Finding appropriate housing if you have a disability can be difficult and expensive in the D.C. area. Melwood is hoping to help change that once the nonprofit converts its Arlington, Virginia, headquarters into a mixed-use building focused on inclusive housing.
“It doesn’t serve our needs as much for programming and the workforce development work that we do,” said Larysa Kautz, president and CEO of Melwood, speaking about its current headquarters in the Aurora Highlands neighborhood of Arlington that was formerly an elementary school.
The nonprofit, which provides job training and placement and other important life skills to people with disabilities and their caregivers, saw its building was a location that’s ripe for housing, close to transit and in a walkable area.
“We saw the opportunity to help serve our constituents in the community by creating disability-forward housing,” Kautz said.
The planned housing project would replace Melwood’s outdated school building with a 105-unit affordable housing project. Construction is slated to begin late next year.
The building will exceed the bare minimum requirements set by the American with Disabilities Act and include amenities such as roll-in showers for wheelchair access in over half the units, adjustable countertops and wide hallways where two wheelchairs are able to pass each other.
Units will also include “things like sound dampening for individuals who are sensitive to different sounds,” Kautz said.
To plan the renovation, team members thought through “what any person with a disability needs to be able to live in an environment that feels safe and comfortable to them.”
Thirty percent of the units will prioritize housing individuals with a disability.
Kautz said the response from the disabled community has been overwhelmingly positive. She pointed particularly to a collective sigh of relief from many caregivers who have children with disabilities.
“There’s worry of what happens after they’re gone, after they grow up and their kids that have lived with them their whole lives, do they have to go to a group home? Are they going to have choices to live independently or semi-independently?” Kautz said. “And this will be an addition to those choices.”
The property is being designed to be fully inclusive, meaning both people with and without disabilities will be welcome. Kautz anticipated the residents will be families who have children with and without disabilities, as well as singles.
The development will be built in partnership with Wesley Housing, a nonprofit dedicated to affordable housing. That organization brings expertise in design and the entitlement process, as well as helping secure additional financing, according to Jacqueline West-Spencer, senior vice president of real estate with Wesley Housing.
“This project takes it beyond the bare minimum, and so we’re adding additional opportunities and components to this project that allow us to address those who are physically impaired, neurodivergent or visually impaired and really take it to a gold standard,” West-Spencer told WTOP.
The lower level of the building would continue to serve as Melwood’s headquarters, offering services and job training in a new 17,000-square-foot facility.
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