Why this organization is urging businesses to help address affordable housing needs in Henrico, Richmond region

The need for more affordable housing in the Metro Richmond region is of critical importance to the future of the region, and businesses should step up to support the construction of more of it.

That conclusion was among several offered during the Partnership for Housing Affordability’s 2025 State of Housing in the Richmond Region, held Thursday at the Virginia Museum of History and Culture, and through reports released at the same time.

Among the eye-opening data presented during the event:

• the cost of an average home in Metro Richmond has risen by about 40% since 2020, but the annual income needed to purchase it has nearly doubled;

• workers in four of the five most common jobs in the region don’t make enough on average to afford even a typical rental unit.


In order to afford the median cost of a home in the region – $410,000 – potential buyers need an income of nearly $123,000, affording to PHA officials. That’s up 98% from the $62,005 annual income needed just five years ago to purchase a home at the median price of $292,000 in 2020. Typical mortgage rates have more than doubled since then, from just more than 3% to nearly 7%.


To address the need for affordable housing, PHA officials during the event unveiled the organization’s "Corporate Playbook for Affordable Housing," a five-step plan designed to encourage businesses to take ownership of the issue and help spur enhancements locally.


It encourages companies to:


• support existing affordable housing work through corporate giving initiatives, employee volunteer efforts and pro bono services to housing organizations, among other possibilities;


• advocate for housing policy changes, such as underwriting housing advocacy campaigns, raising the profile of affordable housing needs through corporate media channels and offering in-kind contributions that can support advocacy efforts;


• finance new affordable housing initiatives, by contributing to affordable housing funds for new developments or contributing land for such a development, among other possibilities;


• add housing assistance as part of employer benefits packages;


• organize policy efforts to raise funds from the private sector that lead to new affordable housing options.



The playbook cites data that suggests that every dollar invested in affordable housing produces $16 in economic impact to the local economy during a 10-year period and that employee turnover at companies is reduced by as much as 25% when employees have stable and affordable housing.

Lower-income households in affordable housing also put about 19% more into their local economies on non-housing needs than do cost-burdened households, PHA officials concluded.

Regional Housing Policy Agenda

The organization also presented its 2025 Regional Housing Policy Agenda, a nine-point document that outlines others steps businesses, governments and other organizations can take to help encourage more affordable housing.

The suggestions include:

• the formation of a $50-million pooled fund (using private and philanthropic dollars) to seed a regional housing trust fund akin to the one Henrico County established last year (see below);

• the establishment of programs that will provide tax incentives for affordable housing in localities that don't have existing programs;

• the review of publicly owned properties that could serve as sites for affordable housing construction, either through invitations to developers or leases and land donation;

• the creation of a $250,000 awareness campaign to build support for local housing strategies regionally;

• the formation of housing advisory committees in each Metro Richmond locality and adoption of housing strategies in each one by next year.

Henrico's affordable housing trust fund

Henrico County officials last year made the creation of more affordable housing a top priority, establishing their groundbreaking $60-million affordable housing trust fund using tax revenue from data centers in the county, then tapping PHA to administer the fund and establish criteria for it.

The fund, which began accepting applications last fall, is expected to help fund the construction of an average of 150 affordable housing units annually for five years, according to PHA and county officials, resulting in a total of 750 such units during that time. Those units will be available to first-time homebuyer households that earn between 60% and 120% of the Area Median Income.

“Through the reduction of home sales prices to a rate affordable to targeted populations, this fund aims to support wealth building opportunities for households who otherwise cannot afford to purchase in the current market,” officials wrote on the fund’s website.

At buildout, those 750 homes could support as many as 550 local jobs, nearly $35 million in wages and benefits in current dollars, more than $104 million in local economic output in current dollars and nearly $7 million in combined state and local tax revenue, PHA officials concluded.

The trust fund will be used as a subsidy to help nonprofit and for-profit developers complete pre-development and construction efforts and to help nonprofit builders purchase land. Developers also will be reimbursed for the water, sewer and building permit fees associated with those affordable housing units and will receive cash subsidies to reduce the sale price of the units, which will be constructed as part of larger developments and will be indistinguishable from full-price units.

Thirty affordable units are under construction in the county through the program so far: 25 at the Parkside Townes townhouse community on Whiteside Road in Sandston and five at the Discovery Ridge community at Gayton Road and Lauderdale Drive in Short Pump.

The median price of a home in Henrico rose more than 20% in just three years – from just more than $357,000 in 2020 to slightly more than $430,000 in 2023, according to PHA, and the housing market has tightened as a result. Conversely, the median household income in the county rose by just about 7% during the same timeframe, to nearly $86,000.

More than 52% of renters in Henrico were “cost-burdened” as of 2023, PHA officials reported, meaning that their housing costs accounted for 30% or more of their household income.

Through a partnership with Report for America, the Henrico Citizen is adding a full-time community vitality reporter in July to cover the interrelated issues of housing, transportation and health in Henrico County. RFA will match every donation made in support of this position dollar for dollar, up to $25,000. Make a tax-deductible contribution here.