New $3M grant program to support affordable housing in Henrico, Metro Richmond

A new $3 million grant program aims to support shovel-ready affordable housing developments in the Richmond region.

Funding will be managed by

and the

and comes from

established earlier this year. Virginia Housing, a stage agency, launched the program for Virginia’s planning district commissions.

“These new funds from Virginia Housing will make a significant impact on increasing housing affordability in our region,” said Christopher Winslow, vice chairman of the Chesterfield Board of Supervisors and chairman of PlanRVA, in an Oct. 19 statement announcing the creation of the program.

“Through our partnership with the Partnership for Housing Affordability,” he said, “PlanRVA will be able to distribute these much-needed funds to help advance key priorities outlined in the

”

PlanRVA, a planning agency serving the nine greater Richmond localities, received the $3 million grant to address “new affordable homeownership opportunities, renovating vacant and blighted properties, and creating upper-story housing in downtown business districts,” according to the statement.

The bulk of the funds will be distributed to non-profit organizations that have shovel-ready affordable housing developments in the Richmond area, officials said. PlanRVA and the Partnership for Housing Affordability both have a goal of distributing these funds to generate at least 75 new units of affordable housing.

Jovan Burton, implementation director for the partnership, said its role in the project was to help communities become filled with more opportunity and to ensure that housing was the driver of that opportunity.

“Our role is to really work with our local government partners here in the Richmond region and help them better understand what the housing need is, and what solutions can help address those needs and how we get there,” Burton said.

“If you look at any aspect, whether it's health, whether it’s education, or jobs, whatever it may be, we really believe that housing is the centerpiece to that,” he continued. “If you have that stability, and more folks have options, then that's a greater chance of opportunities that can flourish in the region. And that's ultimately what we want — we want to have housing be kind of that engine for opportunity here in the region.”

Grant program funding could help nonprofit developers finance the gaps in their affordable housing projects, according to the statement announcing the initiative. This could help with rising construction costs, land acquisition, and contractor fees, in addition to many other eligible expenses, the statement read.

Henrico County receives a limited amount of funding from the federal government to help with those experiencing homelessness,

.

to provide opportunities to those in need. These programs, like the Southside Community Development and Housing Corporation and Home Inc., will be eligible for funding through the new grant program.

“This is a game-changing opportunity for organizations in the Richmond region that are advancing the solutions outlined in the Richmond Regional Housing Framework,” Laura Lafayette, executive director of the PHA, said. “Our partnership with PlanRVA will ensure that these funds will provide our region’s citizens with greater access to safe, quality affordable housing.”

Martha Heeter, PlanRVA’s executive director, said that the program is designed to serve low- and moderate-income families while demonstrating a commitment to improving housing opportunities overall.

“The idea is to be able to create more inventory for affordable housing in the regions and across the region,” Heeter said. “It's important that regardless of where we are in our stage of life or income level, having a place to go home at night is really critical to our well-being. In the Richmond region, relatively speaking, housing might be considered affordable, but you know that ‘housing affordability’ is a relative term.”