The Problem
Richmond has been in an affordable housing crisis for years, and it is getting worse. 39,000 families in Richmond are living in homes they cannot afford. The lack of affordable housing has led to Richmond having the second highest eviction rate in the country.
Click here to watch our 2025 Nehemiah Action Affordable Housing portion, which discusses the issue in depth.
RISC asking for Affordable Housing Commitments at the 2025 Nehemiah Action.
Our Solution
We want the city to dedicate funding of at least $10 million annually towards the city’s Affordable Housing Trust Fund. This allows for a steady stream of revenue to provide gap financing for developers to be able to build affordable housing units. This is a tool used in over 100 cities to create affordable housing, and we want to see it work in our city.
In addition, we believe that at least 30% of the dollars in the Trust Fund should be used to create units for households earning the least amount of money - those at 30% of the Area Media Income and below.
Where We Are
In 2014, RISC got the city to start putting money into the Affordable Housing Trust Fund. Over $9 million was invested from 2015-2021, which led to the creation of 935 units of affordable housing. However, this was not nearly enough to address the massive lack of affordable housing. Additionally, the majority of the funds were not being directed toward building truly affordable housing (only 16 of the 935 went toward units for those earning 30% AMI and below).
In August 2020, we made the following ask of city officials:
- 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).
In 2021, we won passage of an ordinance that established a dedicated stream of funding for the Trust Fund. This dedicated stream of revenue from expiring tax abatements would start at $2.4 million and grow to $10 million (and beyond) within a few years. However, by November of 2022 we had learned that the city administration had no intentions of following the ordinance. On the day of our Nehemiah Action in March of 2023, Mayor Stoney declared an affordable housing crisis. Instead of following the ordinance, he proposed starting a bond program to fund affordable housing: $10 million per year, for 5 years.
Bonds are borrowed money. In order to have $50 million in bond revenue for affordable housing, the city would have to pay $35 million in debt service over the next 20 years. If the ordinance were followed, on the other hand, the Affordable Housing Trust Fund would gain $377 million for affordable housing in that same 20 year period, with no debt service.
We cried out about the problem and the city’s failure to follow the law, turning out thousands of people to our Nehemiah Actions in 2023 and 2024. We garnered much press and public attention. Despite this, however, the Stoney administration failed to follow the law. As a result, there is currently $20 million owed to the Trust Fund.
As a candidate, Danny Avula was clear on his intent to make good on this. At our Mayoral Candidates Forum, he said:
“Hearing the presentation, clearly we just need to invest in the Affordable Housing Trust Fund – not only because it’s the right thing to do, but because our fine friends on City Council made it law. We need to do the law.” (Click here to watch this clip)
At our Nehemiah Action in March of 2025, however, Mayor Avula would not commit to transfer the money that is owed to the Trust Fund, nor start following the law by budgeting the expiring tax abatements.
RISC is continuing to press him to make good on his campaign promise. There is now $20 million that is owed to the Fund, and $9.7 million should - by law - be in the FY 2027 budget.
VIDEOS OF OUR AFFORDABLE HOUSING CAMPAIGN
Click here to view the Affordable Housing portion of our Nehemiah Action 2025.
Click here to view the Affordable & Healthy Homes portion of our Nehemiah Action 2024
Click here to view the Affordable & Healthy Homes portion of our Nehemiah Action 2023.
Click here to view a video from June 2021 capturing the story of this campaign.
Click here to view our Nehemiah Action in 2021.
Click here to view the Affordable Housing Roundtable in February 2021