City Hall in Richmond, Va. (Parker Michels-Boyce for The Virginia Mercury)
Typically a very local issue, presidential candidates are discussing housing policy this year and Virginia’s state legislature continues to play a role in addressing related issues . The state’s capital city, Richmond, has a mayoral election in November that could shape housing policy for at least the next four years.
Last year council passed a resolution to declare that the city had a housing crisis . Efforts to help will be paramount for the city’s legislative body and next mayor because Richmond’s eviction rate is second highest in the nation, the amount of people experiencing homelessness is on the rise , and the city has not been immune to national struggles for people to afford purchasing homes .
Richmond’s five candidates for mayor — Andreas Addison, Danny Avula, Michelle Mosby, Maurice Neblett and Harrison Roday — share their ideas on this front, including dedicating more money to existing land trust funds, supporting updated zoning that will foster the development of more housing and diversify housing types, and furthering existing eviction diversion programs.
Below is an overview of some of their other proposals.
Land value taxes
Having passed in 2020 , Virginia law allows for the use of land value taxes, when property is taxed by the land and not the structure sitting on top of it. Addison, as a Richmond City Council member representing District 1, advocated for that law and asked then-state Sen. Jennifer McClellan, D-Richmond, to carry it. Now he wants to see it put to use.
He said this measure can help homeowners, particularly seniors and people on fixed incomes, to remain in their homes. Usually home sales in a neighborhood are what drives peoples’ tax assessments up over time and can push longer-term residents out of certain neighborhoods.
Land value taxes could also spur action on vacant or blighted properties because it would become more costly to hold onto empty properties than to develop them. Addison noted empty lots and derelict buildings around Richmond that could become housing or mixed-use development if owners had a nudge to move forward on projects.
“This strategy lowers the tax burden on residents and incentivizes investors who are sitting on valuable property to either sell it or develop it, which will spur the development of infill,” Addison said.
Fast tracking the approval process for affordable developments
Mosby, who represented District 9 as a city councilor 2013-2016, wants to create an Affordable Housing Strike Team, she said. It would be composed of key department heads involved in housing and development approvals within the city, their work overseen by her office as mayor to “ensure accountability and efficiency,” she said.
“ The goal is simple — cut through the red tape and get affordable housing projects completed as quickly as possible,” Mosby said.
Similarly, Roday, who founded the community development nonprofit Bridging Virginia, plans to institute a “shot clock” approach to building permits in Richmond. When asked for more details of how that could work, he pointed to how North Carolina’s state legislature has proposed a statewide mandate to “set clear targets for results.”
Resident feedback boards
Both Roday and Avula plan to create advisory boards that can weigh in on housing policy.
As more than half of the renters in Richmond spend more than 30% of their income on rent , Roday’s board would have a focus on renters, he said.
Bolstering the Office of Community Wealth Building
Avula, a pediatrician and former director of the Richmond and Henrico Health Districts , wants to allocate additional funding for case workers in the Office of Community Wealth Building with a goal of helping low-income Richmonders be better able to raise their incomes — thus alleviating some of the strain of housing costs.
“This level of intensive support gives families residing in (Richmond Redevelopment and Housing Authority) properties a greater likelihood of upward economic mobility,” he said.
Support for public housing residents
The Richmond Redevelopment and Housing Authority manages about 4,000 units around the city and owns some undeveloped land parcels as well. This summer it opened up waitlists, which can expand housing access for people who need it most, but earlier this year had filed eviction proceedings that it later paused as it reviewed its rent calculations .
Addison noted how the council was able to bolster the Richmond Redevelopment and Housing Authority’s ongoing work on the Creighton Court transformation, but said that the city will need to “think more outside of the box” on additional funding for RRHA’s needs.
He said Richmond could explore a local add-on to the federal Low Income Housing Tax Credit program, a federal resource that some Virginia localities have access to.
“We just need the political will to go to bat for residents in public housing,” Addison said. “It doesn’t just take new revenue streams, it takes political courage.”
Accountability for landlords on maintenance
Mosby plans to “go after” landlords who let their properties deteriorate. To address this, she said that “ we will focus on enforcement and proactive partnerships with landlords, tenants, the fire department, and code enforcement to ensure buildings are maintained and safe.”
Her administration will also ensure that code enforcement officers are able to monitor properties to take action when violations are visible.
Boosting nonprofit organizations and supporting public-private partnerships
The city has already been working with local organizations, like Continuum of Care — a local network of homelessness resource groups that receive federal funding — or Habitat for Humanity, for example. Continuing collaborations and building partnerships will be important, candidates said.
“By working with groups like Virginia Supportive Housing, we can offer not just a place to live but also job training, healthcare, and other critical services to address the root causes of homelessness,” said Neblett, an entrepreneur and first-time candidate for elected office. “We can’t forget the recovery community in this, people working to rebuild their lives deserve every opportunity to have stable housing as they recover.”
Other candidates also mentioned ways the city can bolster efforts of nonprofit organizations.
Addison noted how Project:HOME purchased a mobile home park in Chesterfield County to preserve it for residents. He’d like to support the organization in efforts to preserve affordable neighborhoods and construct new home types.
Roday stressed how public-private partnerships can help yield more home construction and that projects should be available at or below 50% of Richmond’s area median income.
“We can invest more in affordable housing with public-private partnerships that include flexible capital, including municipal dollars,” Roday said.
Local requests to the state legislature
In Virginia, there are many instances where local government needs permission from the state government to take certain actions, and more broadly, state laws related to housing can make a significant impact on certain localities. Ahead of the 2025 legislative session, Richmond’s mayoral candidates already have ideas on what to press the legislature for.
Addison said that he supports a proposal that failed this previous legislative session. Dubbed “5,000 Families,” the bipartisan effort from Sen. Ghazala Hashmi, D-Chesterfield and Del. Carrie Coyner, R-Chesterfield would help families that experience a housing crisis during a school year remain in place through funding vouchers.
He also has his eye on a bill by Sen. Jennifer Boysko, D-Fairfax, that the legislature plans to address next year that would set a cap on how much landlords can increase rent within a year.
Mosby plans to advocate for state-level assistance on solutions to sheltering localities’ unhoused populations and for more funding that localities can use towards affordable housing development.
Roday and Avula both said they would push for more funding to Virginia’s K-12 education system and reshaping Richmond’s combined sewage overflow system.
“Both of these would add dollars to our budget from the state level,” Roday said. “Then more local dollars could be freed up to invest in housing.”
Neblett said he’ll push for enhancements to Virgnina’s tenant protections and for more funding in the Virginia Housing Trust Fund.
Visit the candidate websites for more information on their housing policy and other ideas for Richmond:
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