Background
In 2015, RISC succeeded in getting the city’s Affordable Housing Trust Fund funded. Over $9 million was invested between 2015 and 2021, which allowed for 935 units of affordable housing. However, this isn’t nearly enough. When we started our affordable housing campaign again in 2020, our research showed there was a shortage of 25,000 units of affordable housing. In addition, only 16 of those units were for households making under 30% AMI (Area Median Income). In January of 2023, the Partnership for Affordable Housing put out a report that this shortage had grown to 39,000.
The lack of affordable housing has resulted in an eviction crisis – catapulting Richmond to #2 on a national ranking of cities’ eviction rates.
In short, we have an affordable housing crisis in our city.
City council members commit to address affordable housing crisis at our Nehemiah Action 2024.
Our Solution
In August 2020, we decided that what we want is twofold:
- A dedicated stream of funding for the Trust Fund, of at least $10 million annually.
- At least 1/3 of the funds going toward units for those households earning the least amount of money (30% AMI or less)
Where We Are
In January 2021, because we consistently turned out large numbers of organized people, RISC got the city to pass an Ordinance creating a dedicated stream of funding for the Affordable Housing Trust Fund (AHTF). The Ordinance was designed so that the AHTF would reach an allocation of $10 million by 2027, and continue to grow.
However, in Fall 2022, we learned that the city was not following its own Ordinance (read the news article covering their non-compliance here). To address this pressing issue, we exercised the power we had been building, and gathered RISC members to attend four City Council meetings.
On March 28, 2023, the day of our Nehemiah Action, Mayor Stoney called a press conference, declaring affordable housing a crisis, despite having put $0 in the Trust Fund in his proposed budget that had come out a few weeks prior. Instead, he proposed that he would start a bond program to fund affordable housing - $10 million per year, for 5 years.
Bonds are borrowed money. In order to get $50 million in bond revenue for affordable housing, the city would have to pay $35 million in debt service over the next 20 years. By contrast, in that same 20 year period, by following the Trust Fund the city would get $377 million for affordable housing - with no debt service.
In the previous two years, we have worked with Councilmembers to submit budget amendments aimed at getting the Stoney administration to both follow the existing ordinance, and allocate any bond revenue to the Affordable Housing Trust Fund. And despite budget amendments being approved that dictated that teh bond revenue would go into the Trust Fund - neither thing happened. The Stoney administration both failed to follow the existing ordinance (there is currently $12.5 million owed to the Trust Fund that, by law, must be restored), and did not put any bond revenue into the Trust Fund.
At our Nehemiah Action on March 25th, we are calling on Mayor Avula to follow the law, by:
1. Putting $8.2 million toward the Affordable Housing Trust Fund in his Fiscal Year 2026 budget
*what is due the Trust Fund, according to the dedicated stream ordinance
2. Restoring the $12.5 million is owed to the Trust Fund, from Fiscal Years 2023-2025
AFFORDABLE HOUSING CAMPAIGN RESOURCES
Click here to view a video from June 2021 capturing the story of this campaign.
Click here to view the Affordable & Healthy Homes portion of our Nehemiah Action 2023.
Click here to view the Affordable & Healthy Homes portion of our Nehemiah Action 2024