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The Greater Richmond Challenge. DUN DUN DUN.

by: Ross

Tomorrow I take part in the Greater Richmond Challenge. Basically I pay the Chamber of Commerce a bunch of money so I can brainstorm ideas to make Richmond a better place to live. I will be there because I am Richmond’s number one fan/cheerleader. NUMBER ONE.

There are 95 participants and 5 topics; making two tenish person groups for each topic. My topic is “Workforce Housing.” Last year “Workforce Housing” was called “Affordable Housing” which is way more interesting to me. Workforce Housing: teachers, firemen, police, other people necessary to our society can’t afford to buy the median priced house on their median incomes. That is the issue. (Affordable Housing was a broader issue, something like “poor people are being priced out of owning a home.)

Does that suck? Should the rent? Should we/government give them some sort of helping hand? Should we/government give developers tax incentives to build affordable housing? These are the kinds of questions we are going to be asking several Richmond area officials/peeps.

It should be fun. Do you have any questions you’d like answered/asked? Drop a comment and I’ll see what I can do.

THE CHALLENGE BEGINS TOMORROW.

Comments.

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  1. I think local neighborhood CDC’s with proper support and funding, combined with new missions of green sustainability, are the answer. Have them set the standards for historically sensitive, environmentally aware affordable housing OWNERS, and the private, for-profit side of the market will be convinced to follow.

    www.ohhic.org

    — Scott Burger | @

  2. ABOLISH MORTGAGES.

    think about it.

    — midas | @

  3. I used to work at the Chamber and am glad to see you’re participating in the program. I actually think the particular focus your group is taking on is an important one. It’s also fairly complex. I think there’s a lot going on that is creating it as a problem. Such as employers not keeping up on salaries based on things like housing costs, etc and developers not creating more affordable housing.

    Forgive my forgetfullness, some of these numbers may be a little off, but I believe they say your mortgage shouldn’t go over 25-30% of your income, otherwise you’re considered to be under a housing burden. I make a pretty decent salary, but if you flesh those numbers out, I believe it works out to I should be looking for a house in the 125k range. I forget where I came up with 125k but I think at some point I figured it all out and around there is what I came up with. Unfortunately from what I’ve seen in looking around (along with some statistics I’ve seen the GRCC put out), there aren’t many houses in the Greater Richmond Region that fall into that price range, at least not without requiring quite a bit of work. It’s not that I’d mind working on a house, but it would need to be able to be lived in while I worked on it.

    Anyhow … unfortunately I don’t have the answers to the problem, but I definitely applaud you and your group for recognizing the problem and for looking for solutions to it.

    — matt | @

  4. Scott Burger, i’m not following you? CDC = Center for Disease Control? i know “green!” is somehow the answer to all of life’s problems, so could you elaborate. i don’t follow how building a bunch of ‘green’ (more expensive, especially up front) houses is going to help more people afford a mortgage. i don’t necessarily disagree i guess, i just don’t see what you mean.

    moving on, here’s the trouble as i see it: affordable housing doesn’t cost much less than “unaffordable housing” (unless you want more crappy “projects”), so if i’m a developer, why should i spend almost the same amount and sell for far less? that takes you back to the age old subsidized housing.

    this is probably similar to historic tax credits. people have decided that it’s important enough that their tax money go to incentives for people to keep houses historical looking, so that it’s worth it for people to stay historical when it wouldn’t be otherwise. so how do you convince people that it’s also important for poor people to have homes?

    another idea: it’s cool again to have mix use stuff. like apartments over stores and whatnot. why not have apartments over firehouses and schools and police stations that are free/cheap for those people to live in? plus, they don’t have to drive to work, they just walk downstairs, thus saving the planet.

    all that said, the more obvious answer is, if these are city employees (fire, popo, teachers, etc.), why not just pay them more so that they can afford regular-price housing???

    i don’t really think there’s a question for you to ask anywhere in there, but good luck! also, way to go getting in there and being a part of things! Max for Mayor!

    — Wolf | @

  5. CDC is nonprofitese for Community Development Corporations.

    — Scott Burger | @

  6. […] I woke up this morning feeling like I had gotten punched in the face I knew it couldn’t have been Ross (this time, at least) because he was off saving Richmond last night. I spent all day trying to figure out exactly why it hurt to both open *and* close my mouth. […]

    — Made in Richmond » Facing the Consequences | @

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