Margaret Forristall moved into the Drake Village Cottages seven years ago, after losing her home in Florida. She adorns her door with Halloween decorations and signs with neighborly messages like “Always Be Kind.”
Ever since she moved here, Forristall has found solace in what she thought would be her final home. But a new redevelopment plan for Drake Village Cottages could uproot her and the other residents in a few years.
A few weeks ago, the Arlington Housing Authority and the Planning Office of Urban Affairs, a nonprofit housing developer, formalized their partnership and began making plans to tear down the brick cottages and design a new housing facility. Construction is expected to begin around 2030.
Drake Village consists of two developments: Hauser Building, a larger complex, and the cottages. The Drake Village Cottages, built in 1961, are nine two-floor buildings, each one with eight units. The Hauser will remain the same during the redevelopment project.
The housing authority maintains multiple government-owned housing programs for seniors and people with disabilities.
“We’re looking to … inevitably help our residents age in place and receive all the different services and support they need to be successful as tenants and continue to live independently,” said Jack Nagle, executive director of Arlington Housing Authority.
Deferred maintenance
The cottages have had deferred maintenance for years because of lack of funding, Nagle said. The needed repairs would cost more than demolishing the units and rebuilding.
Nagle said he was unable to pinpoint the cost of the project.
“The best way for us to be able to get the units wholly where they need to be — as well as increase affordable housing, increase accessibility and consider other factors — is to move forward with redevelopment,” Nagle said, who runs the state agency, which operates housing assistance programs such as Drake Village and Winslow Towers that provide direct housing in government-owned developments or subsidized housing in privately owned dwellings for low-income people.
The preliminary plans for the new Drake Village property, which the two agencies will co-own, will add 92 more units. Instead of nine individual buildings, the plan calls for one five-story building with 164 apartments, said Shaina Korman-Houston, director of real estate at POUA.
“We wanted to maintain a campus feel for the site and one that maximized the open space,” Korman-Houston said. “In order to … minimize costs, maximize resources, we were pushed in the direction of one building.”
Relocate tenants
The housing authority plans to relocate the tenants to other public housing in Arlington during construction, Nagle said. Past residents will be offered a unit in the new development at the same rent rates after the project’s completion.
Many of the residents said they are dissatisfied and frustrated with the new development plans.
Forristall said she is worried about the redeveloped building’s height. Ever since her mother died in a building fire, she feels safer closer to the ground floor.
“We’re all elderly here. Some of them have walkers. Some of them have wheelchairs,” she said. “I know a lot of them were concerned about that because sometimes when there’s fires and things like that, the elevators don’t work.”
Forristall said she dreads the idea of moving again. “I hope I pass away before then, because it’s going to be such a disruption,” Forristall said.
John Graves, another cottage resident, said he and his neighbors joke that after residents move into Drake village, typically the next time they move out is in an ambulance.
“When we moved in here, we thought this was the last place,” Graves said. “Whenever a fire engine truck comes, we have a joke around here, and we say, ‘Oh, another apartment’s going to be available,’ because that’s the only time you leave.”
Graves said the other neighbors he’s talked to also feel an attachment to cottages. “I’m not happy about it, and I know that the people I’ve been chatting with lately, none of them,” Graves said. “We all love our cottages because they’re so unique.”
Graciela Correa, a 20-year Drake Village resident, said she fears environmental damage could come with the redevelopment. “You know that climate change, [and] that the whole world is in catastrophe now,” Correa said. “And this is going to be a catastrophe.”
Correa said she worries not only for herself but her neighbors who could be more affected by large disruptions.
“The authorities or the people involved in the project are thinking in the future,” Correa said. “One building for all, new elevators and many things for seniors handicapped and mentally disabled in the future, but they don’t think in the present.”