Lucille & Bruce Terwilliger Place is a 160-unit affordable rental community serving households earning 30% to 80% Area Median Income (AMI) located just 1,500 feet from a Metro station and featuring a new 6,000 square-foot condo for the American Legion Post 139. In response to an aging facility and diminishing membership, the members of Post 139 saw redevelopment as an opportunity to transform their site, programs, and services. In 2016, APAH was selected to partner and lead the redevelopment. With APAH’s leadership, the site was approved in 2019 for rezoning, greater density, and gap financing from Arlington County’s Affordable Housing Investment Fund (AHIF). The project was awarded 9% tax credits that year.

Of the 160 units, 50% have a veterans’ preference, providing critical housing and resources to support the needs of veterans in our community. Nearly two-thirds of the units have two- or three-bedrooms to meet the needs of families. Thanks, in part, to a successful capital campaign, the project includes 26 deeply affordable units at 30% AMI, including 16 PSH units and Veterans Affairs Supportive Housing (VASH) vouchers that can support veterans coming out of homelessness.

The building is located across the street from George Mason University’s Arlington campus, a grocery store, within .4 miles of two Metro stations, and many other employment, retail, and other community amenities. Terwilliger Place has community rooms and resident amenities, including a full-time APAH resident services coordinator, conference rooms that provide gathering spaces for residents and resident services programs, and a business center that provides computers and printers for resident use. All residents have free access to wi-fi which is provided to the building through operating expenses.

Believed to be the first project of its kind in the country, Terwilliger Place offers a blueprint for veteran service organizations like the American Legion to partner with nonprofit developers to put their land to use on behalf of vulnerable veterans. Terwilliger Place is the first APAH property where philanthropy has played a pivotal role. The Terwilliger Family Foundation provided the lead gift, and demonstrating the community’s support, more than 50 donors joined Mr. Terwilliger in giving to APAH’s Uniting to Serve capital campaign, including Amazon, filling a gap in the capital stack that included allowing for eight additional units at 30% AMI.

Location: Arlington, Virginia
Developers: Arlington Partnership for Affordable Housing