Minimum scoring threshold
The minimum scoring threshold is a proposed policy element within the Falls Church Housing Trust Fund (HTF) application process, intended to establish a baseline score that applications must meet to be considered for funding.
Beacon Landing
Beacon Landing is a 54-unit supportive affordable housing development co-developed by Wesley Housing and Lamb Center, located within the city. The project drew on 23 separate financing sources, including a $700,000 gap financing investment from the city's Housing Trust Fund in February 2023 — a sum that had accumulated over roughly seven years from cash-in-lieu payments made by developers prior to the city's 2020 Affordable Dwelling Unit ordinance.
- Housing Trust Fund, Process & Application Review
The concept of a minimum application score threshold was discussed; Virginia DHCD's threshold of 60 was cited as a reference point for evaluating a local threshold.
passedMotion to proceed with the Housing Program Manager incorporating suggested changes into the Housing Trust Fund Guidelines, Application, and Scoring Tool and presenting to the Council on July 14, 2026.✓ Light✓ LaCroix✓ Anderson✓ Bonaiuto✓ Vincent✓ Ihara✓ Jensen✓ Wilber✓ Derosier✓ Atwood✓ Gillespie✓ Napolitano✓ Hatch✓ Opoku-Yeboah· Delboy· Cabelli· Cattaneo
- Continue to Review Draft Policies and Procedures
Members agreed to establish a baseline score that applications must meet to be considered for Housing Trust Fund funding.
- Continue to Review Draft Policies and Procedures
The concept of establishing a minimum application score was discussed; it was noted that Virginia DHCD uses a minimum threshold score of 60, and the existing Scoring Tool should be evaluated as a potential basis for a local threshold.
- Continue to Review Draft Policies and Procedures
The team discussed whether additional eligibility criteria or disqualification thresholds should be established for low-scoring categories, ultimately concluding that existing proposed language provides sufficient flexibility and additional thresholds are unnecessary.
In full
At the April 15, 2026 HHCAB Housing Trust Fund Committee meeting, members agreed in principle that such a baseline score should be established. At the May 20, 2026 Strategy Team meeting, Virginia DHCD's minimum threshold score of 60 was cited as a reference point, and the existing Scoring Tool was identified as a potential basis for setting a local threshold. The June 1, 2026 full HHCAB meeting continued to reference the DHCD threshold of 60 as a benchmark, and the board voted unanimously to have the Housing Program Manager incorporate suggested changes into the HTF Guidelines, Application, and Scoring Tool and present them to City Council on July 14, 2026.
By the June 17, 2026 Strategy Team meeting, the question of additional category-level disqualification thresholds was resolved — the team concluded that existing proposed language reserving the City's right to consider additional factors provides sufficient flexibility, making additional scoring category thresholds unnecessary — though the question of whether to adopt an overall minimum threshold score (such as DHCD's 60) remains open ahead of the July 14 Council presentation.