“It’s very clear we have a shortage of supply, particularly on the rental side, and we need to greatly increase that,” Burton said.
In Chesterfield, he credited the county’s partnership with a local nonprofit for preventing displacement of more than 2,200 households facing eviction last year amid the COVID-19 pandemic. The $16.6 million rent relief program was one of the “highest-performing” in the country, and the need for aid still remains, he added.
State support came in the form of grant funding from Virginia Housing, Burton said. It enabled PLANRVA to distribute roughly $2.5 million to nonprofit developers for about 260 new affordable units in seven cities and counties. Some families will begin moving into those projects later this year, he added.
Grants totaling $5 million from The Community Foundation and Altria would help fund projects comprising more than 1,000 new affordable homes in the next three years, Burton said. The large donations to nonprofit housing providers like Better Housing Coalition and the Maggie Walker Community Land Trust signaled strong support from the region’s philanthropic organizations, he added.
Greta Harris, president and CEO of the Better Housing Coalition, said collaboration between the public and private sectors to address affordable housing challenges was as strong as she’d seen it during her 30-year career.
