ROANOKE, VA - Low- and very low-income residents of the New River Valley could see their housing options shrink significantly by 2013, according to a recent study by the National Housing Trust. But a Christiansburg based nonprofit lending company announced this month the establishment of a $30 million fund to help preserve rental housing that serves those living on 80 percent or less of the median income.
Virginia Community Capital, the National Housing Trust and several other for-profit and nonprofit organizations have pledged to provide loans to companies to buy and refurbish the state's aging stock of low-income rental housing. About 22,000 apartment units across Virginia now reserved for low-income families and senior citizens are endangered by market forces that could significantly raise the housings costs of those least able to pay, said VCC spokeswoman Heather Derrick.
More than 1,000 of those apartments are in the New River Valley, according to a recent study from the National Housing Trust, a nonprofit lender and developer of affordable rental housing. The rents affected range from $535 to $639 for a two-bedroom apartment.
Traditionally known as "Section 8," "Section 515" and "Section 202" housing, references to the federal code sections that govern construction of subsidized apartments, these units provide some of the most affordable housing in the state, Derrick said. "The poorest of the poor" are served by these programs, said John Hastings of the Virginia Housing Development Authority. "Most of the people have zero or negative income." Nationally, affordable rental housing was constructed by both for-profit and nonprofit developers beginning in the 1970s and was financed under 30 and even 40 year federal contracts. Those contracts required owners to provide rental housing to residents based on income guidelines.
Today, many of those contracts are expiring, leaving the owners free to raise rents to match market conditions. Some low-income residents may be able to hang on to their apartments through programs that issue housing vouchers to qualifying tenants. But unlike the federal contracts, average landlords are generally not required to accept vouchers. "A lot of the landlords don't like to accept them because they have to deal with the federal government with all its rules and regulations," Hastings said. "It's a bigger problem than the state can really handle."
So, quasi-governmental and nonprofit groups such as VCC are stepping in to help, Derrick said. The $30 million fund will allow groups or individuals interested in retaining these apartments as affordable housing to buy them before their federal contracts expire, Derrick said. Established in 2005, VCC is a $28 million nonprofit community development financial institution that finances housing and other projects to benefit low-income Virginians.
Source: roanoke.com