Virginia Mercury, April 21, 2019: In fight over affordable housing, some lawmakers aren’t worried about gentrification; ‘I want to up the property values’
Amazon’s plan to hire 25,000 high-paid workers in Northern Virginia prompted a surge of interest in affordable housing and gentrification this year.
Finding state money to address the issues, however, remained a tough sell in the General Assembly, where Gov. Ralph Northam had proposed a $20 million increase in funding but ended up barely eking out a $4 million boost during the veto session — not a ton considering apartment complexes cost an average of $200,000 per unit to construct, according to some research. Building affordable housing, in fact, “is not particularly affordable,” according to the Urban Institute, because of “a huge gap between what these buildings cost to construct and maintain and the rents most people can pay.”
Some members of the GOP majority say they aren’t sure there are even issues to address, reacting with skepticism and exasperation to a long presentation on gentrification at a State Housing Commission meeting earlier this month that ended with a plea for additional state money.
While advocates contend that the state can grow property values while maintaining affordable housing with dedicated funding and the right policies in place, the exchange echoes a debate that began quietly when Virginia was still negotiating with Amazon last year and continued through the General Assembly’s veto session: Is affordable housing something for the state to tackle, or should it be left to cities and counties to address with local money?
Derek Hyra, a professor at American University and director of its Metropolitan Policy Center, who made the aforementioned presentation to the Housing Commission, says that Republicans are right that localities should dedicate money to affordable housing. But he said the state needs to chip in, too, because the need is great and the problem is growing around the state, not just in Northern Virginia. He pointed to a study released earlier this year by the National Community Reinvestment Coalition that placed three Virginia metro areas — Washington, D.C. (which includes Northern Virginia), Virginia Beach and Richmond – among the 10 “most intensely” gentrified. (More on that here.)
