City’s ‘housing crisis’ calls for 23,000 affordable living spaces

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The city is estimated to need 23,000 rental units and starter homes that are affordable for individuals and families at the lower end of the income scale — defined as requiring no more than 30 to 35 percent of income.

The approved resolution sets a goal of adding 1,300 apartments and homes a year that carry lower price tags in seeking to make a small dent in that huge need.

Second District Councilwoman Katherine Jordan said supply also could be increased if the city cracked down on the illicit conversion of blocs of apartments into short-term rentals – a process that she said reduces the overall supply of units and helps fuel rental increases.

Affordable housing advocate Tracey Hardney-Scott, speaking before the vote, told the council that she hopes the words fire up the city because of the impact that the cost of housing is having on people’s lives.

“This crisis is bigger than just bricks and mortar. It is affecting health, education and criminal justice,” said Ms. HardneyScott, who chairs the Help Me Help You Foundation and the Richmond Branch NAACP’s Housing Committee. She said that affordable housing is a key ingredient in changing the lives of people returning from jails and prisons.

But in passing the resolution, the council essentially endorsed the mayor’s plan for costly borrowing to beef up the loan pool overseen by the Affordable Housing Trust Fund (AHTF) while eliminating the 2020 program.

Free COVID-19 vaccines

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The Virginia Department of Health also has a list of COVID19 testing locations around the state at www.vdh.virginia.gov/ coronavirus/covid-19-testing/covid-19-testing-sites.

Want a COVID-19 vaccine or booster shot?

The Richmond and Henrico health districts are offering free vaccines for COVID-19 and more at the following locations:

Thursday, April 13 & April 20, 2 to 4 p.m. - Cary Street, 400 E. Cary St., Primary Moderna shots for age 6 months to 5 years old and bivalent boosters for age 6 years and older, Primary Pfizer shots for age 6 months and older, bivalent boosters for age 5 years and older, Novavax primary shots for age 12 and older, and boosters for age 18 and older, JYNNEOS shots and baby bivalent boosters. Walk-ups welcome but appointments encouraged.

Wednesday, April 19 , 2 to 4 p.m., Henrico West Health Department, 8600 Dixon Powers Dr., Primary Moderna shots for age 6 months to 5 years old and bivalent boosters for age 6 years and older, Primary Pfizer shots for age 6 months and older, bivalent boosters for age 5 years and older, Novavax primary shots for age 12 and older, and boosters for age 18 and older, JYNNEOS shots and baby bivalent boosters. Walk-ups welcome but appointments encouraged. People can schedule an appointment online at vase.vdh.virginia. gov, vaccinate.virginia.gov or vax.rchd.com, or by calling (804) 2053501 or (877) VAX-IN-VA (1-877-829-4682).

VaccineFinder.org and vaccines.gov also allow people to find nearby pharmacies and clinics that offer the COVID-19 vaccine and booster.

Those who are getting a booster shot should bring their vaccine card to confirm the date and type of vaccine received.

RHHD also offers at-home vaccinations by calling (804) 205-3501 to schedule appointments.

New COVID-19 boosters, updated to better protect against the latest variants of the virus, are now available. The new Pfizer booster is approved for those aged 12 and up, while the new Moderna booster is for those aged 18 and older.

As with previous COVID-19 boosters, the new doses can only be received after an initial two vaccine shots, and those who qualify are instructed to wait at least two months after their second COVID-19 vaccine.

The Richmond and Henrico Health Districts are now offering bivalent Pfizer and Moderna boosters to children between the ages of 5 and 11 in clinics in the near future. Children in this age range will be eligible after at least two months since their last vaccine dose.

New COVID-19 cases in Virginia fell by 24 percent during the last week, according to data from the Virginia Department of Health, while data from the Virginia Hospital & Healthcare Association showed hospitalizations statewide decreased by one percent since last week.

Richmond and the counties of Chesterfield, Hanover and Henrico County are at low levels of community COVID-19. No localities in Virginia are ranked at high community COVID levels, and none were ranked at medium as of last week.

A total of 104 new cases of COVID-19 were reported statewide Wednesday for the 24-hour period, contributing to an overall state total of 2,302,698 cases in Virginia since the pandemic’s outbreak. As of Wednesday, there have been 459,522 hospitalizations and 23,724 deaths reported statewide.

State data available at the time also shows that African-Americans comprised 22 percent of cases statewide and 21.6 percent of deaths for which ethnic and racial data is available, while Latinos made

Under the mayor’s plan, the city is to borrow $10 million a year in each of the next five years to fuel the trust fund’s ability to support affordable housing developments at a cost of $88 million in interest. Council is preparing to vote for that plan when it finalizes the 2023-24 budget that will start July 1.

Just three years ago, the mayor and the council approved using increasing property tax revenue from renovated properties.

Though completely overhauled, Richmond had long reduced real estate taxes for a period of time as an incentive to owners and investors to rehabilitate blighted homes, apartments and commercial buildings.

In 2020, Mayor Stoney proposed and the council agreed that roll-off money, the increase in tax revenues from properties with expiring exemptions, should go to the AHTF for use to support affordable housing development.

At the time, Sharon Ebert, deputy chief administrative officer economic and community development, advised council that was the right way to go.

She stated that City Assessor Richie McKeithen agreed that expiring tax exemptions should generate $2 million a year in new revenue and over a 10-year period, should generate more than $100 million for the AHTF.

Under the plan, the initial $2 million was to flow each year to the AHTF, with additional dollars from expiring exemptions added to that each year. Under the scenario that Ms. Ebert out- lined, the $2 million the first year would become $4 million the second year, $6 million the third year and so on.

However, Lincoln Saunders, the city’s chief administrative officer, issued a paper in March stating the revamp of the program and other complexities meant that the “expiring tax exemptions will not produce as much money” as had been anticipated.

He projected that the AHTF would receive a maximum of $5.2 million a year from the roll-off funds by 2027.

Martin Wegbreit, an AHTF board member, said that Mr. Saunders’ paper did not explain why the city planned to keep the roll-off dollars rather than sending them to the AHTF as the 2020 ordinance required.

The AHTF was to be credited with nearly $2.4 million this year and $3.7 million in 2024 from the roll-off funds until it reached the $5.2 million maximum in three years.

However, those roll-off dollars have not been made available to the AHTF. Last year and this year, the council approved the mayor’s plan to use $10 million in 2022 and $10 million in 2023 in the American Rescue Plan funds’ roll-off dollars over two years. This year, the council is poised to substitute borrowed money for the roll-off dollars.

Mr. Wegbreit noted that adding the roll-off dollars to the ARP funds and the borrowed money would increase the amount of city dollars. As he pointed out, $12.4 million is more than $10 million as is $13.7 million.