Affordable Housing? Take a Number.

Leaders in Loudoun County, one of the nation's richest areas, have long said they share the goal of making housing more affordable.

Paying for it is a different matter.

At a meeting of the Board of Supervisors last week, two housing advisory committees outlined an ambitious agenda to expand county housing programs, including a call to help a broader array of residents and a request for a dedicated source of funds.

But in a year in which falling property values have intensified sparring over budget priorities, some supervisors have voiced a reluctance to infuse the county's affordable-housing efforts with the funds needed to begin to make a major impact.

One proposal called for putting $1 million in the fiscal 2008 budget into a housing fund that has not received a county appropriation since 2004 and for supervisors to consider allocating a portion of the property tax or other revenue for such efforts in the future.

Tamar Datan Johnston, chairman of the appointed Housing Advisory Board and a member of the Loudoun County Economic Development Commission, said that the county's economic health and social well-being require a diversity of housing options for residents of all incomes.

"The magnitude of the problem is very significant, and it's going to take some dedicated and significant resources . . . to bring us to where we need to be," she said.

Johnston said the county needs to expand its definition of affordable-housing assistance to include residents making between zero and 100 percent of the area's median income of about $90,000. That would help reduce what county consultants estimated is a shortfall of more than 20,000 affordable homes at various income levels, she said.

The county now emphasizes a more narrow slice of the population, with its affordable dwelling unit program serving residents who earn between 30 and 70 percent of the median income. In that program, developers sell homes below market rate to qualified buyers in exchange for county permission to build more homes. There is also a rental component to the program.

"You would find several of us believing that $10 million, not $1 million, could be put to immediate use," Johnston said.

But Supervisor Lori L. Waters (R-Broad Run) said she and other supervisors have to weigh competing claims on county tax revenue.

"We could put $100 million into this every year, and it's only going to solve a piece of the pie," Waters said. "This is where we have to get into the discussion about all the requests for budget money. Everybody wants a dedicated funding source. They talk about it for Metro. They talk about it for transportation. They talk about it for housing, talk about it for fire and rescue."

Among the joint recommendations of the Housing Advisory Board and the Affordable Dwelling Unit Advisory Board was a call to consolidate millions of dollars from a host of existing funds and housing programs -- including a down payment assistance program and a housing trust -- into a single pot.

"If we can bring all the funds into one program, we can . . . leverage those funds for matching programs from other sources," said Bill Jones, a member of the Affordable Dwelling Unit Advisory Board. Among the possible uses of the funds would be providing incentives for revitalizing deteriorating housing, Jones said. Housing advocates also want to be able to quickly purchase homes that are part of the county's affordable-housing program but are facing foreclosure, he said.

"We're seeing that now. What we want to be able to do is, as we see that opportunity, we want to very quickly be able to go in and capture these properties before they leave the [affordable dwelling unit] program," Jones said.

The initiatives were sent to the supervisors' human services committee for further discussion.