In the News
Mark Warner: Here's how we fix Virginia's affordability crisis
By Mark Warner
In Richmond Times-Dispatch
Last week in Richmond, I had the privilege of hosting the “Keys to Housing Affordability Summit,” where local leaders, housing advocates and policy experts came together to confront one of the most urgent challenges facing Virginians and Americans everywhere: the housing crisis.
The numbers paint a sobering picture. The United States is short nearly four million homes needed to keep pace with demand. Closer to home, more than one-quarter of Richmond renters spend over half their income on rent. Nationwide, nearly half of all renter households are cost-burdened, allocating over 30% of their income to housing, and the cost of buying a home has soared nearly 50% since 2020, putting homeownership further out of reach for working families. And while wages have risen modestly, housing costs have risen much faster, leaving millions struggling to make ends meet.
Behind these numbers are real people. We heard stories of families being priced out of their own neighborhoods: the nurse who can’t afford to live near the hospital where she works, the young couple who put off starting a family because they can’t find a starter home, and the seniors in rural Virginia struggling to stay in homes that are falling into disrepair.
That urgency is why I unveiled my Road to Housing agenda at the Richmond summit — an all-of-the-above plan to build more new homes, revitalize vacant properties, support rural communities and help first-generation buyers achieve homeownership. These are the kinds of practical solutions our communities need now.
We can expand the nation’s most successful affordable housing program through the Affordable Housing Credit Improvement Act, which would help build nearly 1.6 million new affordable homes over the next decade. We can invest in communities left behind by supporting rehabilitation of vacant properties — like abandoned hotels, warehouses and strip malls — through my RESIDE Act, and by extending and expanding successful tax initiatives, like the federal New Markets Tax Credit and Rehabilitation Tax Credit, to drive investment into new housing development.
We can make homeownership attainable for first-generation buyers through the Downpayment Toward Equity Act and help them build wealth faster through the LIFT Act, offering 20-year mortgages at the same monthly cost as a 30-year loan.
And we can ensure rural and underserved communities aren’t forgotten by strengthening tax credits and empowering community lenders through my Scaling Community Lenders Act.
And let’s not overlook the role of faith-based organizations and colleges that want to use their land for affordable housing. My Yes in God’s Backyard Act would help cut the red tape and turn underutilized property into much-needed rental homes.
The solutions are within reach, but they will only materialize if we act now. Local governments, nonprofits and the private sector must rise to meet this challenge.
At our summit, we saw the kind of creativity that should be a model for the nation: Here in Henrico, the county is not only turning data center revenues into a $60 million Affordable Housing Trust Fund that will generate up to 150 new homes a year, but cutting red tape and incentivizing new construction by changing zoning rules and waiving water, sewer and permitting fees.
Employers have a central role, too. Housing is an economic competitiveness issue: workers need to live where they work. I urge business leaders across the commonwealth to step up by partnering with local governments on workforce housing projects, investing in employer-assisted housing programs, and advocating for smart policies that expand supply, because our workforce depends on it.
If we care about strong communities, economic fairness and America’s future, housing must be a national priority. That’s why I’m urging the Senate to swiftly pass a bipartisan housing package advanced by the Banking Committee this summer. I’m proud of the progress we’re making in Virginia, but this is a national crisis, and it requires national leadership.
At the end of the day, solving the housing crisis isn’t about politics. It’s about ensuring every American has a safe, stable and affordable place to call home. That’s the foundation on which everything else is built. And that’s what I’ll keep fighting for in the Senate.
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Editorial Board Published 5:25 p.m. ET Feb. 2, 2018 | Updated 6:17 p.m. ET Feb. 2, 2018
From an early age, schoolchildren in Virginia learn about the native people of this land and the history of interactions between the tribes and colonists.
“When the first English settlers founded Jamestown in 1607, the Monacan lived above the falls of the James River.” This and many other facts are recited to our kids, and they mostly learn them to pass SOL tests or spur projects in social studies.
But behind our school history textbooks’ version of facts lie many real-life truths. Tribal people have been treated shamefully for centuries in Virginia. In the old days, they widely faced rape, murder, deceit, family separation, disease and land theft. In recent decades, discrimination and disadvantage have still pursued some in their communities.
Across America, this of course is not unique. No consistent and public response to these injustices, that is sympathetic and educated and progressive, has ever taken hold.
We have to own what happens in our own state, though. So let’s be plain about Virginia’s horrific history of treatment of Native Americans. And let us dedicate our future civic progress - at least in some small way - to be intentional and inclusive of these communities. So they can share in gains our Commonwealth makes going forward.
This week, we do celebrate progress. A step. Just a small one - but one long needed.
Six tribes in Virginia have claimed their rightful federal recognition, thanks to President Donald Trump, thanks to Republican lawmakers and to some Democrats who played a key role, such as U.S. Sens. Mark Warner and Tim Kaine.
This recognition for the Chickahominy, Eastern Chickahominy, Upper Mattaponi, Rappahannock, Nansemond and Monacan people cracks some barriers. They will now be more able to pursue advances in education, housing and health care.
Bertie Branham, a Monacan Indian, explains cookingBuy Photo
Bertie Branham, a Monacan Indian, explains cooking techniques to a group of second graders from Covington at the Monacan Indian Village at Natural Bridge in this file photo. (Photo: File/News Leader)
Trump deserves credit for signing the legislation, as does U.S. Rep. Rob Wittman, R-1st District, for working on its behalf. “Today, we celebrate a decade of hard work,” Wittman said in a release Monday night. “This is an issue of respect. Federal recognition acknowledges and protects the historical and cultural identities of these tribes.”
Warner and Kaine helped get the measure approved in the Senate.
The recognition from the U.S. government has changed futures for many tribes across the country. It’s time for Virginia’s native people to share more broadly in this chance for success.
We hope for continued enlightened moves to do right by these communities.
Our View represents the opinion of our Editorial Board: Roger Watson, president; David Fritz, executive editor; and William Ramsey, news director.
