By JIM BUTLER

Affordable housing is a professed priority of the Alexandria City Council and the administration. Making it happen is another matter.

The Council today will entertain a resolution adopting the city’s Consolidated Annual Performance Evaluation Report to HUD regarding use of housing improvement funds. It is a chronicle of the painstaking steps toward housing goals.

It notes the city in the report year prioritized preservation of existing affordable housing while working toward new construction.

Minor rehab projects focused on critical repairs to ensure continued safe, decent, sanitary living conditions, extend the lifespan of existing housing stock and prevent displacement, the report says.

As for new construction, issues noted are systemic and programmatic barriers:

• Local concern over long-term liability;
• Volatile market conditions;
• Developer reluctance due to resale and recapture rules, particularly the requirement to convert unsold units to rental units after nine months.

The liability concern tracks to the 90-unit Bethel Apartments, a 2011 development that went belly up and is now vacant, with HUD and the city holding the paper.

Official foreclosure is expected late this year or early next.

What happens there next is indeterminate.

The report notes the potential for demolition and replacement is unlikely due to both the property flood plain locale as well as a major drainage canal’s proximity.

Two glimmers of hope at creating an affordable housing inventory have fallen through.

The city began working with a developer two years ago for construction for of Bethel replacement units and for 64 townhouses on Memorial Drive.

Both were a combination of HUD funds channeled through the city and tax credits obtained by the developer, who did not secure those.

Two obstacles to meeting the housing needs in target areas are noted in the report.

One is the difficulty under state  law in obtaining cleared title on vacant, abandoned properties. Such title is a vital first step.

Second is flood insurance requirements. About 54 percent of the target neighborhoods are in the city’s flood zone, the report notes, and require flood insurance for investments above $10,000.