When the mayor of Alexandria, Virginia, Alyia Gaskins, discovered that the agency overseeing the city’s public housing owed $1 million in back rent, nearly 450 tenants suddenly faced eviction.
“I was curious how much did people owe and I learned it was everything from $50 to some owing close to $30K,” Gaskins told NBC Washington. “My concern was what happens next.”
The Alexandria Redevelopment & Housing Authority operates more than 1,000 public housing units in the city, and if the families in those units were evicted, the city would be overwhelmed with need.
According to the agency, it lost more than $1 million in unpaid rent from 445 of 1,000 public housing units, citing job market challenges, a rising cost of living, and lingering economic impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic.
Gaskins went to the Mayor’s Interfaith Council to seek guidance, and Rev. Howard-John Wesley of Alfred Street Baptist Church answered the call.
The church would donate $1 million to cover the back rent of residents in need.
Alfred Street Baptist Church. Photo courtesy of Alfred Street Baptist Church
The historically Black church has been a presence in the community since 1803, building a robust congregation and raising funds throughout the year. According to The Christian Post, congregants raised the sum to cover the donation as part of their annual SEEK action, a time of fasting and prayer held earlier in 2026.
“It is my joy to share with you that after doing the audits and the ledgers and speaking with all the families and verifying debt, I want to let you know that with that SEEK offering, you have helped stop the eviction of 338 families to the cost of $1,049,000,” Wesley announced at a recent service.
“Every single penny is going outside the door of the church. It’s connected to what we understand the purpose of fasting to be,” Wesley added to the Washington Post. “As the Lord changes our life, the Lord empowers us to change the lives of others.”
Alfred Street Baptist’s donation will be made to the local nonprofit ACT for Alexandria, which will disperse the funds to ARHA after reviewing the confirmed ledger balances of residents facing eviction.
Mark Jinks, chair of the ARHA board, said the agency plans to hire an independent accountant to make sure funds are distributed properly, according to the Washington Post.
Rev. Howard-John Wesley. Photo courtesy of Alfred Street Baptist Church
In addition to wiping out this rent debt, the church and Interfaith Council will be part of an initiative to host individual meetings with each resident who fell behind on their rent, so they can make plans and provide resources to ensure it doesn’t happen again.
Other churches in the area, including Shiloh Baptist, will be part of this community service project. According to NBC Washington, these other faith groups will help fund follow-up services, like food banks and job skills training.
“Everybody is entitled to their opinion, but I serve Jesus Christ, and we have a duty to help our neighbors and look after the least of these, because that’s what Jesus said we should do,” Rev. Taft Quincey Heatley of Shiloh Baptist Church told NBC Washington.
Issues in the housing authority will also be addressed, Gaskins said. Last year, the city fired the ARHA chief executive officer after discovering he had been living in one of the agency’s units, even with 38,000 people on a wait list for housing.
After this recent financial discrepancy, Gaskins said ARHA must put in new internal systems and staff to mitigate future issues like this.
Wesley knew about these leadership issues prior to getting involved, the Washington Post reported, but said he did not want internal politics to interfere with taking care of people in need.
“People [want] to be connected to something bigger than themselves,” Wesley told NBC Washington, “and in the midst of the days and times in which we live which seem to be so callous and cruel to people who are impoverished, here’s a way to make a difference.”
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Header image courtesy of Alfred Street Baptist Church
