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A rendering of the new Carpenter's Shelter and affordable housing complex at 930 N. Henry St.
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A rendering of the new Carpenter's Shelter and affordable housing complex at 930 N. Henry St.
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The current location of Carpenter's Shelter and the future site of a new, 7-story affordable housing and shelter complex.
Carpenter's Shelter will honor volunteers and host a building decommissioning event on Wednesday, June 13 from 6 to 8 p.m. at 930 N. Henry Street.
Updated: Friday, June 8, 2018
For the past 20 years, Carpenter’s Shelter has been operating out of a renovated Department of Motor Vehicles building on North Henry Street.
While the building has served the organization very well, said Carpenter's Shelter Executive Director Shannon Steene, the building has been under very heavy use and is in need of an overhaul. In addition, the City of Alexandria is in dire need of more affordable housing for residents.
That combination of factors means that on June 9, the Carpenter’s Shelter organization will be moving into part of the former Macy’s store at Landmark Mall while a new, 7-story building with underground parking, affordable housing and a new shelter is built on North Henry Street.
Through a partnership with the Alexandria Housing Development Corporation (AHDC), Carpenter’s Shelter’s current building at 930 N. Henry St. will be torn down and entirely rebuilt as a purpose-focused center that will give residents in transition all they need with affordable housing apartments on the upper floors. The new building should be completed in 16 to 18 months.
In the meantime, Carpenter’s Shelter must continue to provide critical services, including shelter, counseling and guidance, and career services. In order to make way for construction, Carpenter’s Shelter had to find a place for a 60-bed shelter, a day shelter, the City of Alexandria’s winter shelter, plus a variety of medical services, post-rehousing stability services and more.
“Our goal during all of this is continuity of service,” Steene said.
The 2018 Annual Point-in-Time Count “revealed 226 persons experiencing homelessness (i.e., unsheltered and in temporary shelter made available by homeless services providers) in the City of Alexandria.” That included 29 households with adults and children (31 adults and 53 children), and 142 single people.
“The total number of persons identified as experiencing homelessness during the 2018 Count increased by 15 people from 2017, a 7 percent increase overall,” according to city data. Steene said there are many factors that contribute to homelessness, and the 7 percent increase cannot be attributed to one cause. The Partnership to Prevent and End Homelessness in the City of Alexandria, a public-private partnership, conducted the City’s 2018 PIT Count on Jan. 24.
Moving into Macy’s
The space that worked as a temporary shelter and services center turned out to be a 16,000-square foot portion of the now-vacant Macy’s department store at Landmark Mall in Alexandria’s West End. Carpenter’s Shelter plans to move into their temporary space in early June.
Construction started at Macy’s in March and will be completed by early June.
Howard Hughes Corp, which owns the Macy’s property and the main portion of Landmark Mall, has been a “top notch partner,” Steene said. “Their interest is really in how to utilize this resource for the community. I have really appreciated our working relationship.”
Retrofitting the empty department store hasn’t been easy. Architects Cooper Carey and general contractor LF Jenning are working hard to constrain costs as they add bathrooms, plumbing, new heating and air conditioning systems, shelter space, office space and more to Macy’s. Steene praised the speed and quality of LF Jennings’s work in creating a comfortable, appropriate space quickly and efficiently.
Howard Hughes Corp. is providing additional support.
Mark Bulmash, Senior Vice President of Development for Howard Hughes Corp., said, “Once you talk to them (Carpenter’s Shelter), you realize it really is about transitioning people from being down on their luck to getting counsel to seek permanent employment and permanent housing…. It’s a really important mission and we’re all thankful that somebody is focused on that.”
After seeing the good work Carpenter’s Shelter does in the community, Bulmash said, “We figured out how to accommodate it all and make it happen, rather than focus on all the reasons not to do it.”
“It’s amazing to see what you can accomplish when you think that way. When you have the attitude that you want to make it happen, you figure out how to solve the issues,” Bulmash said.
Project management firm HH Logistics is working with Carpenter’s Shelter on the early June move, ensuring Carpenter’s Shelter can relocate their 24-hour operation to a new space across town with no interruption of service to residents.
Carpenter’s Shelter will be providing its residents with instructions on how to pack and help in putting their things in boxes on moving day. The shelter will have a day location set up where residents can go for a few hours while their things are moved, and at the end of the day, residents will be able to unpack, have dinner, and settle in at Macy’s.
“Residents and core functions will start the day at 930 N. Henry St., and end the day fully functional at Macy’s,” Steene said.
Bulmash said Howard Hughes Corp. is happy to be a part of this. “It’s really important work that these guys do,” Bulmash said. “We’re honored to be a part of it.”
The money for all of this came from the sale of Carpenter Shelter’s North Henry Street building. Proceeds from that sale are paying for the Macy’s renovation, relocation of services, and eventually the repurchase of space in the new building as part of a condominium agreement. The North Henry Street building was sold to AHDC for an undisclosed amount.
Common Questions: Mall Redevelopment and Local Schools
Two questions Steene gets most often are about the whether the move will slow down Landmark Mall redevelopment and whether it will affect local school populations.
Macy’s and the main portion of Landmark Mall are closed and are awaiting redevelopment. Sears, on the other end of the mall, is still open. That property is owned by Seritage, an entity created by Sears for the specific purpose of focusing on Sears properties that be sold for redevelopment.
Will moving Carpenter’s Shelter into Macy’s delay redevelopment of the mall property?
“The short answer is no,” Steene said. “We are not delaying their plans.”
Bulmash confirmed this will not delay redevelopment. Purchasing the Macy’s department store property in 2017 resulted in new possibilities for the mall site, Bulmash said, and Howard Hughes Corp. is still negotiating with Seritage about the Sears property.
“We’re working very hard on it,” Bulmash said. “I think the city will ultimately be happy with what we’ve come up with.”
The second-most frequent question Steene gets is about whether this will increase the homeless and transitional population at West End elementary schools.
“When children are homeless, they are legally allowed to remain in their home school,” Steene explained. That provides stability for them in an otherwise difficult time in their lives. That means Carpenter’s Shelter and the school system serves children from all parts of the city and West End elementary schools will see no change in the number of homeless students they serve.
The third-most popular question is, “Is this really a temporary location?” Steene said. “We are building a custom-built shelter, so it is not in our financial interest or comfort interest to stay away from a brand-new facility.” While Macy’s will be safe and suitable for the time being, it will not have significant amenities and is meant to be temporary.
“When people hear those answers, the usual response is, ‘Well, that’s a pretty innovative use of that vacant space,’” Steene said. “We think so, too.”
New Construction, More Affordable Housing
A rendering of the new Carpenter's Shelter and affordable housing complex at 930 N. Henry St.
The current building Carpenter’s Shelter uses is showing its age — some offices has no working ventilation and cracks are developing in the building. Plus, there isn’t a lot of private space for families and individuals to meet with social workers.
Having a purpose-built space for the shelter will make services more effective, efficient and comfortable.
The new building at 930 N. Henry Street will be 7-stories and have underground parking. It will include a purpose-built shelter and 97 affordable housing units. It should be completed and ready for residents by the end of 2019.
“The only way we can add 97 affordable housing units to this property is to take down the current building,” Steene said. “It’s the only way we can get to the ultimate goal of a new, purpose-built shelter and new affordable housing in our community.”
The general contractor for the new North Henry Street building is Whiting Turner.
Residents who stay at the shelter may have the opportunity to move into one of the affordable housing units — 10 of the 97 homes will be permanent supportive housing for people who have been chronically homeless. The other 87 units will be for people at 40 percent, 50 percent or 60 percent of the median income. AHDC will operate those units.
“Homelessness is a lack of housing, so to redevelop and be able to pair the symptom with the solution all in the same property really made a lot of sense to us,” Steene said.
