Neighbors Oppose Affordable Housing Plan

By Michael Pope

Overgrown weeds poke through broken concrete at a fallow stretch of land across the street from abandoned buildings in the Mount Vernon District of Fairfax County.

This is North Hill, where the county is about to build a mobile-home community that will serve as affordable housing. Kahan Dhillon is among those who oppose the plan as a threat to revitalization.

"Richmond Highway, unfortunately, gets the tagline "The armpit of Fairfax County." It's time to change that. I don't think we can continue with the status quo. And this development as it is, does not help the revitalization of the corridor," says Dhillon.

But supporters of the project say the plan is desperately needed. Keary Kincannon is pastor at Rising Hope Missionary Church.

"There are many, many people who are homeless and on the streets, not because they don't have an income, not because they don't work, but because there's not an affordable place for them to live," says Kincannon.

The Board of Supervisors is expected to vote on a financing plan in the coming months.