OPINION: Let Winter Hill Seniors Stay in Their Homes

“The true measure of a community is how well it treats its most vulnerable citizens.” 

We’ve heard the maxim many times, and there is little doubt most in Falls Church want to live up to it.  Indeed, in most cases we probably do.  But in one case, it comes into question:  the planned treatment of the current senior citizens living in the affordable housing units at Winter Hill Apartments. 

Under the plan for the City Center South Apartments, the Winter Hill Apartments would be sold to a private developer. Winter Hill Apartment residents would be moved to a City Center South high-rise. 

Unfortunately, there is an important fact going unconsidered:  some of the residents don’t want to move. 

As Anita Rosenberg told the Falls Church City Council (Community Comment: City Center South Lacks What Makes Winter Hill Home), senior citizens residing at Winter Hill Apartments would be significantly disadvantaged by the move to the planned high-rise facility.  And it is easy to see why.  Winter Hill Apartments are idyllic.  They offer senior citizens easy access, significant privacy, green grass, trees, a warm environment.  Ms. Rosenberg and her husband have lived there seventeen years, and they are not alone — walk by Winter Hill Apartments on a nice day and you will see senior citizens everywhere. 

Ms. Rosenberg believes life in a high-rise apartment building will be much less pleasant, and she is almost certainly right.  She mentions quiet comforts she will lose, such as watching a sunset from her small deck, the peace and quiet of her current apartment, the ease of access to it, the ability to walk to other public facilities like the library.  She’s right, of course.  Nobody could argue with her and keep a straight face.         

Perhaps senior citizens have no right to a specific type of affordable housing.  Technically, they have no right to affordable housing at all.  This is a capitalist society, after all.  And clearly, the property in question belongs to the Falls Church Housing Corporation, which legally can do with it what it wants.   

But there are two important considerations in this case.  First, even though there may be no right to a specific type of affordable housing, “doing right” by people of modest means has become an article of faith in Falls Church, and the topic of more than a few speeches.  So if we’re going to proclaim we are doing right, we should do it.  Second, the taxpayers of Falls Church are on the hook for a significant amount of money for the City Center South Apartments -– a $2 million “loan” and $750,000 or more a year in foregone tax revenue for many years.  So we have a right to an opinion about how things are handled. 

Here’s my opinion.  We should not disadvantage a group of elderly citizens to create additional space.   It doesn’t make sense, and it’s not right.

Want to provide more affordable housing in Falls Church?  OK.  Just find a way to do it that doesn’t hurt the people already being served.  The Housing Corporation and the City need to modify the plan and leave the Winter Hill seniors in place.