NORFOLK, Va. – Hampton Roads is at the center of an affordable housing crisis in Virginia, leading to a record number of calls for assistance to the regional Housing Crisis Hotline.
“What we’re seeing right now is the highest ever call volume we have ever seen since we’ve operated the hotline,” said Thaler McCormick, the chief executive officer of ForKids, a non-profit organization aimed at providing services to children and families experiencing homelessness. “In October, we had over 7,800 answered calls. Those are the calls we answered, not the total volume that came in.”
McCormick said the expiration of federal rental assistance earlier this year, in addition to inflation and soaring rent prices, is putting working families on the brink of experiencing homelessness.
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“Everyone’s starting to understand it’s a critical problem that impacts our kids, our seniors, our families, and our workers,” said McCormick. “We have people calling, and they need thousands in assistance just to remain in their housing.”
McCormick also said the increasing number of people in need of assistance with rent, utilities and food have drained their resources, too.
“We’ve completely lost any tools in the toolbox to be able to help working people that have gotten a little behind to help them get caught back up,” said McCormick. “Our shelter stays have gotten so long, that we’re actually serving far less people because we can’t move people out, and if you can’t move people out, you can’t move [new people] in.”
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According to research by the Joint Legislative Audit and Review Commission, Virginia has a shortage of 200,000 affordable housing units for low-income and extremely low-income residents. Tracey Smith, who led the JLARC study, said the shortage is concentrated in Hampton Roads and Northern Virginia.
“Folks who are, for example, in Hampton Roads, I think we estimated they are the most likely to be cost burned than households living in any other region of the state,” Smith said.
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According to Smith and her team’s research, some of the largest occupations in the state, like health care aides, teacher’s assistants, and bus drivers, earned salaries below the affordable housing wage in Virginia.
“We're actually pretty surprised that some of some of the occupations that people really rely on for getting through the day for their services are those occupations that are more likely to have trouble affording their homes,” Smith said.
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According to the National Low Income Housing Coalition, Virginia has the 14th highest housing wage in the country.
The NLIHC estimates the fair market value for a one-bedroom apartment in Virginia is roughly $1,100, meaning you would have to earn $20.40 per hour working full time to afford rent and pay other bills. The situation is even more fire for Virginians who earn minimum wage. At $11 dollars per hour, a minimum wage worker would have to clock 78 hours per week to afford a one-bedroom apartment in Virginia.
Smith pondered, “How in the world can people who are working in these extremely important but lower paying jobs, how can they afford to continue doing what they're doing?”
Smith said the JLARC team identified key hurdles to developing more affordable housing in Virginia, including barriers in zoning.
“The lack of […] land and of affordable housing zoning policies is really the primary barrier to developing new affordable housing,” said Smith. “When a developer has to pursue rezoning for affordable housing, that adds time and cost.”
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Smith said the JLARC report urged General Assembly members to address rigid zoning policies so localities can pursue more affordable housing developments. The report also cited a need for increased incentives to encourage developers to take on affordable housing projects. She estimated addressing these issues could take years and more than a billion dollars.
“It's a complicated problem. It's an expensive problem,” said Smith. “Hopefully, what our report has done is provided some solutions, at least from a state government level.”
Another hurdle some affordable housing developers face is a “not in my backyard” in some communities, according to Delegate Angelia Williams Graves.
“Open your mind a little bit to see what can be,” said Delegate Williams Graves, referencing the uphill battle the Franklin Johnson Group faced on its journey to building the new Riverside Station apartments in Norfolk. “If it were not for complexes like this, and developers who build affordable housing, then those people would most likely be homeless.”
Todd Walker, the executive director of the Judeo-Christian Outreach Center in Virginia Beach, is championing the development of a new affordable housing complex in the resort city. Over the summer, Walker and the JCOC were awarded $900,000 in funding from the Virginia Department of Housing and Community Development.
“I thank God that he’s using me to be a part of the solution,” said Walker, who shared design plans for the 38-unit affordable housing complex he hopes to see up and running by 2024. “I dream about the ribbon-cutting ceremony.”
Walker said the City of Virginia Beach, Sentara, and the Hampton Roads Community Foundation is assisting in the effort to get the project off the ground. He said it will primarily serve people exiting homelessness, and those earning less than $25,000 a year.
“It’s hitting the working class now, the working middle class, where before it was people right below the poverty line,” Walker said.
Mel Price, the principal and co-founder of Work Program Architects, points to the “Missing Middle” concept to help address affordable housing, too.
“[It’s] housing that falls in between a single-family home – which most of our cities are now zoned only for single-family homes – and a really large apartment complex,” said Price, citing duplexes and triplexes as “Missing Middle” examples in Norfolk. “We could fit more people on property and make it affordable by design.
Price, along with the City of Norfolk, developed the “Missing Middle Program Book” to give developers an idea of what is possible – if zoning laws are reimagined.
“I think there’s an opportunity to build generational wealth again by revisiting our past and doing it in a contemporary way,” Price said.
While governments debate on the best ways to solve the affordable housing crisis, McCormick with ForKids urges immediate action to keep families from experiencing homelessness.
“Let’s convert hotels. Let’s think out of the box on how we can make a vital housing stock right here in the community,” said McCormick. “There’s not enough housing at any level, so let’s get started.”
McCormick said while resources are stretched, people struggling are still urged to call the Housing Crisis Hotline at (757) 587-4202.
