RICHMOND, Va. -- It's the latest update in Richmond's push to address the city's affordable housing crisis: Local Initiatives Support Corporation, also known as LISC, will be partnering with the City of Richmond, pledging $50 million over the next five years to help build more units.
The group is matching the city's investment of a $50 million taxable bond program, said to help leverage funding to be put toward the city's affordable housing goals.
With the commitment, $100 million will be invested in affordable housing creation over the next five years.
LISC will provide monetary resources and plans on starting a Housing Development Training Institute to increase local building capacity and offer a small business loan program for developers and owners of rental properties with 5-49 units to rehabilitate or construct.
"Our collective impact will result in thousands of units and hundreds of millions of dollars in investment," LISC President Denise Scott said. "To be clear, $100M is the investment. It leverages significantly more."
When the $50 million taxable bond program was announced earlier this year, it drew some criticism, with some housing advocates saying it may create debt for the city.
Stoney said the investment from LISC is because of the taxable bond program.
"We would not put the city in that kind of a pinch-point to only create 5,000-plus housing units in the city. We recognize that we want to be fiscally responsible, but we do also want to be bonded, right? And the problem in the past is that we've seen the problem on the horizon, and we've never done anything about it," Stoney said when responding to questions about the bond program potentially causing financial problems for the city.
"That investment opened the door for the $50 million we're getting from LISC. Not getting from LISC, but LISC is spending in Richmond," Stoney said. "So, leveraging $50 million, and getting an investment in $50 million goes a long way. "
According to RVA Eviction Lab's 1st Quarter Report, eviction judgments continue to increase post-COVID protections from 81 percent to 95 percent of pre-pandemic levels. The report found state-wide median principal owed was $2,270.
"It will take the investment into the supply so we can bring down those rents as well. We wish that we had more legislation from the state government that would actually tackle some of this with us," Stoney said.
"We want to be able to provide relief to those who live in homes today, but they don't qualify because they're not disabled, they're not a veteran, or they're not part of the elderly, our senior population. We don't have any kind of program available at the state level that will provide relief because of your social economics. We need to fix that in this state. We need to bring some balance to the scales between the tenant and the landlords and landowners. We don't have that in the Commonwealth of Virginia."
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