Richmond uses Biden-Harris funds to build affordable housing

While Richmond struggles with a shortage of 11,000 affordable homes, the city is advancing plans to build 2,296 rental homes for people living near the poverty level. 

Residents of Richmond, Virginia, are beginning to see the city’s housing crisis be eased, thanks to $20 million dollars in funding from the administration of President Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris.

The need is critical, with a recent report by Richmond’s Planning and Economic Development Portfolio showing that city rents increased 22 percent in two years. Homelessness in Richmond is at a 15-year high.

Federal funds, augmenting private loans, are key to building the projects:

• These funds will assist 22 local developers in building new homes and renovating vacant buildings
• These funds will create 2,296 rental units, which will be completed by 2026.

All the homes will be reserved for households with incomes at—or just above—the poverty level of Richmond. The infusion of federal money from the Biden-Harris administration—through the American Rescue Plan Act (ARPA)—enables local developers to significantly ease the housing crisis in a city where one out of five homes is sold to out-of-town investors who charge higher rents than local landlords. 

“The need seems to just grow and grow,” said Merrick Malone, acting director of the city’s Department of Housing and Community Development. Having the ARPA funds “is exciting, but we have to move with a sense of urgency because it is a crisis, no doubt about it.”

One Success Story

The Better Housing Coalition (BHC) is a nonprofit developer in Richmond that built 67 rental apartments supported, in part, by ARPA funds. The federal funds helped make the apartments affordable, with rents ranging from $925 to $1,219 a month, far below market value, said Lynn McAteer, a planning consultant for BHC. Called “The Planet,” the project is in Richmond’s Jackson Ward, near downtown.

 As construction costs increased drastically during COVID, “having the city come in with ARPA money and [other federal funds] made all the difference,” she said.