● Loudoun County · Virginia

Forest
Hayes

Housing champion. Community builder. Loudoun neighbor.

A career affordable-housing professional who's spent years fighting for one simple idea: the people who serve Loudoun should be able to afford to live in Loudoun.

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Forest Hayes smiling in a navy suit with an American flag lapel pin

Run Forest Run

★ Meet Forest

The neighbor who builds

Forest Hayes has spent his career in affordable housing — not talking about it. Building it. He serves as a Virginia Housing Commissioner, and as Chair of the Loudoun County Planning Commission he used the gavel the way it's supposed to be used: when the data center industry wanted zoning, Forest wanted workforce housing investment for Loudoun in return — and said so on live TV.

Howard University graduate. Kappa Alpha Psi man. Mentor, neighbor, and the loudest voice in the room for the people who keep Loudoun running.

★VA Housing Commissioner ★Fmr. Chair, Loudoun Planning Commission ★Career housing professional ★Howard University alum

Meet Forest — the full story →

Forest Hayes at the horse barn at the Loudoun County Fair — At the Loudoun County Fair, 2019. Showing up — always.

★ The Record

Receipts, not promises

None of this is new. Forest has been making the same case — in debates, in the boardroom, on TV — for years.

Forest Hayes at the Catoctin Supervisor debate, name card reading Forest Hayes (D)

2019

On the debate stage

Candidate for Catoctin District Supervisor, making the case for workforce housing when it wasn't yet the popular thing to say.

Forest Hayes with Loudoun County officials in the board room

In the room

Where decisions get made

As Planning Commission Chair, Forest negotiated what Loudoun gets in exchange for growth — and pushed the county to stop selling itself short.

See the full record →

★ The Fight

What Forest fights for

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Workforce housing

The people who serve Loudoun are commuting in from Frederick and Winchester because they can't afford to live here. Forest is the only voice in the room who has actually built affordable housing.

"If you serve Loudoun, you should be able to live in Loudoun."— Forest Hayes

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Data center accountability

Loudoun is the data center capital of the world. Forest backs Virginia's new Data Center Accountability Framework — local approval for big projects, real community benefits — and wants the industry to help fund workforce housing. Read the plan →

"You don't get to pay to lower our taxes and then get off scot-free."— Forest Hayes

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An affordable Loudoun

Affordability is the through-line — housing, taxes, the cost of staying in the county you grew up in. Every dollar should work as hard as the people who paid it.