Cold Night, Hot Topic: Alexandria Mayor Tackles Affordable Housing Crisis with The Atlantic Magazine Editor

Alexandria, VA – On a night when even the bravest Alexandrians might have preferred the warmth of home, about a hundred housing advocates and guests packed the Lyceum in Old Town on December 8, 2025. They came to hear a forum on how to make housing affordable and abundant for all. It was a fitting venue; inside a building dedicated to the city’s past, Alexandria Mayor Alyia Gaskins and acclaimed author Yoni Applebaum spent the evening unspooling the historical thread of how Alexandria—and America—unraveled its own affordability.

As housing affordability reaches crisis levels across Virginia and the nation, Mayor Gaskins took to the stage with Appelbaum, editor at The Atlantic and author of the new book Stuck: How the Privileged and the Propertied Broke the Engine of American Opportunity, to examine practical solutions for expanding housing access. The program was hosted by Housing Opportunities Made Equal of Virginia (HOME), based in Richmond.

If the setting was historic, so was the conversation. Appelbaum, whose book traces the roots of America’s housing woes, painted a vivid portrait of how policy choices and local decisions have shaped today’s crisis. The book project began with a personal puzzle in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Applebaum found himself in an apartment his family couldn’t afford, watching a neighborhood transform from a century as a “zone of emergence”—a sociological term for a working-class launchpad where immigrants and young families could secure a foothold and propel their children into a better life, into one that was pushing people out.

“By the time I lived there, it was no longer a ‘zone of emergence,’” Appelbaum told The Zebra after the panel. “It had become heavily gentrified. Parents couldn’t stay… there was something profoundly sad and disturbing about seeing the city losing its culture.”

Appelbaum’s research identifies what he calls the “Plague of Localists”: a phenomenon whereby affluent homeowners use restrictive zoning and the legal system to thwart progress. “There is an unintended consequence of those legal procedures,” he noted, explaining how NIMBYism (Not In My Backyard) effectively freezes economic mobility. “It makes it almost impossible over time for the government to authorize almost anything.”

Since the turn of the millennium, Alexandria has seen its stock of naturally affordable units plummet from 18,000 in 2000 to fewer than 6,000 today.

Mayor Gaskins, her voice raspy from a weekend of Scottish Walk festivities, underscored that these numbers have human faces. Raised by a single mother who worked three jobs, Gaskins recalled the childhood anxiety of watching her mother choose between rent, medication, or food. Remarkably, even as mayor, the struggle persists.

“My husband and I work a combined five jobs to be able to stay in this city,” she revealed, citing years of being outbid by all-cash offers. “The most frequent emails I receive concern housing.”

Gaskins has made housing the cornerstone of her administration, vowing to increase dedicated funding by nearly $5 million. Her strategy rests on a “three-legged stool” approach. Creating new units, protecting tenants, and—most critically—preserving the affordable stock that remains.

When asked which leg requires the most urgent focus, Gaskins didn’t hesitate. “A stool doesn’t work if it’s lopsided,” she posited. “But if I had to think through where I would hope we focus next, it would be on the preservation leg.”

This focus coincides with the city’s Zoning for Housing/Housing for All initiative. Launched in 2020, the comprehensive reform aims to dismantle the discriminatory barriers that historically blocked equitable access to the city. Alexandria is also preparing a state-level housing policy agenda for Virginia’s 2026 General Assembly session. HOME of Virginia is the state’s only nonprofit dedicated to fighting housing discrimination.

As the evening drew to a close, HOME Executive Director Tom Okuda Fitzpatrick summed up the stakes. “Housing is a human right. Localities can do good work, but too often they’re pitted against each other. We need state-level reforms to think holistically about our future.”