James City County will spend $390,000 to buy two dilapidated houses, demolish them and build two new houses aimed at first-time home buyers with low or moderate incomes.
Local officials have identified the county’s lack of affordable housing as a problem that needs to be addressed. More than 8,000 households, or about a third of those in the county, were considered cost burdened in 2017, meaning they spend more than 30% of income on housing costs. Spending that much on housing can threaten a household’s ability to pay for other expenses, such as food and medical care.
This project is intended to shore up James City County’s limited affordable housing stock and chip away at the county’s collection of residences in poor condition, which a 2016 housing study pegged at 946 units.
“It represents another source of potential funding to make a dent in some of the housing condition study findings,” County Planning Director Paul Holt said.
The county has yet to actually purchase the properties or identify specifically which properties it wants to improve. There isn’t a timeline on when the project may be completed, Holt said.
The county will put up $300,000 of funding available in its current budget for the project. The remaining $90,000 will be provided through a state grant courtesy of the Acquire, Renovate, Sell program. The Virginia Department of Housing and Community Development created the program to allow eligible entities to buy and revitalize blighted homes in 2018, according to a county memo. Local governments, housing authorities and nonprofits are among the entities eligible for the program.
Properties eligible for the program can include foreclosed, abandoned or vacant homes. The program requires the improved properties be sold “at fair market value to individuals or families who make no more than 80% of area median income,” according to the memo.
The county is part of the Housing and Urban Development Department’s Virginia Beach-Norfolk-Newport News, VA-NC HUD Metro FMR Area, which in fiscal year 2018 had an area median income of $75,000, according to the Virginia Housing Development Authority’s website.
The Board of Supervisors OK’d a resolution that approved the funding and directed the county administrator to sign an agreement with the state health department to enact the initiative at its meeting Tuesday.
“Opportunities such as these are but a small example of how the county is working hard every day to advance and implement the County’s Strategic Plan,” Board Chairman Jim Icenhour said in an email after the meeting. “The end-results of this effort will ensure that two more families in the county will have safe, decent and affordable housing.”
The resolution was approved unanimously as part of the board’s consent calendar. Decisions that are deemed non-controversial are decided en mass as part of the consent calendar. Accordingly, the housing rehabilitation resolution didn’t generate any discussion among supervisors.
How it will work
The Virginia Department of Housing and Community Development partnered with the Virginia Housing Development Authority to fund the program. The authority has set aside $5 million generated through mortgage repayments to fund the program, the memo states.
The housing unit within the county’s social services department will manage the project and its staff will provide housing counseling to the first-time home buyers who will come to occupy the new houses.
The upcoming rehabilitation project comes amid other recent affordable housing initiatives.
Late last month, Gov. Ralph Northam announced James City County had been awarded $1 million for housing rehabilitation through the Community Development Block Grant, a federal grant that allocates money to home rehabilitation projects for low- and moderate-income people.
“The Community Development Block Grant program continues to be a vital resource for funding projects that help build strong regional economies throughout Virginia and address the most pressing needs in our communities,” Northam said in a statement announcing the allocation of $13.4 million to 14 localities.
The grant was a competitive program, and James City County’s application sought improvements to 16 households consisting of 29 people throughout the county during a two-year period, according to a county memo.
In February, the county’s affordable housing task force finalized a list of 15 recommended strategies to tackle the affordable housing shortage after about a year of study and debate. Strategies range from home rehabilitation to redevelopment of motels into residential properties. The strategies are intended to address housing needs of workers across income levels.
Supervisors are expected to consider which, if any, recommendations they would like to see the county pursue at their work session Sept. 24, Holt said.
Supervisors also are expected to consider affordable housing goals and related policies as part of the upcoming comprehensive plan update, formally making affordable housing a priority for the team behind the update process.
The draft resolution staff has created, but the board hasn’t voted on yet, would set a goal of at least 20% of residential units in the county be offered for sale or for rent for households at several specific income brackets:
At least 8% of units affordable for households earning 30% to 60% of area median income.
At least 7% of units affordable for households earning between 60% to 80% of area median income.
At least 5% of units affordable for households earning between 80% to 100% of area median income.
As per the draft resolution, staff will be directed to incorporate these goals in the updated comprehensive plan. Exactly how those goals will be met hasn’t been determined yet. The resolution also would task the finance director with calculating and publishing rent and sales prices that correspond with the ranges on a semiannual basis.
The county’s comprehensive plan was created in 2015 and charts a course for future county economic development in the coming decades. In the spring, the county kicked off a regular review and update of the plan, which is expected to take about two years and will feature public comment. The amended comprehensive plan will need to be approved by supervisors.
Jack Jacobs, 757-298-6007, jojacobs@vagazette.com, @jajacobs_
