This week, members of Habitat DC-NOVA were proud to join the Commonwealth Housing Coalition, and a few of our Habitat neighboring colleagues, to advocate for important and needed state-level housing legislation in front of the Virginia General Assembly for a full early day of meetings and hearings. We thank the staff of Senator Aird, Senator Boysko, Delegate Shin, Delegate Delaney and Delegate Simon for meeting with us and shared support for these policies. Bills discussed included:
Virginia is short roughly 300,000 homes due to policies that limit home construction and prevent affordable homes from being built. Habitat DC-NOVA will continue our advocacy to address Virginia’s affordable housing shortage and for these bills to cross the finish line!
Additionally, Fairfax City Mayor Catherine Read testified in support of state legislation eliminating a key hurdle to affordable housing on church-owned properties. State Sen. Jeremy McPike’s (D-29) Senate Bill 388 would let religious organizations develop housing on their land by right, without needing to go through a special exception, special use or conditional use permit or rezoning process that requires public hearings and votes. In discussing the importance of this bill, Mayor Read referred to our ongoing project, Glebe View Townhomes with Fairfax Presbyterian Church in Fairfax County. To read the full article click here.
Starting Tuesday, February 10th, members of Habitat DC-NOVA will attend Habitat on the Hill, the three-day, D.C. based event, where advocates from 48 states, Washington D.C. and Puerto Rico will travel to meet with Congressional leaders. Affordability remains a top issue facing Americans, and rural, urban, and suburban communities nationwide are experiencing this historic loss of affordable homeownership opportunities, which is driving the overall crisis. The shortage of starter homes impedes workers’ access to job markets with economic opportunities, holds back local economies, exacerbates the wealth gap, and keeps millions of would-be homebuyers in the rental market.