percent of current residents and families of similar incomes will be excluded from the new apartments.                                                            

On Sunday at 3:30 p.m., over 150 Reston faith community leaders along with V.O.I.C.E. will rally and walk with Crescent tenants to highlight and protest the loss of rental homes that have been affordable for these hardworking families, long time our neighbors. 

The Crescent families, the faith community and the rest of us with them
want to send the message to Supervisor Hudgins that the income criteria for the Crescent Apartments should not be changed.  To do so is to close the Reston community to our longtime lower-income neighbors and to break faith with Reston goals and values.

The walk will begin at Temporary Road and old Reston Avenue (behind Coldwell Banker) and will proceed down North Shore Drive to Lake Anne. 

It will highlight the impact of the coming Silver Line, the stories of Crescent families, and the schools and neighborhoods they’ve been part of for many years. 

It will be a comfortable walk symbolizing community support for our neighbors and Reston founding values. I’ll be there and hope many of you will join us.