GSH: As region booms, no household should be left behind

By David Levine, Good Shepherd Housing President & CEO

This week is something of a milestone. Amazon announced plans to open its new East Coast headquarters site in New York City and Crystal City.

The plans are for 25,000 new high-paying jobs, averaging $150,000 in annual salary over twelve years, to be created in the Northern Virginia region.

The spur to economic growth in our region will be strong, long term and multiplicative.

Our region is especially interconnected and what happens in one part of Northern Virginia will spread throughout other parts of the region.

Without question, we should feel and see the impacts of the new headquarters on much of our service area along Richmond Highway.

All of that is for the better. With the planned redevelopment of Richmond Highway, it can only help that a major employment center will open up in the region. Growth in our service area is now more likely to happen.

It’s important, however, that that growth doesn’t leave out any household. We must push for the development of price-appropriate housing for a range of household incomes.

We need to make sure that all employment and educational opportunities—such as the planned $1 billion Virginia Tech campus in Alexandria, which was announced with the Amazon decision—are accessible and available to everyone living along Richmond Highway.

The Amazon decision is a win for everyone in our region. We must make sure it truly is a win for everyone.

The original article published in the Fort Hunt Herald can be read here.