Virginia

Laws designed to ease regulations that limit housing diversity and supply are passing in states around the country. Affordable housing advocates in four states talked with us about the coalitions that have come together, and how they might fit within the larger advocacy framework.

After residents got notice that their mobile home park was going up for sale, advocates made use of a Virginia law that required the owners to consider a resident-supported counteroffer.

Last year, we reported on tenants in Northern Virginia LIHTC properties whose rents were raised in the middle of their leases. Here’s how other states have banned the practice.

Arrangements in which LIHTC tenants share in the development’s financial benefits, or become partial or full owners, are rare—but some properties have pulled them off. This scan of several examples shows the possibilities—and the conditions needed for them to succeed.

Amid widespread rent increases, directing public land to affordable housing could allow people to stay in their communities, as well as reduce commutes and employee turnover.

Over the past couple of years, community development corporations have been popping up in sometimes-unexpected places across the country. Will this increased interest in CDCs last, or is it a trend that will end when the money runs out?

“Fair market rents” are set by HUD and used to determine how much federal assistance programs will pay toward rent. But with rental costs rising so rapidly, they aren’t keeping up.

Community developers try out new technologies and processes, oftentimes out of a sense of responsibility to help put potential solutions to the test.

3D printing, repurposed shipping containers, and offsite manufacturing have been held up as potential solutions to the country’s affordable-housing crisis. But are these new construction technologies helping?

Could rural hospitals build on existing social services work by investing their assets to advance their communities’ health? Examples from Kansas, Vermont, Wisconsin, and Virginia show some possibilities.

In Virginia, a statewide incentive program has put new affordable housing projects out in front of most market-rate developers when it comes to green design.