The Culpepper Garden senior-housing community has announced plans to close its assisted-living wing, leaving some families to scramble to find new homes for loved ones.
Current residents will be able to stay until at least next summer, which leadership hopes will give families enough time to find other housing. Still, the closure means Northern Virginia will be losing one of its only assisted-living facilities for low-income seniors.
The organization noted rising costs and years of efforts to find alternatives.
“The cost of care has just become monumental,” said Marta Hill Gray, CEO of the non-profit Arlington Retirement Housing Corporation, which for a half-century has owned the Ballston-area facility for low-income seniors.
The decision was officially announced in a Tuesday letter to residents and family members. The organization held in-person and online meetings later that day to detail the plans.
In the letter, officials said the goal was to ensure “any transitions will be gradual, guided largely by natural attrition.”
Gray told ARLnow that the organization’s leadership had tried to find alternatives to closure for several years. None could be found, she said, and the decision — though “agonizing” — is final.
“It’s not sustainable,” Gray said of providing assisted-living services while also ensuring the long-term viability of independent living.
Culpepper Garden currently has 73 assisted-living apartments, although some are unoccupied and no more will be rented to those needing assisted-living support.
Current residents will be able to stay until at least next summer, Gray said, and efforts are underway to find new homes for them.
“We’re looking into every possible option,” she said. “We’ve given ourselves time. We have great respect and love for our residents and families.”
The assisted-living units will be converted back into independent-living apartments, which currently total more than 270, according to the Culpepper Garden website.
The announcement hit some with the force of a thunderbolt. One adult relative of a Culpepper Garden assisted-living resident said the changes would have a major impact on those there.
“Culpepper Garden is one of the only options for low-income seniors dependent on assisted-living facilities in our region, and has been invaluable for my parent, who otherwise could not afford the in-home care they need,” said the relative, who asked not to be identified because of the sensitivity of the matter.
“Many independent living residents at Culpepper Garden were counting on the assisted-living wing to be there for them when the time came,” the family member said, adding:
“Now they will have to go to the back of the line if they apply to another facility, which will almost certainly cost more, likely more than many can afford. I’m hopeful that state and local officials can work together to close this funding gap. Otherwise, current Culpepper residents and other seniors in need will face significant challenges to secure appropriate housing, if it’s possible at all in this area.”
Gray acknowledged the concerns were valid. “People are in a panic,” she said.
But providing a year’s lead time is longer than in similar situations nationally, Gray said. She said she had spoken with three nonprofit organizations that also had to close assisted-living housing, and said residents at those locations were provided three to six months’ notice.
A county-government official, who also asked not to be identified because they were not authorized to speak publicly on the matter, said the decision was understandable but still concerning, given how limited assisted-living options for low-income seniors are in Northern Virginia.
“There’s such a need, such a gap,” the county official told ARLnow.
As part of the Fiscal Year 2026 budget adopted in the spring, County Board members added approximately $1 million in funding in hopes of keeping assisted-living availability intact.
The county government has been “incredibly generous,” Gray said.
Culpepper Garden’s history dates to the early 1970s, when the land was purchased for senior housing at a below-market rate price from Charles Culpepper, a U.S. Department of Agriculture botanist who had lived on the five-acre property since 1926.
The initial effort to create housing for low-income seniors (age 62+) on the site was led by the Unitarian Universalist Church of Arlington, which later created the Arlington Retirement Housing Corporation.
Culpepper lived long enough to see the first residents move into the eight-story, 210-unit apartment building (Culpepper Garden I) that opened in 1975. He died in 1980 at age 91.
A new wing (Culpepper Garden II) opened in 1991, and assisted-living apartments (Culpepper Garden III) were added in 2000.
In 2018, a major rehabilitation project started on the original building as a joint effort with Wesley Housing. A congressional earmark in 2024 provided $2 million to support ongoing renovation efforts.
Units range from efficiencies to two bedrooms.
In an effort to help those in independent-living units stay there longer without the need for assisted-living or nursing-home services, Culpepper Garden will be augmenting its existing medical and other support services, officials said.