CEO caught living in ARHA housing

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:$550k, $230k where are you all getting this information? The post story should have listed his salary.

Curiously, the ARHA doesn't post the employee salaries. They are an independently funded (ha ha) government organization and don't need to provide transparency at that level.

I think we will find that this sovereign government authority was not violating any of its own policies and that the federal government has no authority over that particular housing blocks because the money for obviously comes from a different block of grants.

REALLY?!! WHO funds ARHA? Do you know? Also it's strange all cities employees salaries are listed online but but ARHA. What are they hiding? Funny the city claims "transparency" but clearly that's just a buzz word they like to use and it's meaningless to them.

Google is your friend here: The Alexandria Redevelopment and Housing Authority (ARHA) is primarily funded through a combination of federal grants from the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD), revenue from its own housing units, and some funding and partnership initiatives from the City of Alexandria. HUD grants make up around 70% of that total funding.

It is independently funded in the sense that the majority of the funding does not come from Alexandria taxes (property, sales, etc). But it is overwhelmingly federally and municipal funded. And sometimes, it involves income received from their own developments, such as with this Chatham Square.

The real property for the location of Chatham Square was originally owned by ARHA with traditionally looking Section 8 apartments. Under Hope VI program, ARHA looked to go into a public/private partnership with EYA to sell them the land, have them build expensive, market rate townhomes and sell them for a huge profit. ARHA was going to take that money and use it to fund other projects and internal admin costs. Hope VI was for the replacement of poorly maintained Section 8 with other structures without a 1:1 replacement requirement, partially funded with HUD grants and other tax-exempt financing. The program was highly criticized as being basically gentrification and the removal of low income for the benefit of higher income. ARHA and HUD were sued over this very issue for this project and the Section 8 units were a result of a settlement. Sooooo, you're wrong. All of those Section 8 units are federally funded.

If this guy wanted to live in that development, then he should have rented or bought one of the market rate units.

The more people in need they JAM into the city the more money they make. They create a problem (well many problems here) then get federal funds and grants to "fix" the problem they created. They give the "poors" literal crumbs while they use the real lot of money for something else that they "really" care about hint: it's not the "poors."

[Anonymous]

I'm going to say it, I think if Amy Jackson won and was mayor things would be a little bit different in this situation. Not sure she would have been ok with this like Alyia Gaskins is.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:$550k, $230k where are you all getting this information? The post story should have listed his salary.

Curiously, the ARHA doesn't post the employee salaries. They are an independently funded (ha ha) government organization and don't need to provide transparency at that level.

I think we will find that this sovereign government authority was not violating any of its own policies and that the federal government has no authority over that particular housing blocks because the money for obviously comes from a different block of grants.

REALLY?!! WHO funds ARHA? Do you know? Also it's strange all cities employees salaries are listed online but but ARHA. What are they hiding? Funny the city claims "transparency" but clearly that's just a buzz word they like to use and it's meaningless to them.

Google is your friend here: The Alexandria Redevelopment and Housing Authority (ARHA) is primarily funded through a combination of federal grants from the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD), revenue from its own housing units, and some funding and partnership initiatives from the City of Alexandria. HUD grants make up around 70% of that total funding.

It is independently funded in the sense that the majority of the funding does not come from Alexandria taxes (property, sales, etc). But it is overwhelmingly federally and municipal funded. And sometimes, it involves income received from their own developments, such as with this Chatham Square.

The real property for the location of Chatham Square was originally owned by ARHA with traditionally looking Section 8 apartments. Under Hope VI program, ARHA looked to go into a public/private partnership with EYA to sell them the land, have them build expensive, market rate townhomes and sell them for a huge profit. ARHA was going to take that money and use it to fund other projects and internal admin costs. Hope VI was for the replacement of poorly maintained Section 8 with other structures without a 1:1 replacement requirement, partially funded with HUD grants and other tax-exempt financing. The program was highly criticized as being basically gentrification and the removal of low income for the benefit of higher income. ARHA and HUD were sued over this very issue for this project and the Section 8 units were a result of a settlement. Sooooo, you're wrong. All of those Section 8 units are federally funded.

If this guy wanted to live in that development, then he should have rented or bought one of the market rate units.

I don't think you can make that statement with certainty. ARHA does development through VHD, LLC. Since that's a private company, claims could be made about particular units and the source of the funding.

I absolutely can make statements with certainly because I worked on the deal. Why are you just trolling and making stuff up?

He was in a public housing unit/ section 8 in Chatham Square. The ONLY section 8 units in Chatham Square are the ones built in this deal. The very nature of Section 8 is HUD, otherwise it isn’t Section 8. Lower and middle income limits are set by HUD. ARHA doesn’t run private apartments like Charles E Smith. Do you even know what public finance is? You make zero sense.

Thanks for the laughs.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:$550k, $230k where are you all getting this information? The post story should have listed his salary.

Curiously, the ARHA doesn't post the employee salaries. They are an independently funded (ha ha) government organization and don't need to provide transparency at that level.

I think we will find that this sovereign government authority was not violating any of its own policies and that the federal government has no authority over that particular housing blocks because the money for obviously comes from a different block of grants.

REALLY?!! WHO funds ARHA? Do you know? Also it's strange all cities employees salaries are listed online but but ARHA. What are they hiding? Funny the city claims "transparency" but clearly that's just a buzz word they like to use and it's meaningless to them.

Google is your friend here: The Alexandria Redevelopment and Housing Authority (ARHA) is primarily funded through a combination of federal grants from the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD), revenue from its own housing units, and some funding and partnership initiatives from the City of Alexandria. HUD grants make up around 70% of that total funding.

It is independently funded in the sense that the majority of the funding does not come from Alexandria taxes (property, sales, etc). But it is overwhelmingly federally and municipal funded. And sometimes, it involves income received from their own developments, such as with this Chatham Square.

The real property for the location of Chatham Square was originally owned by ARHA with traditionally looking Section 8 apartments. Under Hope VI program, ARHA looked to go into a public/private partnership with EYA to sell them the land, have them build expensive, market rate townhomes and sell them for a huge profit. ARHA was going to take that money and use it to fund other projects and internal admin costs. Hope VI was for the replacement of poorly maintained Section 8 with other structures without a 1:1 replacement requirement, partially funded with HUD grants and other tax-exempt financing. The program was highly criticized as being basically gentrification and the removal of low income for the benefit of higher income. ARHA and HUD were sued over this very issue for this project and the Section 8 units were a result of a settlement. Sooooo, you're wrong. All of those Section 8 units are federally funded.

If this guy wanted to live in that development, then he should have rented or bought one of the market rate units.

The more people in need they JAM into the city the more money they make. They create a problem (well many problems here) then get federal funds and grants to "fix" the problem they created. They give the "poors" literal crumbs while they use the real lot of money for something else that they "really" care about hint: it's not the "poors."

But in this deal, ARHA was replacing about 100 Section 8 units with about100 market rate and 50 section 8 units, displacing 50 original units. And ARHA only agreed to the 50 Section 8 units because ARC sued HUD. ARHA did not offer right of first refusal to the section 8 tenants, and was going to displace ALL of them (because F them poors, ARHA wanted to make a butt load of cash) and some tenants banded together and formed ARC to sue. Eventually they got 50 units. They’re on the interior facing the playgrounds.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I'm going to say it, I think if Amy Jackson won and was mayor things would be a little bit different in this situation. Not sure she would have been ok with this like Alyia Gaskins is.

I wonder what Gaskins and Johnson have in common. If I could only put my finger on it.....

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I'm going to say it, I think if Amy Jackson won and was mayor things would be a little bit different in this situation. Not sure she would have been ok with this like Alyia Gaskins is.

I wonder what Gaskins and Johnson have in common. If I could only put my finger on it.....

????

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I'm going to say it, I think if Amy Jackson won and was mayor things would be a little bit different in this situation. Not sure she would have been ok with this like Alyia Gaskins is.

I wonder what Gaskins and Johnson have in common. If I could only put my finger on it.....

Riddles and vague posts? Move it along articulate adults are posting on this thread.

[Anonymous]

I’ve worked in public housing and tax-exempt financing/public finance for 20+ years. an executive director of a housing authority would be barred from living in a section 8 unit of that housing authority under HUD regulations because of conflicts of interest (term of art). He would be receiving a direct financial interest (free or reduced rent) by living in such unit that is controlled by ARHA over which he has direct decision and policy making power. This also applies to his immediate family members. It’s not even questionable or a grey area.

Technically he could get a waiver directly from HUD but I have never heard of them granting one because the standard of proof is so high. He would have to prove there is no practical alternative to living there and that his conflict of interest is disclosed and properly managed. There is zero chance there was no practical alternative, given the availability of other rentals in the area and his income level. So no.

[Anonymous]

It's insane that he still hasn't been fired.

[Anonymous]

Update?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Update?

Fired.

Amazing it took this long. I presume the feds reached out and they had to pretend to care.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Update?

Fired.

Amazing it took this long. I presume the feds reached out and they had to pretend to care.

Amusingly, he now qualifies for housing assistance.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Update?

Fired.

Amazing it took this long. I presume the feds reached out and they had to pretend to care.

Amusingly, he now qualifies for housing assistance.

That’s not how it works. 1) he’s banned for at least 1 year under HUD regs, and 2) after that he would need to qualify under the income and asset verifications to even be put on the waitlist.

He doesn’t qualify. People thinking it’s so easy to qualify hurt my brain.

[Anonymous]

Now 8 out of the 9 commissioners resigned today. WITW!?!

https://www.alxnow.com/2025/10/14/eight-arha-commissioners-resign-forcing-emergency-city-council-meeting/

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:So he was living in one of the nicer ARHA owned townhomes in Chatham Square (cook Street). GTFOH!

The article is confusing to me because I can't tell if he was 1) living there with his family and they all moved in together at the same time, or 2) his family members already lived in the unit, and he was crashing with them.

Do you have any idea how long it takes to get a Section 8 unit? Years. This is really bad. And he's not living in the ones by the Braddock metro where people get shot all the time. He's living in the nice townhomes that were built for ARHA that were part of the Chatham Square development.

Doesn’t matter.‘what matters is his family members got a nice townhome on the taxpayer dime