Alice Tousignant is the Executive Director of Virginia Supportive Housing. She holds a Masters degree in Social Work Administration from Virginia Commonwealth University and a Bachelor's degree in Sociology from the University of Rhode Island. Alice has over 30 years of experience in the fields of housing, homelessness and social services. She is the past Director of the Virginia Housing Coalition and the Associate Director of the Division of Housing at the Virginia Department of Housing and Community Development. She is a founder and past President of Emergency Shelter, Inc. and past President of the Richmond Community Development Alliance. She is a graduate of Harvard's NeighborWorks Achieving Excellence in Community Development Leadership program, and a recipient of the Fourth Annual Virginia S. Peters Housing Award. Alice currently serves on the Board of Area Congregations Together in Service (ACTS) and is the Board Chair of the Virginia Collation to End Homelessness.
Not In My Back Yard!
Did you know …
… that, while many people mistakenly assume that supportive housing decreases property values, evidence suggests the very opposite.
In one of the most recent and largest studies about supportive housing’s effect on property value, some properties within 500 to 1000 feet of a supportive housing unit actually increased in value after the unit was completed.
New York University’s Furman Center for Real Estate and Urban Policy published an extensive policy brief in 2005 which addressed the effect of supportive housing on surrounding neighborhood property values in New York City. From 1974 to 2005, the NYU research team gathered and analyzed data from properties within 500 to 1500 feet of more than 7,500 supportive housing units.
According to the Furman Center Policy Brief, “ … values of properties within 500 feet of supportive housing show steady growth relative to other properties in the neighborhood in the years after supportive housing opens. Properties somewhat further away (between 500 and 1,000 feet) show a decline in value when supportive housing first opens, but prices then increase steadily, perhaps as the market realizes that fears about the supportive housing turned out to be wrong.”
VSH increases property values by actively seeking out, purchasing and renovating dilapidated properties, bringing positive development into neighborhoods that are often in desperate need of revitalization. We maintain and manage each of our properties to the highest standards, an essential element to allowing the growth of surrounding property values to continue.
One VSH case in point: Gosnold Apartments in Norfolk
VSH renovated a previously vacant bottling company warehouse into apartments. In 2006, before the Gosnold was constructed, the property was originally assessed at $519,610 dollars. As of 2009, construction of Gosnold has been finished and the property value was assessed at $2,062,400 dollars; an increase of $1,542,790 dollars. Below are the before and after pictures of Gosnold.
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