Category: Housing
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The Circle of Government Fecklessness and Homelessness – Newport News Edition
by James C. Sherlock Newport News ought to work. It starts with Newport News Shipbuilding (NNS). I’ll let them describe it. Newport News Shipbuilding is the sole designer, builder and refueler of U.S. Navy aircraft carriers and one of two providers of U.S. Navy submarines. With approximately $4 billion in revenues and more than 25,000…
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An Innovative Initiative from UVa Shows A Way to Increase Low Cost Housing
by James C. Sherlock In July I published a series of reports here on the lack of sufficient low-cost housing. The University of Virginia is addressing that problem head on in Charlottesville and Albemarle County. The innovation at the core of the program can be applied by Redevelopment and Housing Agencies (RHAs) across the state.…
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The Public Housing and Education Debate – Who, Exactly, are the Racists?
by James C. Sherlock There is agreement on both sides of the political divide in Virginia and the rest of the country that public housing projects were and are hellholes. I have written that the bipartisan response, vouchers, run into lack of supply virtually everywhere. Cue the debate about causes and solutions. Let’s take a…
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Portsmouth, Norfolk and Newport News – New Applications for Section 8 Vouchers, Public Housing Mostly Closed
by James C. Sherlock I authored a piece here recently about the Norfolk Redevelopment and Housing Authority (NRHA) and the Section 8 Housing Choice Voucher program. I made the point that it is very difficult to find housing that can profitably be rehabbed to Section 8 standards. I note that the only open waiting list…
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Capitalism is the Solution To, Not the Cause Of, the Affordable Housing Crisis
by James C. Sherlock My colleague Dick Hall-Sizemore posted a column here on housing for the poor. He titled it “Little Guys Lose Again.” His opening: A recent article on this blog about the high cost of housing generated a considerable amount of discussion. Much of the discussion centered around the role of government in…
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Little Guys Lose, Again
by Dick Hall-Sizemore A recent article on this blog about the high cost of housing generated a considerable amount of discussion. Much of the discussion centered around the role of government in contributing to the affordable housing shortage. I offer another reason: good old-fashioned capitalism. A recent article in The Virginian Pilot well illustrates this point.…
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The Rent Is Too Damn High
by Jon Baliles I think RVA needs to recruit retired New York City politician Jimmy McMillan to come to Richmond and run for office. He was the straight-talker who ran for Governor of New York under the Rent Is Too Damn High Party banner in 2010 and said more genuine truths in 35 seconds…
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The Great Realignment, Best-State-for-Business Reprise, Housing Drags, and Youngkin Popularity
by Chris Saxman If you read one article this week make it this one from Axios – The Democratic electorate’s seismic shift. Just about every presentation I have given over the last 6 or 7 years begins with a statement or slide that says we are living in a historic political realignment and it’s global.…
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Public Featherbedding at the Norfolk Redevelopment and Housing Authority?
by James C. Sherlock Daniel Berti published an excellent investigative report this morning in The Virginian-Pilot. “Norfolk’s housing authority is in ‘dire’ financial condition, bloated after years of failing to downsize” details what may prove to be waste and abuse at that agency to preserve jobs as the administrative requirements and funding of the mission…
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Unaffordable? A Proposed Town Center Doesn’t Have to Answer the Questions It Raises.
by Joe Fitzgerald On the website for a proposed 1,000-unit housing development in Harrisonburg is a description of the players in the project. Included is a history of sorts of the Harrisonburg Redevelopment and Housing Authority: “[A] local election was held on November 8, 1955 and a majority of those voting in the election approved…
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Virginia’s Median Home Price Jumps $100K in Four Years
Despite the slowing market frenzy, home prices continue rising across all price points According to the April 2022 Virginia Home Sales Report released by Virginia REALTORS®, the statewide median home sales price was $390,000 in April. This is $100,000 higher than April of 2018, just four years ago. Compared to last year at this time, Virginia’s median…
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The Affordable Housing Crisis Intensifies
The Washington Post has published an interactive graphic showing how much rents have increased across the United States over the past year. Average rents in Virginia increased most rapidly in Hampton Roads, the Richmond metro, and the Fredericksburg area — up 20.4% in Spotsylvania County and 20.2% in Bedford County outside Lynchburg. Among localities that…
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Can We Afford Affordable?
Magical thinking doesn’t build schools or roads. by Joe Fitzgerald Harrisonburg’s taxes are going up and will continue to go up because of housing decisions. Stated another way, because talking about taxes makes me sound like a Republican, the city will have to keep building more schools and hiring more teachers and bus drivers and…
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The Rural Housing Challenge
by James A. Bacon I’ve tended to think of the housing-affordability issue in Virginia as a phenomenon relegated to the major metropolitan areas. Northern Virginia, Richmond and Hampton Roads are where the population growth has occurred, and that’s where zoning and environmental restrictions have been the most stringent, making it difficult for homebuilders to keep…
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Please, Please, Make This Study Go Away!
by James A. Bacon A General Assembly-ordered study has published its findings for making housing more affordable and accessible for lower-income Virginians and minorities. One can only pray that the report is relegated to one of those proverbial shelves that collects dust, and is never to be seen again. Its recommendations, if followed, would steer…