Northam’s latest request for housing money will again test Virginia legislature

By Patricia Sullivan

April 1 at 5:00 AM

Virginia Gov. Ralph Northam (D) will ask state lawmakers on Wednesday to add $4 million to a housing trust fund, another chance to measure whether long-standing concerns about affordability in the Washington suburbs are starting to spread to the rest of the commonwealth.

Northam’s request, one of 40 budget amendments he is submitting as the legislature reconvenes for a brief “veto” session, would be a significant increase in the affordable housing fund, which received $5.5 million in the state budget this year and last year.

Legislators also agreed this year to authorize $75 million over the next five years for affordable housing in Northern Virginia, as part of an economic development incentive package to draw Amazon’s new headquarters to Arlington County.

Advocates and analysts say it’s far short of what’s needed to solve a growing housing crisis. And they say approving the money would take a turnaround by legislators who represent suburban and rural districts to recognize there’s an affordable housing crisis in their areas as well in Northern Virginia.

“We lose anything south of Fredericksburg,” said Michelle Krocker, executive director of the Northern Virginia Affordable Housing Alliance. “There’s still a lot of stigma when you talk about affordable housing in some parts of Virginia, that it’s for people on welfare or it’s for people who don’t work, or that brings down property values.”

Sim Wimbush, executive director of the Virginia Housing Alliance, called the budget amendment “a rallying cry” for affordable housing. Just as legislators were chagrined by 2018 news reports on the high eviction rates in Richmond, she said, causing them to rush passage of bills that give tenants more time to pay overdue rent and fees, affordable housing is beginning to get their attention as well.

“Affordable housing is not an urban versus rural issue. It affects every area of the commonwealth,” said Del. Alfonso H. Lopez (D-Arlington), who sponsored the bill that established the statewide housing trust fund in 2013.

Northern Virginia legislators have long fought for more investment in affordable housing, driven by the high cost of living in the Washington metropolitan area. But their votes, and the votes of all the Democrats in the Republican-controlled General Assembly, are not enough to pass Northam’s request by the simple majority required.

There was almost no debate in the legislature in February about the $75 million that the state will provide as part of its Amazon package.

Arlington County, which has its own affordable housing incentive fund of about $14 million, promised to provide an additional $70 million over the next 10 years. Alexandria, whose Potomac Yard neighborhood is part of the “National Landing” area pitched to Amazon, will devote $80 million in the next decade, funded in part by a year-old meals tax increase.

Northam previously asked for $19 million for the housing fund. Lopez sought $50 million. Neither effort was successful.

The six-year-old fund provides loans to communities and nonprofit agencies to reduce the cost of homeownership and rental housing, with as much as 20 percent of the fund available to efforts to reduce homelessness. The loans are paid back with interest, which creates a revolving fund.

State Sen. Adam P. Ebbin (D-Alexandria), who sponsored the $1.5 million increase that the General Assembly approved in February, said he applauded Northam’s latest effort, but the money still falls far short of what’s needed.

“I’m concerned that if we don’t keep pushing ahead in a big way, this won’t get ramped up any further,” he said. If Democrats win control of the General Assembly in November, he added, “I’m very hopeful . . . there will be more in the trust fund. But it won’t just happen by wishing for it.”