Ronesha Parker unfolded a neon green piece of paper from her mailbox and read across the top. “GREAT NEWS,” it began.
Parker and her teenage daughter have lived in public housing in Alexandria for six years, outlasting many staff workers and dealing with persistent maintenance and accounting issues. But the paper in her hand offered a glimmer of relief. Parker qualified for a one-time debt-relief program that would wipe away the outstanding rent she owed.
The promised help comes after Alfred Street Baptist Church pledged to donate about $1 million to pay off outstanding balances of households living in one of the roughly 1,100 units maintained by Alexandria’s public housing authority.
Mayor Alyia Gaskins (D) and other officials have praised the gift, saying it will help give residents stability. But the city is facing an early hurdle.
Mark Jinks, chair of the Alexandria Redevelopment and Housing Authority board, said while 445 families had an outstanding balance as of March 10, the city is still working to confirm how much residents owe after an accounting system switch in 2024 “bollixed-up” agency ledgers.
Parker is among those questioning her balance. Her ledger doesn’t show any payments or charges made between 2020 and 2024, she said. Clearing residents’ debt is “very helpful for anyone who does have a true balance,” Parker said, but for residents with inaccurate ledgers, “it is just putting a mask over the issue.”
Each year, Alfred Street Baptist’s congregation participates in a month-long fast to avoid social media, shopping, certain foods and unnecessary spending. Participants then donate the money they saved to fund a community project. Church officials had decided to help address homelessness with its donation this year when Gaskins reached out about a need to help households facing potential evictions.
Pastor Howard-John Wesley called it a sign from God.
“Every single penny is going outside the door of the church. It’s connected to what we understand the purpose of fasting to be,” Wesley said. “As the Lord changes our life, the Lord empowers us to change the lives of others.”
The church has a long history of investing in the community, including a $1 million donation to support the founding of the Smithsonian’s National Museum of African American History and Culture, and in 2019, paying off the tuition debt of 34 students at Howard University.
The $1.5 million collected this year set a record for the church, Wesley said. The previous mark sat around $800,000.
Not all of the money will go to the Alexandria housing authority. Whatever is left over after paying off the remaining balances will be given to other organizations addressing housing issues, Wesley said.
The church’s donation comes amid intense scrutiny of the Alexandria public housing agency’s leadership. Last year, the city fired ARHA chief executive Erik Johnson after it was discovered he had been living in one of the agency’s units even as nearly 38,000 people were on a wait list for housing. Shortly after, each commissioner on the authority’s governing board stepped down amid criticism from Gaskins and others.
Alfred Street Baptist knew about the past leadership issues, Wesley said, but did not want to let any internal politics interfere with taking care of the people who live in the city.
The housing authority’s new board, aware of accounting errors, paused eviction proceedings in November to give the agency time to correct any problems. The U.S. Department of Housing & Urban Development has since said it’s time to restart eviction proceedings.
Jinks, the current ARHA board chair, said that as the agency has worked to confirm ledgers over the past few weeks, the number of households with a remaining debt fell to around 325. Public-housing residents pay rent based on their anticipated gross income, minus any deductions, according to the ARHA website.
Some residents who owed small amounts paid off their accounts on the spot. Those were mostly minuscule balances, he said, leaving the total debt of the families still at around $1 million. Jinks did not know how that compares to the amount of debt owed in the past, he said, because prior data and the accounting system were “not where it should have been.”
Ursula Frazier’s 84-year-old mother has lived in Alexandria public housing for over a decade. Frazier helps her keep her affairs in order, and documents every transaction she makes. After her mother received the letter saying her debt could be wiped away, Frazier took her to an informational session about the relief program.
No one tried to verify the accuracy of her ledger, she said, nor asked if she wanted to contest the balance.
Frazier said the ledger showed her mother had missed three months of rent, but she has money orders showing she made those payments. “Where’s that money gone to?” Frazier said.
Jinks said each resident enrolling in the program signs a paper with the balance of their ledger, which acts as confirmation of the amount owed. He said the housing authority is working diligently to make sure the charitable donation is spent appropriately.
Alfred Street Baptist’s donation will be made to the local nonprofit ACT for Alexandria, which will disperse the funds to ARHA after reviewing the confirmed ledger balances. As an additional safety measure, Jinks said ARHA also plans to hire an independent accountant to make sure funds go to the right accounts.
Paris Wedge, who has lived in ARHA housing for two years with her two sons, said the debt relief program wiped $18,000 off her ledger, though she doubted the accuracy of the total and said no one asked her if it was correct. “Some of that was my damage, but all of that wasn’t my damage,” Wedge said.
Still, she said while the agency has had its problems in the past, she thinks it’s getting back on track.
Gaskins said the donation from the church will offer a fresh start for the housing authority, clearing a path to put in new processes so the city can ensure everyone has accurate records and information. She called housing affordability one of the biggest challenges facing the city.
“As the cost of everything gets higher and higher, it’s becoming more and more difficult to stay in our community,” she said. Paying off the debt of families in public housing will help families not only stay, but thrive in Alexandria, Gaskins said.
Residents enrolled in the program are also strongly encouraged to attend a financial literacy course offered through a partnership between the city and other faith organizations.
“What is the blessing of a fresh start?” Gaskins said. “It’s not just having no balance, it’s the power to not have a balance again.”
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