The Alexandria Redevelopment and Housing Authority put out a call for developers to redevelop five affordable housing properties in the city, according to a Feb. 25 request for qualifications.

By issuing an RFQ, ARHA aims to establish private partnerships to assist in its ongoing efforts to provide more, and better quality, affordable housing. In order to enter into the partnership, developers would have to commit to a one-for-one replacement of the site’s affordable housing, per a resolution that council passed last year.

“This an important step, this is a big step,” Mayor Justin Wilson, who serves on the ARHA Redevelopment Work Group, said at Tuesday evening’s legislative meeting. “There’s a lot of work still left to do, but this is good progress in our work to rehabilitate, refresh and renew public housing in our city.”

The five properties identified for potential redevelopment are Andrew Adkins, Samuel Madden, the Ladrey High Rise, Yale Drive – formerly known as Cameron Valley – and Hopkins Tancil. The properties account for a total of 477 units of affordable housing, according to ARHA.

ARHA’s goal is to achieve a balance of one-third low-income housing, one-third workforce housing and one-third market rate units in each of the five sites in order to create more mixed-income communities, according to the RFQ.

This isn’t the first time ARHA has issued a request for development partnerships to overhaul its affordable housing. In 2013, ARHA targeted seven housing sites, including Hopkins Tancil, with a similar request.