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Many Hands Live, a podcast that captures the conversations convened on the first Friday of every month in the Richmond region of Virginia — when community gathers around a common belief that the future is a group project, and the long arc of history doesn’t bend itself. It takes Many Hands.
This is Many Hands, a podcast for those who believe the future is a group project. The arc of history doesn't bend itself, it takes many hands.
Jason:Each Many Hands gathering has a goal to take all who attend and all who listen on journeys to understand and respond to the challenges of our time. From rising costs to energy concerns to the plight of single parents to the housing crisis that leaves too many unhoused, financially underwater, and emotionally unwell. We gather in community and in conversation to learn and to evolve together, but ultimately to do something, to share burdens and responsibility to bend that arc of justice with our Many hands. For this Many Hands, April 2026, the topic was affordable housing, a theme chosen because of the urgency and complexity of what anyone in the know and in the work calls a housing crisis. What do we mean by the word affordable?
Jason:What myths act as barriers to progress? What data tells us the truth? And what do we do about it? Our guest in our guide was Jovan Burton, Executive Director of the Partnership for Housing Affordability, an organization dedicated to transforming housing in the Richmond region through community support and transformative policy. Before we get to that conversation, Becky, what have you been reflecting on since that conversation?
Becky:First and foremost, how much I enjoy Jevon. I think he is an extraordinary leader and person. Second, and perhaps even more importantly, is how important it is to balance what is felt with what is true. I think it's easy in the conversation around affordable housing to be afraid of what it means for you, for your family, for your neighborhood. And through that fear, to not approach, maybe even avoid the truth, the facts, the data.
Becky:In conversation with Javon, it became so clear that this feeling we have, this fear that we are exploring is a kind of misinformation and that when we're offered the data, we're offered the truth, the fear kind of goes away and we become advocates for affordable housing. Yes, even in our own neighborhoods.
Jason:With that, here is Many Hands recorded live in Richmond, Virginia at St. Joseph's Villa, the oldest nonprofit serving children in The United States, 04/04/2026.
Becky:We're here to talk about affordable housing. I'm delighted to have this conversation, because there's so much I think we all want to know and need to know. Javon is the executive director for the Partnership for Housing Affordability. He's a graduate of Hampton City College, where he studied government and foreign affairs, and conducted a study there on discriminatory housing policies, which I suspect incited his passion and purpose toward this work. After graduation, Javon joined AmeriCorps and was first matched with PHA through that program.
Becky:Shout out to AmeriCorps, for creating future executive directors. When the year was over, he transitioned to working for Virginia Housing. In 2019, he returned to VHA as the director of implementation to drive their regional housing strategy forward. He also has a master's of public administration from VC's Wilder School, recently was appointed to the governor's housing transition team, which we're deeply grateful that they were smart enough to invite this person into conversation. And perhaps more importantly, he's a dad to two precious kiddos, one of whom just came into the world four months ago, three months ago?
Becky:Two. Two months ago. I'm giving you more time than I should. Sorry. I'm trying to hurry along on your behalf.
Becky:Thank you. Yeah. That's okay. Jovan, please come on up. So that was very well done.
Becky:I shouldn't let choreography behind the scenes be seen, but we didn't have a working mic, and then Elizabeth went and got batteries, and all of this happened during meditation. And then Jason perfectly got you the mic in time right as you were walking up as though we planned it. Good job, you two. Well done. We start our forums in the same way every time and with the same question, although abundantly different answers.
Becky:And the question is, when you reflect on your life, there were no doubt many moments, many memories, maybe even some people who intercepted you that, when you when you think about it now, perhaps you didn't know it then, have led you to this work, to this life, to this kind of purpose, toward affordable housing. Can you share those moments as you reflect one of them? When did life change for you toward this?
Jovan Burton:That's a good question. I don't know if it happened in that way honestly because this is really all I've known in my professional experience, quite frankly, in housing. I thought I was going to be doing diplomacy and international aid work, so AmeriCorps kind of fell into my lap because I didn't want to spend three years in a foreign country going out of college and didn't want to make that commitment. But they had their first ever affordable housing cohort in Virginia around the same time that I was graduating and it was also around the time that the books Evicted and Color of Law were circulating and so I was really getting immersed in that issue and thought this could be a good match. And sure enough I was sided with BHA and it's kind of been history ever since but I think for me I knew I always wanted to do something in the local government space or local space.
Jovan Burton:The federal sector never really energized me in a I can't
Becky:imagine why, it seems fun.
Jovan Burton:But I do think though that I grew up in a small area, I went to a small school so this was just kind of the logical evolution for me.
Becky:I do want to say that if you need reading recommendations that you should talk to Siobhan. I always feel less intelligent somehow in his presence but never in a way that makes me feel loud about myself so thanks for that Siobhan, a way that invites me into more, yes.
Jovan Burton:Well, usually I have my, when we have our conversations I have my bookshelves behind me on our Zooms so I may pull a book off but the bookshelves are starting to come down because the office is turning into a nursery and so limited time.
Becky:Limited time, limited time for reading and hard to want to read at like three in the morning, it's hard to really dig into the color blob that time, although an extraordinary book. So let's shift away from you, although you'll always be present in this conversation. We might come back to you. Who knows? But let's talk about affordable housing.
Becky:I think to ground our I wanna allow us to get closer to the issue over time together today. And so let's start at a high level if if you'll welcome it. I'm wondering if you could tell us what affordable housing means, what it is, how much do we have, how much do we need?
Jovan Burton:Big question. So I'll start with just kind of table setting and I think that's really important. I do think sometimes in the housing space we may have a bad habit of leaning into the gloom and doom but I think it's important at least to have folks understand the urgency with which we need to meet this issue. And I don't want to call Richmond a cautionary tale but I do think it's a perfect example of how a historically affordable market can quickly change just a matter of five years and I'll have a lot of data But to speak to the scale and the urgency is important to understand. So the context is we're a growing region.
Jovan Burton:We've added 11.3% in population growth since 2014 compared to the state which is at about 5.8%. So we're growing faster than the state, we're growing faster than most other regions in the state and it has major implications for housing. And then think about the kind of households that are moving here. So we've seen a big spike in households earning above $150,000 and in fact it's been a 157 increase of those households since '19. It's the largest net change in household earns.
Jovan Burton:Wow. Major implications for housing, those folks entering into a market that has limited supply and competing against residents who've been living here for quite some time but don't have the same purchasing power. So if we're growing significantly but we have outside of Richmond, we have this perception of being a much more effective cost of living or affordable market compared to Northern Virginia and Charlotte and other places and those are folks moving here especially after the pandemic because of remote work, well then that's going to create more competition and help drive up prices and that's what we've been seeing. Now how quickly things can change. So just in a matter of five years, between 2019 to 2024, for every 100 renter households that earn $50,000 or less, there are only 66 affordable rental units for them.
Jovan Burton:In 2019, there were 105 rental units for every 100 renter households earning $50,000 or less. So we used to have fairly sufficient supply for most, not all, but for most income levels in our region and now that couldn't be further from the case. On the home ownership side, since 2020, of all the new homes built, just 5% of them are valued at $300,000 or less, just 5%. So pre pandemic, over 60% of homes in our region were below $300,000 Now that's just 33%. So that's how quickly things can change, our market is moving rapidly, we're growing, all of those things are good but there's a impacts lot on the housing side.
Becky:You talk a little bit about you mentioned the pandemic and the ability to remote work and then of course that shifted back from, you know, organizations saying maybe we're not as keen on this as we thought we were. Are there any other reasons why we're seeing this influx in particular in the areas of household income above 150,000? Do we know?
Jovan Burton:I don't know if I can pinpoint it honestly. I do think just from a simple, I mean what you can afford to buy and where your dollar stretches compared to where it might in other higher cost areas. I remember talking with one of the former county administrators for Goochland around twenty twenty two, twenty twenty three and they had seen a big increase in folks from New York and other because of remote work and wanting to go somewhere that was a little bit more quiet and take advantage of the price points that exist in this region compared to other markets. So I think those things will continue to motivate and drive folks.
Becky:It's interesting to think about the way that when we look in our own region or even in our own counties or cities, we see this kind of mobility of income and what it does to housing supply and what it does to other individuals of certain income, families of certain income levels. What I've never done until this exact moment speaking with you is thinking about that at a state level, thinking about that as The United States. Similar trends happen. I can't afford over here, so I'm gonna go over there, but then I change everything over there where I go. And this is a this is a national happening that really mirrors the local happenings, I think, that we've seen.
Becky:So it's interesting to consider it in that in that way. Thanks, Javon. I'm wondering if you can tell us what affordable housing means. For me, I have a hard time I have historically had a hard time with this term because I don't really it seems as though it means different things to different people. Can you help us get clear on what we mean by affordable housing?
Jovan Burton:Yeah, I can try. Okay, thanks. It's a question we get a lot in this sector, can't say it's my favorite question and only that think because people enter this space with their own experiences and they carry that with them and how they interpret certain words. And I think also because language is important and we live in a world in which politics is influential and so when I say that, I mean that we oftentimes try to gravitate in our sector to words that may be more palatable and affordable typically comes with a lot of weight, it's not always positive. And so sometimes you'll hear people say, Well, what we really need is workforce housing or we need attainable housing or we need Every word that you can think of but it's all speaking around the same thing.
Jovan Burton:So what I try to shuffle the deck and level set with everyone is ultimately what we're talking about is affordability and what that means to afford, there's a federal standard for that that goes back over fifty years, not spending more than 30% of your income on housing costs. If you are spending more than that, you're considered cost burdened and if you're spending more than 50% of your income on housing costs, then you're considered severely cost burdened. So we have around 73,000 renter households in the region that are cost burdened, spending more than 30% of their income on More than 30,000 are severely cost burdened, spending over half of their income on housing. So there are folks who are cost burdened by choice. They may say, I want to live in this particular school district or this neighborhood, and they can bear those additional costs.
Jovan Burton:But for many folks, we're talking about this is the only options that they have and these are monthly decisions of do I pay for rent, do I pay for groceries, do I pay for this necessity over that necessity? So that's really what we're talking about when it comes to affordable is that can you afford not to spend more than 30% of your income on housing? The lower you get on the income spectrum, that becomes harder and harder to do. When I say this sometimes people chuckle but it's important to understand we all need something that we can afford. It's just that at the highest income levels there are more options or you have more purchasing power and there's greater competition the lower that we get on the income spectrum for a limited number of units.
Jovan Burton:And you have people of higher incomes competing with people who have lower incomes for the same unit. So that's what we mean when we say affordability and to afford something. You can use whatever term you want, it's still all just talking about housing, we know it's a critical need and sometimes I think that conversation is used to deflect from what actually needs to be done to address this. I've been in this space for eight, nine years now and that has been a never ending conversation on what should we call it? We should call it this because it makes people feel uncomfortable when you say affordable or it makes people feel uncomfortable and let's say workforce.
Jovan Burton:And I know we're gonna get into myths in just a second, that's leaning into a myth that people who need affordable housing aren't working and that couldn't be further from the truth, so.
Becky:We'll take us into it. I think that does lead us nicely. It's as though we discussed this before we got up here. Isn't that weird? We didn't.
Becky:We may have. Take us toward myths of affordability and affordable housing that exist and that need to be called out and need our attention.
Jovan Burton:A ton of myths. We've got this development is going to lower my property values because it's affordable. It's going to bring crime, it's going to do all these things to change our neighborhood in a way that is damaging or that it's of inferior quality than market rate housing. And those are the things that really make it difficult for a lot of our partners who do tremendous work to build housing, to build quality housing, to just carry out their mission. They could probably tell you many horror stories that they've been to public meetings where people have been incredibly upset and fearful of what this change might mean or subconsciously over time having never been in housing what they may think affordable to
Becky:me.
Jovan Burton:A lot of people when they hear affordable, they may think of public housing which is a very specific type of housing but I do think it's important to understand that that housing has not been built in The United States for a very long time. And in fact, the federal government for the last twenty, thirty years has been moving away from that form of housing and discouraging that from being built and that's why we're seeing the changes that we're seeing not just here in Richmond but in many other parts of the country. And so there's a lot of these myths that contribute to developments just simply not happening or being delayed significantly to a point where they're no longer able to pencil out and they can't figure out the financing or your gaps start increasing and you have to go do more and more and more fundraising just to
Becky:make it
Jovan Burton:happen. But I'll just try to address some of those myths specifically on property values. When an assessor goes to look at assessing the values of different properties whether that be residential or commercial, they're not going to if there's a multi family development near a single family neighborhood, they're not going to be comparing the single family homes to the multi family property.
Becky:That's just
Jovan Burton:not how it works. And then on crime, there's many, many, many studies to show that it being an affordable property or having some kind of subsidy or financing to help make the rents below market rate are not going to lead to an additional spike of crime that is significant. Think the traffic one is I think there's validity to some of those concerns around just new development but we've had so many instances where we've seen senior housing proposed and folks concerned that senior housing is going to bring additional traffic to an area that is already very well built out and that makes it hard to stomach sometimes I think because we see very little opposition for comparison for market rate developments and also I know we'll get into nimbyism and some of that stuff but the notion of scarcity is something that really plagues our sector quite a bit and I think for all of us who may have moved into a community and were maybe welcomed with open arms and no one prevented us from moving into that community, it doesn't really make sense to turn around and close the door for anyone else that wants to have the same opportunity.
Becky:Do you think any of this is to do Is there anything around a lack of trust in our institutions? What I hear sometimes in opposition to this conversation is also around the quality of what's being built too. And so I'm wondering if like there is this kind of mistrust that is that people have for developers or people have for localities or people have for that they just are like, I don't trust you to come put this housing next to me and to do a good job. If you do a good job, then I'll welcome it. Is there any of that?
Jovan Burton:I do think the general lack of trust in institutions, particularly public institutions does lead to that a little bit. What I will say is that, so the number one way that affordable housing gets built in The United States, this has been the case since around 1989 is through what's called the Low Income Housing Tax Credit Program or LITECH. We love our acronyms in housing, I'll try to refrain from using this today. But that program is responsible for building millions of units across the country, thousands and thousands here in the Richmond region and it's administered by our state housing finance agency, Virginia Housing. They have an annual allocation of tax credits and it's a competitive process.
Jovan Burton:So if you're a non profit developer or even a for profit developer looking to build affordable rental housing, that's the program that you're going to apply for. And I'm bringing this up because I actually used to work for Virginia Housing. I used to work in the tax credit department. I was introduced to all of the complicated language and the incredibly thick book that governs that program that outlines above and beyond the building code, the standards that all of these developments have to meet just to qualify, just to be eligible. And then all the standards that you have to, you don't have to but if you don't you're less likely to get funded because your competitors are going be going above and beyond to score more points on your application.
Jovan Burton:So including things like Earthcraft certification or universal design for the residents that may be living there or how close are you located to a transportation stop or is there going be Wi Fi for all the residents there or what other amenities you might have, all of these things. And then there's a litany of design and construction standards that they have to meet that market rate developments do
Becky:not. So
Jovan Burton:when we hear the conversation around the quality, the quality, the quality, only the most quality products are the ones that are going to make it through that program because they have to compete against each other for limited funding, for limited tax credits. And they're going above and beyond and on top of that many of those nonprofits are providing services for their residents that you wouldn't otherwise get at your market rate development. So that is one of the damaging myths to our sector.
Becky:Is that helpful for you? That's helpful for me to know. I mean I don't think, I think probably we don't think we should talk about that more but as you're talking to me about it more and I'm seeing head nods in the room, I wonder if we actually should.
Jovan Burton:And luxury, we see that word a lot, we hear that word a lot. There's no standards for luxury that you have to meet. It's marketing, there's nothing that's required to be in place for it to be luxury. That So doesn't mean as much as some people may think.
Becky:Yeah, oh words and marketing and being sold to and all of that. I want to share a stat that I think is really powerful. 74% of jobs pay a median annual 74% of jobs pay a median annual wage. Wage less than $60,000, which is the income needed to afford median rent. I wanna let that sit, and I'd like to move on to a question which you alluded to earlier, which dives us maybe more deeper into the tension around this topic from environmental concerns to nembism to the perceived burden on all already crowded schools, which we've not mentioned here, but that is something that comes up a lot in the public discourse to the cost.
Becky:Can you talk about the pushback? Mhmm. The concerns beyond the myths and how we might consider overcoming them together?
Jovan Burton:Yes, there are a lot of legitimate and valid concerns around just any kind of newer development, be it residential, commercial, industrial teases on the environmental and infrastructure and other things. I'll start with schools. So the Urban Institute and the Furman Center out of NYU, they've done a lot of work on this and so I'll start with what is the type of housing development that has the most impact on school growth and that is low density single family neighborhoods, bar none. It's not close. Second would be market rate multifamily and then the least is affordable multifamily.
Jovan Burton:And what they found is that per unit, multifamily produces fewer students than any other housing type. It's typically because, again this depends on the market, but there's going to be smaller bedrooms. Mean the larger the bedrooms you're talking more costs and the costs are already incredibly astronomical to do development and makes financing harder to get but also you may have some jurisdictions who may discourage against having three and four bedroom units
Jason:and I
Jovan Burton:think there's also this conflation of multi family means more children and more students and that's not actually what the data bear out and a lot of people who are living in this are, it could be an entirely senior affordable development. Well obviously there's not going to be any students coming out of that. If I think about some of the projects that have cropped up here over recent years like Kool Aid and Commons, I don't think there's going to be many students at a development like that. And so usually people have concerns around maybe a two fifty unit development and think that that's going to lead to significant school overcrowding and that's actually not the case. In some cases you may have teachers or folks that work at those schools that need that housing so they get a home to live.
Jovan Burton:So that's the school piece. What else do we have?
Becky:There's the environment, there's nimbyism, there's so many things we
Jason:can take. Yeah.
Jovan Burton:Nimbism.
Becky:Know, do we wanna go there? We could start with the, sorry, you can hear me though can't you? But we can start with the environment.
Jovan Burton:No, let's get right into it.
Becky:You wanna get, okay. Yeah. Okay.
Jovan Burton:I mean because it's all kind of, I think it's, when we think about barriers to this work, I mean that's one of the most stubborn and difficult, I mean for those that don't know the acronym Not in My Backyard or NIMBY, there's also BANNA which is build absolutely nothing anywhere near anything or something like that.
Becky:That's a BANNA, the acronym you never needed. Great, good, thank you. They've taken it too when it exceeds like five letters we've taken it too far. Think we can all agree.
Jovan Burton:I would
Becky:say so.
Jovan Burton:But it's something that again leans into those myths as used to justify why this development shouldn't go here or it needs to go somewhere else or I'm supportive of this, just not here. I think that's probably the most disheartening part of this work and it's also because oftentimes I think people may subconsciously just inherit these myths and some of these sentiments towards housing. I did a university course, a lecture to U of R students last year and I had to do a case study and I had a couple of group students take the position of being against an affordable development and those other students being in favor of and these are folks that have never talked about housing in any kind of meaningful way. They're getting a crash course in an hour and a half and within a matter of ten minutes and they report out and you hear the NIMBY group of students and it's like they had been steeped and all the language that we hear and pushed back. I mean, they said all the things and I asked them to lean into it even if you don't believe it but they said the crime, they said it's gonna bring maybe people that we don't want to and all the coded language that we typically hear and I don't know how we break that but it is a big concern and I know we'll talk about legislation a little bit later on but there's been some counter to that that has grown in recent years.
Jovan Burton:There's a Yimbi group that nationally they have chapters across the country, there's
Becky:RBA Yimbi. It's in my backyard.
Jovan Burton:Did not know. And then there's also Yigbi which is Yes in God's Backyard which is kind of a growing movement.
Becky:I hope you're taking notes.
Jovan Burton:Get churches and faith based organizations more involved and we can talk about the legislation related to that, that's been encouraging. Yeah, I mean it is something that can add cost to development. It is something that can lead to outcomes that I don't think people want on their face if you were to ask them that but ultimately that's what it can lead to.
Becky:Mhmm. My mic has decided to turn me off. So, I'm just going to project. Folks in the back, can you hear me? He's more important than me.
Becky:Anyway, you got me? Everybody's got me? Okay. John, do you have me? Okay.
Becky:Okay, great. I am an environmentalist, as you know, and there is some tension with housing and the environment. Can you speak to that? Mhmm. Like, how do we what what is the discourse right now about the both and?
Becky:Yes. We need more housing, and, yes, we can build more housing, more affordable housing, and also care for our environmental future that we depend on as a collective, as a species for, well, a long long time. I think this planet what do we have? Several billion more years before this star is no longer a star that we're atop, so we've got a long time to try to rock this thing out. What are the what are the what are the issues there, and how are we overcoming them, if at all?
Jovan Burton:Similar to the school conversation, I think it's important to frame it in that way because there are some tension points And I think it really boils down to how are we planning as a community for environmental and housing needs, recognizing that they both do exist. And again, what kind of development and what kind of housing works against environmentalism the most and again, that's going to be both in city single family neighborhoods and just sprawl, right? It's the most inefficient use of public resources when you think about infrastructure and utility in particular, the per unit costs are going to be higher on that from a housing standpoint. It really doesn't make as much sense It's also the transportation. The transportation costs and not just In our region, have a housing and jobs mismatch.
Jovan Burton:Years ago, there was a study that showed here's where all of the lower paying jobs are concentrated across the region and here's where most of the lower cost housing is and as you can imagine, they weren't really close to each other. And at that time in particular, our transportation network was not what it is today and this was before the Pulse And so it just makes it that much more difficult for folks who are working at a lot of our service industry and restaurant industry or healthcare industry and the way that they can access their jobs and where they're living and driving thirty, forty, fifty minutes to work and what that does obviously from an environmental standpoint. So the less connected and less coordinated we are as a region as we grow and develop, the more that both of those issues will worsen.
Becky:Yeah, no. I find this in particular hard as someone living in Henrico because it's two thirty square miles, two thirty five square miles, something like this. It's big, It's big to get from one into the other. It's like forty five minutes, and transportation in a public way doesn't work for us. And so there's a lot of this live, work, play development conversation to try to keep things close, and and build the infrastructure to allow for that.
Becky:I think the first time I realized that this higher density housing was actually more environmentally responsible was through Jeremy Hoffman when he was at the Science Museum maybe five or six years ago, a local climate scientist. And it was a real moment for me because I think as an environmental ist, we often see that as or we have historically seen that as problematic, and it's it's not. So I want to I have a question here.
Jovan Burton:We have we have a gallery up top too.
Becky:Oh, do have a gallery. Oh, hi. Everybody wave to the children. They'll think it's so fun. Hi.
Becky:Yeah. I Javon said, I hear you bring your kids. I'm like, yeah. I'm trying to brainwash them toward their own moral obligation. Like, it's not subtle.
Becky:I just wanna be clear to be my nothing subtle, yeah, with with me, but this is and I and they know it too. They know that's the hassle. One of my my oldest was like, what if I do this particular job when I get older? And I said, I'll be disappointed. I don't think that helps people.
Becky:So just so we're clear on my expectation after years of dedication to you, this is this is what I expect. Okay. So I'm going to I wanna take us to who's making we're gonna skip a couple of questions. This conversation has been really rich, and you've given us such extraordinary information. And also, as always happens, we're running out of time.
Becky:I an announcement on that at the end. I want us to all better understand who's making these housing decisions to help us to kind of drive some clarity and a couple other questions I'd like to ask of But from departments inside localities to the developers themselves, where are affordability decisions being made?
Jovan Burton:There's a lot of decision points and I think a lot of different parties that play a role in this. There will be developers and builders who are never going to do anything close to affordable or around market rate or just below market rate And that's okay, that's going to happen. We need all housing of all types. And I'll say this just from a context thing on building. For a very long time, we were not building to the level that we should have been and most places in the country were not because the impacts of the great recession were pretty long.
Jovan Burton:So we're still kind of recovering from that but since we're on the upswing, there's this perception that don't we have enough? Haven't we built enough? I think what you're starting to see is just we're finally getting to a point of trying to match production with our population changes and growth and everything else. But there has to be decisions by that community to want to build to the need that we're talking about. Now we live in Virginia which is a Dillonville state so that means that there are some limitations on what a local government can or cannot do when it comes to anything but particularly development in this case.
Jovan Burton:So other states because something we get all the time is, Well, can't we just require that every development that goes up has a percentage of affordable units or a number? No, we can't. Unfortunately, it has to be voluntary. Now there are certain jurisdictions in Virginia, most of them in Northern Virginia and then also Charlottesville and Albemarle, they have exemptions, they can. But we in Richmond cannot do that and so it has to be voluntary, that means it has to be incentive based And a developer or builder can still say, No, it doesn't work out for me or that's just not really what my business is.
Becky:What are the pressure points on the developers? Community members in some ways putting pressure on city council or board of supervisors or, like, where does that and and now and also, can we just not be a deal rule state? Is there an upside to being a deal and rule state? Because I don't often come in conversation with folks and find upside there. But, yeah, how do we make that more true?
Jovan Burton:Is everyone clear on the deal and roll pieces? Okay,
Becky:sorry, go, go, go.
Jovan Burton:So that just means that if something is not allowed by our state labeling legislation, a local government cannot do that on its own. Has to go and sometimes it's called the big brother rule, has to go and ask their brother for permission before they can do that locally. So if there's something a local government wants to do, the city of Richmond wants to have a certain type of incentive for housing and that's not allowed by state legislation then they're going have to go to the General Assembly in January and try to get someone to introduce a bill to allow them to do that. And that's for any issue.
Becky:Anything that's required. I mean, I'm thinking there's a composting legislation up right now and those who know, know I'm a big fan of waste conversations, but we couldn't as a locality say, We can make you compost until at the state we say, We said we can make you compost. So it's a lot around requirements. We're not allowed to require anything until we change the laws.
Jovan Burton:Now, I mean, I don't know that being if we weren't a deliberate state that it would solve everything. Our policy director came directly from Austin and he talked about Austin was a city that's doing a lot to try to address housing in a more aggressive way but the downside to that is they do things and then the state sues them and then they sue in this kind of back and forth of lawsuits so I don't know if that's any more healthy or helpful. So we have to work within the framework and the legal limitations that we do and as a result things are going to maybe move a little bit slower but your planning commissions are pretty important of course. Obviously all of your local governing bodies are going to make decisions on talk about
Becky:Yes, scan a QR
Jovan Burton:code. Guess I'll throw a question to the audience so we can just get some guesses. Do you all know what percentage of land in our entire region, so let's just say Hanover, Henrico, Chesterfield, City Of Richmond, what percentage of the land combined of those four jurisdictions allows for multi family development through zoning? 15. Fifteen, five, 10.
Becky:You win nothing, but
Jovan Burton:40%. Anyone want to go higher?
Becky:63.
Jovan Burton:Five. You're right. Five. Oh! 5%.
Becky:You win public recognition. Yeah.
Jovan Burton:That's an important thing to call out because that severely limits where and what type of housing can get built. And the reality is to do affordable housing, it's complicated. It's also you're not gonna make as much money. So the value proposition to those in development on the for profit side is that, okay, we're gonna do something that's already inherently risky, let's make it more complicated might take longer and it might be more expensive and we're not going to make as much. That's the value proposition.
Jovan Burton:That's why some states take the hard approach that they do of saying we're going to require this regardless and they adapt and they figure it out. But we need, if we're going to meaningfully address this, we need the for profit sector to get involved and maybe this is a space to talk about what Henrico is doing We're partnering with them on their trust fund program but that's been their way to try to get the for profit sector involved through their new trust fund and it's been pretty successful at that. It's just under two years and there's been over four zero one units awarded through that program, overwhelming majority from for profit builders. And the reason for that is yes there's the funding to support it and make it make sense for them but also there's incentives to waive building permit fees and water sewer connection fees which can be around 12,000 to $13,000 a unit. If you have a 200 unit development you can add that up and you're into the millions just to connect for utility.
Jovan Burton:So it makes it make sense for them and the city they're doing some things around tax rebates to make it worthwhile for multifamily developers to build more affordable housing particularly those that are traditionally for profit. So you have to have this kind of give and take between local government. You may hear from development sometimes about red tape and that's just kind of this catch all and I think there's this perception that anything that's required of me that I don't really want to do is red tape or it's going to take longer than I would like for it to. And there's usually a pretty good reason why that particular step is in place and a lot of it may be to ensure the safety of the residents that will be living there or in some cases it may be to ensure that you're not building somewhere that is I don't know, a wetland or somewhere that you shouldn't. It's going to be massive infrastructure problems that the county will then have to solve in the future for those residents.
Jovan Burton:So a lot of those are in place but there are things that they can do to help maybe expedite the process or make it easier in exchange for you as a developer or builder providing affordability. So that's kind of the give and take relationship that has to happen for this to really move forward in a meaningful way unless things happen at the general assembly session that changed that. I think there's some hope from some that that will happen in the next couple of years, but we'll see.
Becky:Yep. And I'll do in a recap email, I'll send out some of the legislation that we didn't get to about today that is important within this conversation since we are in that moment. Some things need to be signed by the thirteenth by the governor. Other things need to be signed by the end of the month so I can share that forward with all of you. I'm I'm wondering what's ours to do as we kind of end our time together today.
Becky:What's ours to do as neighbors, as community members? How can we influence this conversation positively to bridge the really significant housing, a significant growing housing gap that we that we have?
Jovan Burton:I know that QR codes have been popping up. I think probably a lot of people have heard about the zoning code refresh process in the city.
Becky:Show of hands, anybody heard about the code refresh? Okay.
Jovan Burton:And it's not just the city, mean Chesterfield just went through zoning modification as well that took forever, years and years and years. I can't emphasize enough how important those processes are to what gets built. The stat that we asked the audience a couple of minutes ago on where you can build multifamily, That's so important because is the law, zoning is the law. It dictates how our communities grow. When there are constraints on that, it's going to lead to some of the same challenges that we've been talking about all of this morning.
Jovan Burton:And I think there's some things that just we try to put in perspective through zoning. Chesterfield, before they started their zoning modification process, the minimum square foot for a single family home, the requirement in their zoning code was 12,000 square feet. So that's about the equivalent of almost three NBA basketball courts and that's a pretty large lot. So you can imagine that's the minimum. So you can imagine that means that the type of homes then that will be built are going to be larger and thus more expensive and how that perpetuates the cost increase that we've been seeing, how few homes, I think maybe I had a stat in there, how few homes are being sold below $250,000 That's really, really important.
Jovan Burton:And in the city, when you think about displacement and I know that's a concern a lot of people have because we've been changing so much and so rapidly. When I started in this work, we had a stat between 02/2017 that the city lost 6,000 black homes largely in Jackson Ward and Churchill but the black homeownership rate decreased by 6% in the city. That's under the current zoning code. So that's the displacement that's taking place under the current zoning code and will continue to accelerate and hence the need to have changes that allow for more types of housing and lower cost housing and diversity of housing that will meet the needs of everyone in the city and not just select few.
Becky:Yeah, and I think there is significant amount of opposition actually to code refreshing the city as I understand it. So typically in public meetings people aren't the majority is not speaking in favor. But there are organizations that are trying to rally more individuals to speak in favor, and I can tell you that mayor O'Hoole would love for you to come and do so if you would like that. One of them is Homes For All, Housing For All. Correct me.
Jovan Burton:Homes for all.
Becky:Homes for all. For Homes for all. So you could check them out and and get engaged in this in this process. That stat you wanted me to find for you, and I did. Pre pandemic, 39% of homes sold for less than $250,000.
Becky:Pre pandemic, 39 of homes sold for less than 250 k. In 2024, just 7% sold for less than 250 k. So we have a really serious problem, folks. And I think it's easy to kind of shorthand our way into not endorsing it. It's easy for me, I have to say.
Becky:It has been historically easy for me as an environmentalist to to do that. But when you educate yourself to what we do here together, you find that that's just you don't have the full story. You don't have enough data. You aren't informed enough to be deciding whether or not someone should have a home they can afford, quite frankly. So I think also one of the things we do is join in conversations like this one and learn things together.
Becky:And then you join in conversations beyond this one and teach things in a non judgy way because no one likes that. In a non judgy way, you teach things to other people. You invite them into a deeper conversation. Javon, before we end our time together, is there anything else you'd like to offer at this group? Anything you'd like to ask them to do?
Becky:I know I I told I said to Javon yesterday, should we ask them to support Partnership for Housing Affordability, your organization? Of course, Javon's like, no. No. It's fine. But if you would like to, I did say, well, what about if there are benevolent millionaires in the room?
Becky:And he said, well, of course, those. Yes. So if if one of them is you, please see Japhon after. But also just go to their website and make certain that you're signing up for their email newsletter and getting their updates and supporting adjacent organizations. But Javon, what else?
Becky:What comes up
Jovan Burton:for I think what you were just talking about is what I would encourage. Like, it's okay if there's opposition to That's okay, think. But leaning into maybe complicating understanding, leaning into some of the tensions, we've had a lot of conversations through the last year of you helping me to understand on the environmental side some of the things you all are concerned about and me helping you understand the housing component and the urgency there and they both require a lot of urgency.
Becky:That's right.
Jovan Burton:And I think sometimes as we dig into it, the tensions may not be as tense as we think they are and they may not be as opposed as we maybe think they are. Other communities are figuring out how to do it and there's no reason why we can't.
Becky:That's right, I agree. Chiffon, thank you for being here. I'm so grateful for you, for our partnership over the past year, for the kind of shared education we commit to one another, and also for you coming in to share your teachings and your wisdoms with the room. Now you know after being with Japhon for an hour why sometimes I feel intellectually inferior in his presence, but it's always an invitation to me being more and better. So thank you for being here.
Becky:All of you, thank you for coming. A very quick update before we end our time fully together. I think that this was only a one year run, so we were just gonna do this for a year. And folks said maybe we should continue on for more than a year. And what what we are considering as kind of a volunteer cohort is that maybe we do it every two months, but we have it for two hours.
Becky:The hour is a lot of pressure. We can never get enough done. I can never get Ellie back up here even though we always wanna close with a meditation, but I'm worried about you leaving. It just it really we're trying to squeeze as much as we can into an hour and it's tricky, so maybe we make it ninety minutes, maybe we can only get two hours. If you have opinions on this though, do let me know.
Becky:I think we will forge ahead, and we just probably won't forge ahead monthly for an hour. So email me beckythecademywall dot org and let me know what you think. Okay? Is there anything I missed? Anybody who knows more than me?
Jason:Next month.
Becky:Next month is our last one. Thank you. Oh, I was gonna say doctor Evola, but whatever. Doctor Evola, mayor Evola, Danny, whatever you wanna call him. The mayor of Richmond will be here, and we'll be addressing topics of pedestrian safety.
Becky:We'll be able to address some of this affordable housing conversation too. We'll be talking about some other things that are happening right now. So if you would like to come, that will be our last in this series, in this format, and we'll be ending it as he was the first mindful morning speaker ever, and now he's our last for this run, which I think is sweet and it and has been a good friend to me. So we'll welcome we'll welcome Danny. Thanks, Javon.
Becky:Thank you for giving me a round of applause for Javon.
Jason:This Many Hands Alive was sponsored by Blanchard's Coffee, Ninja Kombucha, Early Bird Biscuits, and Rooted Grace Teas. Many Hands is a program of The Giving Foundation. It was edited by Jay Smack, and this month, hosted at Saint Joseph's Villa. Visit us at manyhandslive.org and thegivingwall.org.