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For example, the carpeting in each of the six residential floors has a different floral overlay pattern to give each level a distinctive look. The building’s décor includes subtle botanical motifs to reflect the theme of growth and renewal. Named “the Bloom” to evoke the sense of possibility and regeneration present in new growth, the development features a small ground-floor lobby through which residents can access their mailboxes, the leasing office, a secure package room, a restroom, an exit to the shared playground, and the elevators. Credit: Alexandria Housing Development Corporation Residents of the Bloom’s 97 affordable units enjoy amenities including a community room with a kitchenette, three large terraces, bicycle storage, and a playground shared with Carpenter’s Shelter. Although the COVID-19 pandemic delayed the project’s construction, the seven-story contemporary building was completed in October 2020. Carpenter’s Shelter temporarily moved its operations to an empty Macy’s store in the nearby Landmark Mall, and in August 2018, AHDC demolished the repurposed DMV structure and began work on the new building for Carpenter’s Shelter and the Bloom. We jokingly call it the “stuff on top of stuff” policy,” says Hornbrook. “One of the things that we’ve grown to value is working with organizations that have these real estate needs that we can combine with affordable housing. Redeveloping the 0.82-acre Carpenter’s Shelter site on North Henry Street was an ideal solution for meeting both organizations’ needs for temporary shelter and affordable housing - the location is just a quarter-mile from the Braddock Road Metrorail station and within walking distance of neighborhood amenities such as retailers. At the same time, the desirable Braddock Road neighborhood was developing rapidly but not gaining affordable housing at the same pace, a fact that both AHDC and the city of Alexandria’s Office of Housing had noted. By 2015, Carpenter’s Shelter was finding that the cost of remaining in its aging facility on North Henry Street, a retrofitted Department of Motor Vehicles (DMV) building, was rising. Once the service organization and the nonprofit developer were in contact, it was not long before the opportunity for collaboration arose. “Homelessness comes from a lack of affordable housing,” says Kayla Hornbrook, AHDC’s communications and development manager. The project launched when a board member for Carpenter’s Shelter, a local nonprofit that has served people experiencing homelessness in Alexandria since 1982 and that runs the shelter of the same name, engaged in a conversation with a counterpart from the Alexandria Housing Development Corporation (AHDC) and realized that both organizations were tackling the same problem. The colocation of affordable housing, permanent supportive housing, and temporary shelter that Carpenter’s Shelter and the Bloom provide is uniquely valuable for the city’s Braddock Road neighborhood. As a suburb of Washington, DC, the city of Alexandria faces serious housing affordability problems from 2000 to 2016, Alexandria’s stock of housing affordable to low-income residents declined by 14,000 units.
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Although the Bloom and Carpenter’s Shelter maintain separate entrances and are managed by distinct entities, 10 of the Bloom's units are designated as permanent supportive housing for tenants formerly experiencing homelessness who receive case management and services from the team at the shelter. Opened in 2020, the Bloom is a 97-unit affordable housing development that shares its 7-story building in the Braddock Road neighborhood of Alexandria, Virginia, with Carpenter’s Shelter, a ground-floor emergency shelter for people experiencing homelessness. suburb of Alexandria, Virginia, that shares its $51.1 million building with a ground-floor emergency homeless shelter called Carpenter’s Shelter. The Bloom is an affordable apartment building in the Washington, D.C.