Arlington Partnership for Affordable Housing (APAH) raised $50,000 for affordable housing at its 20th anniversary celebration on Sept. 16. More than 200 people attended the event, including U.S. Rep. Jim Moran, state Sen. Mary Margaret Whipple, County Board Chair Barbara Favola, County Board Vice Chair Jay Fisette, County Board Member Mary Hynes, County Board Member Chris Zimmerman, and Virginia Housing Development Authority Executive Director Susan Dewey.
APAH began with an unexpected meeting between two people travelling from Our Lady Queen of Peace Church in Arlington to the Martin Luther King Jr. March on Washington in 1963. That day, Tom Leckey met Joe Wholey. Years later, Leckey, Wholey and their wives, Dolores Leckey and Midge Wholey, and two other couples, Bill and Rhoda Nary and Jack and Jean Sweeney, formed a group that met monthly to study religion, psychology, and social justice.
APAH formally began in the summer of 1989 with encouragement from then County Manager Anton Gardner, and a small grant from Our Lady Queen of Peace Church. Arlington County government supported the organization by arranging for APAH to run the relocation program for a large property that APAH would eventually acquire. In January of 1991, with a personal check from Jack Sweeney serving as a binder for the mortgage, APAH purchased Fisher House Apartments (17 units). At the time, APAH had no paid staff, operated out of the Leckey’s basement, and the founders themselves renovated the buildings by hand.
For more information on APAH and its current projects, visit www.apah.org.