Push for rental inspection program appears to gain traction

Properties yielding high-volume complaints, code violations would be targeted

By Jeremy Lazarus

Maybe the third time is the charm when it comes to a rental inspection program for Richmond.

City Council’s agenda for the Monday, Feb. 13, currently lists a resolution that calls on City Hall to develop a program of apartment inspections — the third effort to get such a program underway in the past 15 years.

Fifth District Councilwoman Stephanie A. Lynch introduced the proposal with two other members, Council President Michael

J. Jones, 9th District, and Councilwoman Ann-Frances Lambert, 3rd District, in this new effort to create such a program.

The Land Use, Housing and Transportation Committee on Jan. 26 sent the proposal to the full council with a recommendation for approval. The committee includes its chair, 1st District Councilman Andreas D. Addison, vice chair and 6th District Councilwoman Ellen F. Robertson and Ms. Lambert.

The goal is to ensure that Richmond residents who rent live in properties that meet state building code standards.

The resolution calls for. Lincoln Saunders, the city’s chief administrative officer, and his city staff to develop an inspection program by June that would be sent to the council for consideration.

Based on a state law permitting localities to develop such programs, the resolution calls for creating a data-driven program that would allow the city to target areas that generate the highest number of formal complaints or code violations.

According to the resolution, Mr. Saunders is to propose residential inspection districts for such areas so that inspectors could undertake code compliance inspections. Apartment complexes in the inspection districts would be subject to inspection at least once every four years and more often based on complaints.

The resolution also calls for flexibility to enable inspections of apartment houses that are located outside of inspection districts. The resolution states that the inspection process should be set up so it triggers compliance inspections of non-inspection district apartment buildings that were found to be deteriorating, are already in blighted condition or have building code violations that affect “safe, decent and sanitary living conditions.”

The three council patrons hope that this initiative will have greater success than proposals that council members introduced in 2007 and 2014 that died for lack of support from five members.

Population growth continues to widen affordability gap in Richmond

By Debora Timms

The need for more and varied affordable housing continues to grow in the Richmond region. Population increases are contributing to greater demand and rising prices are placing cost burdens on renters and homebuyers alike. This is according to the 2020-2022 Richmond Regional Housing Framework released last week by the Partnership for Housing Affordability (PHA).

The 204-page report used demographic data and housing supply trends to identify issues impacting housing access and affordability. PHA executive director Jovan Burton pointed to the fact that these issues continue to strain the ability of the region to house its workforce.

“Four out of five of the most common jobs in our region provide incomes that cannot afford median rent or housing prices in the Richmond area,” Mr. Burton said in a recent phone interview.

This forces workers to pay sometimes 50 to 60 percent of their wages toward housing, which is not sustainable, or deal with commutes of an hour or more as they search for housing within their budgets.

“Choice has been largely diminished for a lot of households,” Mr. Burton added.

Another issue can be seen among Richmond’s fastest growing population — seniors. This is an issue that is not unique to Richmond. It also is one that’s not going away.

“Lack of affordable housing options is causing many of our seniors to age in place,” Mr. Burton said. “Often this means seniors on fixed incomes are living in homes that are bigger than they need and that are not equipped for their changing health needs.”

One impact of seniors staying in their homes is that it lowers the stock of housing suited for larger families. That stock also has been impacted by increased home buying demand in recent years. Many property owners sold their single-family rentals, which the PHA report states has resulted in a loss of over 3,000 two- and three-bedroom homes from the rental market.

Some areas have also seen rental increases up to $300 over the past two years with the steepest increases among multi-bedroom apartments. Taken together, it is much more difficult now for renters with children to find housing, much less affordable housing.

While more than 4,300 new below-market apartments were built since January 2020, this was offset by the expiration of subsidies for 1,600 non-market apartments. PHA estimates almost 39,000 affordable homes are needed to fully eliminate rent burden for low-income renters.

“Those gains represent a tremendous amount of work,” Mr. Burton said. “But we need more targeted investment and drastically more participation from the private sector.”

One strategy that can help with the supply side is to move away from the traditional ideals of single-family homes. Denser housing in areas where that makes sense — housing such as row houses, quadplexes and sixplexes — would allow greater living options to more residents.

Another action undertaken in Richmond and other areas with some success has been using publicly owned land and abandoned buildings to create new, first-homebuyer opportunities.

There are also zoning changes under consideration that would allow for more additional dwelling units such as granny flats. These can provide seniors with more living options or opportunities to generate supplemental income.

“Despite many of the uphill battles we face in the region,” Mr. Burton said, “these types of efforts can continue to build greater progress in the Henrico, Chesterfield and Richmond City communities.”

The full 2020-2022 Richmond Regional Housing Framework report can be accessed at https://pharva.com/project/2020-2022-dataupdate/.

Stories by Fred Jeter