Suspect in Emily Lu’s death remains jailed without bond
By Will Vitka
7/26/2021
The man charged with killing Emily Lu, 72, of Lorton, Virginia, remains jailed without bond after an arraignment Monday.
Brian George Sayrs Jr., 25, of Woodbridge was given a court-appointed attorney.
His next court appearance is Sept. 21 at 2 p.m.
Sayrs has been charged with second-degree murder and felony concealment of a body.
Lu had been missing for 51 days when her body was found over the weekend.
Fairfax County police said Sayrs called them Friday night and asked to meet. He then led them to the location of the body in a wooded area in Lorton, near Dudley Drive and Laurel Crest Drive, about 2 miles from her home — where Sayrs was living at the time, according to Fairfax County police.
Tenant charged in killing of missing 72-year-old Fairfax County woman
By Justin Jouvenal
7/25/2021
The body of a missing 72-year-old Lorton woman has been discovered near her house and a tenant of hers has been charged with murder, Fairfax County police said Saturday.
Brian George Sayrs Jr., 25, of Woodbridge is facing one count of second-degree murder and one count of felony disposing of a body, after the remains of Emily Lu were discovered in a wooded area, police said. Sayrs was arrested Friday night.
Authorities said the break in the case came after Sayrs phoned Fairfax County police while sitting on a bench at a ballpark in Prince William County on Friday night. He later met with detectives and took them to the location where Lu’s body was found.
The body was in some underbrush on a remote cul-de-sac near the Laurel Hill Golf Club in Lorton. A blue tarp covered the location on Saturday morning, just off the roadway.
Police said that Sayrs did not say why he came forward and that they do not have a motive for the slaying. Police declined to say how Lu was killed.
“Why did he call us last night? That’s a great question,” Fairfax County Police Chief Kevin Davis said at a Saturday news conference. “Hopefully we’ll eventually have an answer to that.”
Police said they believe Lu was killed at her Lorton home in the 9200 block of Davis Drive and her body was driven to the location where it was found, which is a little over a mile from her home.
Sayrs’s father wrote in a text message he was not interested in commenting and said his son does not yet have an attorney.
Police said they conducted “dozens and dozens and dozens” of interviews to develop Sayrs as a suspect. They had been working to build a case against him without Lu’s body before he called Friday night.
Authorities also credited the media and the public for help that led to the arrest in the case. Police had searched in Virginia and out of state, drained a retention pond and recovered video evidence in a more than 50-day search for Lu.
Lu was last seen on the evening of June 3, on surveillance video while shopping at an Aldi in Woodbridge, police said. She did not show up for work the next day and was reported missing, police said.
After Lu went missing, police responded to her home on June 4 and found her car parked in the driveway, police said. They found fresh groceries in the back seat but no signs of forced entry on her home, police said.
Officers eventually searched Lu’s home and found signs that blood had been cleaned up in the garage, police said.
On July 15, officers searched a wooded area close to where her body was later discovered. Police said a piece of clothing had led them to the area.
Fairfax County police also announced they had a person of interest in the case, saying they had strong evidence linking the man to Lu’s disappearance. Police later said that person was Sayrs. Sayrs was a tenant in Lu’s home at the time of her killing.
An autopsy was being performed on Lu on Saturday.
“This murder is tragic. This murder is heartbreaking,” Fairfax County Police Maj. Ed O’Carroll said Saturday. “Emily didn’t deserve what had happened to her. She did nothing wrong.”
Jul 24, 2021
Jennifer Ball, Lu’s only daughter, described her mother as a “very giving and kind” person. Her mother was originally from Taiwan, but had lived in Fairfax County for more than 30 years. She worked in computer science before retiring.
After retirement, Lu worked at Home Instead Senior Care in Annandale, helping elderly clients through the pandemic, her family said.
“I’m just really appreciative of all the attention this case got,” Ball said. “I think it helped bring it to conclusion.”
Ball, who lives in Arkansas, said her mother had discussed issues she was having with Sayrs in conversations, but had no idea what the motive might be for her slaying.
She hopes the criminal proceedings will bring more answers.
“That’s what we can’t wrap our minds around,” Ball said.
Sayrs is being held without bond at the Fairfax County jail. Online court records indicate he had a series of misdemeanor charges in convictions in Virginia and Maryland for minor offenses, but no felonies before his arrest Friday.
Former Tenant Charged in ‘Brutal Murder’ of Missing Virginia Woman Emily Lu, Police Say
Brian George Sayrs Jr., 25, is charged with second-degree murder and concealment of a body
By NBC Washington Staff
7/24/2021
Fairfax County police say they have found the body of Emily Lu, 50 days after she disappeared following a trip to a grocery store, and arrested a man who lived with her.
Lu, 72, went shopping the night of June 3 at an Aldi store in Woodbridge. Her car was later found at her home in Lorton with her items still inside.
Brian George Sayrs Jr., 25, of Woodbridge, was arrested faces a charge of second-degree murder, News4’s Shomari Stone was first to report. He is also charged with felony concealment of a body. He is being held without bond.
Sayrs was one of Lu’s tenants, turned himself in and met with police near where the body was found, police said.
Police said evidence found inside Lu’s home in the 9200 block of Davis Drive suggests she was killed there.
It was a “brutal, vicious murder,” police said at a press conference Saturday. The motive is unclear and police didn’t share an exact timeline.
Lu was reported missing on June 4 after she didn’t show up to her job caring for seniors. In the weeks following, her family put up flyers and pleaded with the public for help to find her.
About 20 officers searched an area at Ox Road and Peniwill Drive, a short distance from Lu’s home, on June 15 after some of her clothing was discovered. Investigators have searched for Lu on foot, via helicopter and by drone. They drained a retention pond and searched below ground, O’Carroll said.
“Dozens and dozens” of interviews pointed to Sayrs as a person of interest in Lu’s disappearance, said Maj. Ed O’Carroll, commander of the county’s major crimes bureau.
Police said they had interviewed Sayrs during the investigation and he knew he was a person of interest. Fairfax County Police Chief Kevin Davis said that they had been working toward getting an arrest warrant even before the body was found.
Then, Sayrs called detectives from a community center ballpark Friday evening, police say.
“He met with us immediately and brought us to this area,” O’Carroll said.
Police detectives and Sayrs went to a wooded area in Lorton, Virginia, near Dudley Drive and Laurel Crest Drive, O’Carroll said.
Detectives found Lu’s body less than 2 miles from her home, O’Carroll said. In previous searches, O’Carroll said investigators “came close” to finding her remains.
O’Carroll wouldn’t comment on why Syers called police but credited the active police investigation and media attention.
An autopsy is underway. Police expect to continue searching the area where Lu’s body was found on Saturday.
“Emily was caring. Emily was loving and Emily was amazing,” O’Carroll said. “Her effort in the community is that she was caring for others.”
Police say they have a person of interest in the disappearance of 72-year-old Emily Lu of Lorton. News4’s Drew Wilder reports.
Lu has lived in the area for about 30 years, her daughter, Jenny Ball, said.
She is the 13th homicide victim in Fairfax County this year, police said.
Anyone with information on the case is asked to contact police. A $20,000 reward was offered.
How President-Elect Joe Biden Proposes To Change Housing Policies
Nov 9, 2020
By Natalie Campisi – Forbes Staff
Housing was not a major talking point in the 2020 election, but President-elect Joe Biden devised a blueprint to tackle major housing issues nonetheless.
The sweeping $640 billion, 10-year plan addresses everything from affordable housing to anti-discrimination policies.
Some commentators have called it a “comprehensive plan” for housing, while others say Biden is throwing big money at real problems without offering practical solutions.
Either way, Biden’s housing plan is likely just a wish list unless the Democrats can wrangle control of the Senate. Senate control comes down to two Georgia runoff elections on Jan. 5. If the Republicans keep control, Congress will remain divided, which will make it harder for Biden to push through his housing agenda.
This article is based on known Biden proposals to:
- Expand the housing choice voucher program
- Require states receiving government money to plan for affordable housing units
- Reinstate an Obama-era rule requiring communities to create a plan to mitigate discriminatory housing practices
Biden Housing Overview: Expand Affordable Housing
Biden’s plans earmark billions of dollars to provide fair and affordable housing for middle-class families and the poorest Americans. All in all, Biden’s housing policy proposals would cost $640 billion over 10 years, although he has not detailed where any of this funding would come from.
The Biden plan would put $100 billion into an “Affordable Housing Fund,” the bulk of which ($65 billion) would provide incentives to develop and rehabilitate low-cost housing where there’s a shortage.
“These funds will be directed toward communities that are suffering from an affordability crisis and are willing to implement new zoning laws that encourage more affordable housing,” according to Biden’s plan.
Biden’s Plans Would Boost Section 8 Availability
The plan also calls to expand the Section 8 housing choice voucher program, the largest federal housing program for low-income renters. Biden would make Section 8 an entitlement, thus ensuring vouchers to all eligible people.
Currently, only 1 in 5 eligible households receive assistance, with waiting times pushing two years in some places. Some 2 million households receive Section 8 vouchers, but that’s not enough to meet demand.
“Expanding vouchers to all those eligible will need to be matched with a strong, national measure to include ‘source of income’ as a protected class under fair housing law,” says Miriam Axel-Lute, editor of Shelterforce, a nonprofit publication published by the National Housing Institute.
In addition, Axel-Lute says, reducing exclusionary zoning policies, which ban construction of multi-family homes, would expand the home selection for families with vouchers.
Biden also would push for a law that would ban discrimination against tenants who use Section 8 vouchers or receive other federal housing benefits.
Biden Would Restore Fair Housing Rules
Biden has pledged to reinstate the Obama administration’s Affirmatively Furthering Fair Housing (AFFH) rule. The Trump administration only recently terminated the rule, which required towns and cities that received HUD funding to create plans to eliminate housing discrimination in their localities.
Critics of AFFH have said there were too many hoops to jump through in order to get funding, while proponents have defended the initiative as being an integral step in promoting fair housing policies.
Maintaining the Obama-era rule would help push forward housing equity, says Bruce Dorpalen, executive director of the National Housing Resource Center.
“Biden’s proposal shows that there is institutional racism and biases we need to change. If we want to reestablish the Black middle class in this country, homeownership has to be part of that,” Dorpalen says. ”The Biden housing platform has that built-in.”
President Trump has falsely stated that the AFFH rule would have “required high-density zoning, eliminated single-family zoning, and destroyed our suburbs.” The rule does not mandate any particular solution to discrimination or unfair practices; it just requires that each community identify the problems and come up with a workable solution.
Solomon Greene, a senior fellow at the Urban Institute, a Washington D.C.-based think tank, says that AFFH holds municipalities accountable if they want to receive federal dollars, but doesn’t tell them how to do it.
“The 2015 AFFH rule offers guidance, not a particular solution,” says Greene, who was part of the HUD team that wrote the rule in 2015. “Every plan I’ve reviewed has been incredibly diverse; there was a huge range of strategies depending on the area. This is very far from Trump’s assertion that the AFFH rule was requiring rezoning of suburbs or even to build affordable housing.”
Fight Single-Family Zoning to Expand Housing and Curb Discrimination
The U.S. faces a shortage of housing, running 19% below last year’s supply. The housing shortage is the most pronounced in the West, according to data from NAR.
Experts on both sides of the aisle have called for a ban on single-family zoning, which is said to drive up home prices and restrict new construction, contributing to the housing shortage.
A story by Charles Marohn published in The New Conservative says about single-family zoning: “After all, there is no greater distortion of the market than local zoning codes, and there are few bureaucracies doing more harm to property rights and freedom than local zoning offices.”
Biden addresses zoning issues several times in his housing plan when it concerns discrimination or where federal grant money is involved.
The Biden plan would seek to “eliminate local and state housing regulations that perpetuate discrimination.” More specifically, Biden’s proposal requires states receiving community development or transportation block grants from the federal government dollars through Community Development Block Grants or Surface Transportation Block Grants to incorporate inclusionary zoning into their planning. Inclusionary zoning requires that a portion of new construction is set aside for affordable housing.
Biden also would allocate $65 billion for state housing authorities and the Indian Housing Block Grant program to build and restore housing in low-income areas. This money would go to communities “that are suffering from an affordability crisis and are willing to implement new zoning laws that encourage more affordable housing.”
Ed Pinto, senior fellow at the American Enterprise Institute, a right-leaning think tank, doesn’t believe that Biden’s plan goes far enough to eradicate single-family zoning. According to Pinto, single-family zoning promotes “NIMBYism,” an acronym for “not in my backyard.”
“We have supply constraints because of terrible zoning policies,” Pinto says. “Single-family zoning promotes NIMBYism, which drives house prices up tremendously in low-cost areas. None of the things in Biden’s proposal would make things better. You still end up with a housing shortage, nowhere to build and federally guaranteed loans that increase demand against limited supply.”
Eliminate Biased Housing Practices and Expanding Affordability
The Biden housing plan sets a goal to stamp out racially biased practices like redlining, which denies people services or charges more for those services based on race, religion or ethnicity.
Furthermore, the Biden plan wants to ensure that Americans spend no more than 30% of their income on housing, which would help people in all income brackets. These ideas would be achieved by enacting legislation similar to the “Housing, Opportunity, Mobility, and Equity (HOME) Act.”
The HOME Act would give a refundable tax credit to people who spend more than 30% of their income on rent. It also would require inclusionary zoning—a requirement that developers set aside a percentage of units that would be rented or sold at reduced prices—which would help increase affordable housing construction while also knocking out housing discrimination based on race and income.
The Biden plan also would target unfair property appraisals, which values Black-owned homes at tens of thousands of dollars less than comparable white-owned homes. A study by the Metropolitan Policy Program at the Brookings Institute found that homes of matching quality and amenities in predominantly Black neighborhoods were valued at 23% less than in those neighborhoods with fewer Black residents.
“Anti-discrimination legislation, like ending redlining—which Biden proposes—in housing is crucial,” David Dworkin, CEO of the National Housing Conference, a nonprofit, nonpartisan coalition of national housing leaders from both the public and private sector, says. “What Biden is proposing would help millions of Americans. There’s a disturbing element of ‘I’ve got mine, too bad for you.’ Some people say, ‘I put 20% down on the house, why can’t you?’
Bottom Line
Biden’s housing plan aims to reduce or eliminate discriminatory practices in the housing industry through legislation and expanded funding, from reinstating Fair Housing Rules to broadening programs that would help low-income families.
However, while Biden’s vision of fair and affordable housing is both admirable and needed, critics say that he’s doing little more than throwing money at big problems, such as the lack of affordable housing.
“Biden has one solution to every problem: He’s going to spend more money on it. There’s very little thoughtful planning here; what there is is an open checkbook,” says Michael Tanner, senior fellow at the Cato Institute, a libertarian think tank.
Source: https://www.forbes.com/advisor/mortgages/biden-housing-policies/
