ALEXANDRIA

VOICE gets attention with mayoral candidate forum, get-out-the-vote campaign

At the candidate evening in May, mayoral candidates committed to work with VOICE Alexandria on

•     Working to enforce the affordable housing parameters set in the Housing Master Plan;
•     Strengthening Resolution 830 to ensure preservation of public housing in the city;
•     Ensuring a culture in public housing that encourages resident participation in the decision making of public housing;
•     Increasing equity in public schools around suspension rates;
•     Researching city contractors and sub-contractors to ensure that all people who work in the city can live in the city.

VOICE and the Resident Association of ARHA also conducted a non-partisan campaign to get out the vote in public housing during the primary election.  
 
This was part of a larger campaign in which VOICE and the ARHA Resident Association are organizing in solidarity to demand respect for public housing residents in Alexandria. With the constant threat of redevelopment taking place at the ARHA properties in Old Town (such as Samuel Madden and Andrew Adkins) many families do not know if/when they will be forced out of the city. Additionally, residents also endure nagging maintenance problems such as gas and water leaks, chronic plumbing issues, and infestations of rodents.   

On one weekend alone, GOTV teams knocked on 1,062 doors in an ARHA-wide Get Out the Vote effort to increase voter turnout of ARHA residents, primarily in the Charles Houston, LaDrey and City Hall Precincts.

Among their other accomplishments:

--  Collected over 1,437 voter pledge cards from ARHA residents and community members who committed to vote on issues that impact public and affordable housing –  more than 400% of the difference determining the 2015 mayoral primary and larger than 10% of the entire 2015 mayoral primary electorate;

--  Completed a voter registration drive of ARHA resident;

--  Mobilized for Election Day to knock on hundreds of ARHA doors, offer rides to the polls for ARHA residents, and make hundreds of phone calls to residents of public housing who  committed to vote.