Lucille and Bruce Terwilliger Place

Case Study Summary: On September 23, 2022, the Arlington Partnership for Affordable Housing (APAH) celebrated the grand opening of Lucille and Bruce Terwilliger Place, a new 160-unit affordable housing project in Arlington, Virginia, built on the site of the aging American Legion Post 139. APAH partnered with the post to rebuild their facilities on the ground floor of the new affordable housing apartment building. The project also includes a veterans’ leasing preference for 50 percent of the building so that veterans can more easily live onsite to take advantage of the new Legion space. The project was funded primarily by the Low-Income Housing Tax Credit (LIHTC) program, low-interest loans from the state-level Virginia Housing and Arlington County, and private investments from a capital fundraising campaign and private companies including Amazon.

This project brief provides an overview of the project itself, its origins, and some relevant lessons for affordable housing practitioners and policymakers nationwide. Among these lessons are the importance of flexible zoning practices that allow for more housing density in exchange for critical infrastructure upgrades, the great potential impact of future partnerships with land-rich nonprofits, and the vital importance of continued subsidies for deeply affordable housing. To reflect on these and other lessons learned, APAH convened an affordable housing policy forum with local and state leaders at the grand opening. This brief includes excerpts from that discussion.