FOX 5 Investigates: Luxury Affordables: MyFoxDC.com
FOX 5 Investigates: Luxury Affordables
FAIRFAX COUNTY, Va. - As Fairfax County commuters waited in the heat for their bus, many like Ryan Lauer, wished they had a pool waiting at home.
"That would be great!" Lauer says. "But we would have to pay. At my community right now, we don't have a pool."
What Ryan and thousands of other county taxpayers don’t realize is they are already paying for these pools. But as the gates imply, don’t expect to be allowed in for a quick dip.
“That’s not very cool,” Lauer says. “I don’t have access to that.”
FOX 5 has discovered Fairfax County taxpayers are footing the bill for luxury amenities like pools, billiards tables and indoor basketball courts as part of its affordable housing program run by the Fairfax County Redevelopment and Housing Authority.
“These are amenities that the people, the taxpayers that are subsidizing this housing don’t have,” says Fairfax County Supervisor Pat Herrity. “So, you've got people that are subsidizing other folks to have these luxury amenities and that's just not right."
Developers who want to build high-density condos and townhomes in Fairfax County are required to sell some of their units at reduced prices to the county, who in turn, rents these units for as little as $300 a month to low-income families, the elderly and the disabled.
“I agree with affordable housing,” says Tina Wright, another county resident waiting for a bus. “But you don't need a clubhouse and a homeowners association and fresh flowers every month. That is ridiculous and I pay taxes, so to me, that is crazy."
Herrity is also upset with some of RHA’s decisions. He says RHA bought townhomes with brick driveways and brick sidewalks in a million dollar neighborhood in McLean, which means taxpayers are also paying the homeowners association fees that go with living in a neighborhood like this.
"Our taxpayers are paying for it,” Herrity says. “It is up to us to make sure we are prudently using taxpayer dollars and I think in this case, we are not prudently using taxpayer dollars."
Records obtained by FOX 5 show the RHA is paying homeowner association fees on more than 500 condos and townhomes, including one development with two outdoor pools, a clubroom, an athletic center and a billiards room. Another comes with an exercise room, indoor basketball court, party room and sports pub.
Based on the documents, amenities like these end up costing the county an estimated $1.3 million in homeowner association fees every year.
"Obviously it doesn't sound good,” Lauer says. “It sounds like just another area where they are not really paying attention to where the money is going."
"I would rather see them not spend the money on the extras and actually use the money on more of the bare essentials to help more people," says Jamie Adams, another Fairfax County taxpayer.
Ron Christian just retired as Chairman of RHA.
"We have a really good housing policy in this county. I am proud of it. I am proud to be a leader of it,” he says.
Christian says RHA follows a strict policy on which units to buy.
"That policy has to do with diversity, making sure we don't put all affordable housing of any kind in one location all the time,” says Christian.
He says the federal government recently gave RHA the very best rating possible for financial management and suggests the county might actually be saving money by paying homeowner association fees.
"They pay for certain things that if we didn't pay a homeowners fee, we would have to send staff from RHA to do. Snow removal, garbage pickup in some cases,” says Christian.
But Herrity remains skeptical.
"These people living in these million dollar homes with these amenities have no real incentive to improve themselves because as soon as they get a raise, they are going to have to move out of these nice units and they're going to end up in units not nearly as nice as the ones they're in."
Read more:
http://www.myfoxdc.com/dpp/news/special_report/fox-5-investigates-luxury-affordables-062711#ixzz1QYpkqO59
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