Loudoun officials report FY2025 progress on unmet housing needs; county to reevaluate targets

The Loudoun County Transportation and Land Use Committee received an update Sept. 17 on implementation of the county's Unmet Housing Needs Strategic Plan, including fiscal year 2025 results, pipeline projects and a planned evaluation of targets and performance metrics.

The report, presented by Department of Housing and Community Development staff, said the county allocated the equivalent of one penny of the real‑property tax rate (about $17,300,000) to the housing fund in the FY2026 budget, approved four loan increases and one new loan through the county's multifamily loan program, and recorded 27 new attainable units and 71 access or preservation opportunities during FY2025.

Why it matters: the strategic plan, approved by the Board of Supervisors in September 2021, sets targets for the county's attainable housing stock and guides use of local funds. Staff told the committee they will evaluate how targets align with current demand and clean up tracking methods before recommending any changes to the Board.

Kristen Hillock, Housing Initiatives Project Manager, summarized FY2025 outcomes and pipeline activity, saying the plan defines attainable housing as housing for households earning up to 100% of area median income (AMI). Hillock noted the plan's long‑term target of roughly 8,200 new attainable units by 2040 and an additional 7,800 units to preserve or provide access.

Hillock told the committee the board approved four loans June 3 through the Affordable Multifamily Housing Loan Program, including increases for Tuscarora Crossing phases 1 and 2 and Old Arcola School, and a new loan for Goose Creek Village West, a project that will offer 72 attainable rental apartments. She said the county consolidated two existing loan programs into one streamlined attainable housing loan program on June 17 to shorten approvals and increase efficiency.

Eric Keeler, director of the Department of Housing and Community Development, and Brandy Collins, Housing Policy Administrator, said the county achieved 65% of its FY2025 goal for new unit construction and surpassed the annual goal for access and preservation. Collins said, however, that internal tracking issues exist and are part of the evaluation.

"Currently there are some concerns how we're internally tracking access numbers. In some cases they're double counting and triple counting households," Collins said. "Through this evaluation we're gonna clean up all of our data and then be able to provide cleaner report outs on our metrics." (Brandy Collins, Housing Policy Administrator)

Collins and Hillock described three Near‑term items staff are working on: compiling an attainable housing inventory that documents unit counts, affordability periods and funding commitments; developing a proposed "no net loss" policy for Board consideration; and producing an at‑a‑glance FY2025 summary (attachment 3 to the item).

Members asked for more detail about AMI distribution (for example, how many units serve households at 30%–50% AMI versus 85%–100% AMI). Chair Randall and other supervisors said the difference matters for policy and funding decisions. Collins said the evaluation will include updated demand estimates at AMI bands and that staff will return with recommendations for any target changes.

Supervisors also discussed naturally occurring affordable housing and smaller‑unit strategies to serve middle incomes (the "missing middle"). Hillock said staff can analyze smaller‑lot and smaller‑unit approaches during the plan evaluation and noted a concurrent "tiny homes" white paper effort.

The department said it expects to share the inventory data with the Housing Advisory Board, the Board of Supervisors and the public in 2026 and to develop a public, phased attainable housing dashboard to support future policy decisions.

Next steps: staff will complete the strategic plan evaluation, clean up duplicated counts in access metrics, and return to the full board with proposed changes or confirmations of targets. The department also will continue coordinating loan underwriting and cross‑departmental reviews for pipeline projects.