I'm not ridiculously proud. And I'm comfortable enough to take hard pokes at the Richmond Times-Dispatch's inability to facilitate a fluid and engaging conversation about its arts coverage on the one hand, and to applaud the same newspaper for facilitating one kick-ass public discussion on an issue of far greater importance -- the availability of affordable housing for all of the residents of the Richmond region.
Last night at the TD's downtown offices, hundreds of area residents -- homeowners, renters, builders, government officials, students and non-profit staff -- came together to listen and to talk. Why does it strike me as odd that, for the most part, people made a helluva lot of sense?
I take my hat off to Tom Silvestri, the TD's publisher. Tom facilitated the discussion, and used the TD's coverage of the affordable housing issue (and the annoying technology we know as PowerPoint) to frame the conversation around the issues and the solutions. He stepped in appropriately, he pushed the audience to generate dialogue (for instance, respond to each other and build on previous points, rather than read from notes). He even ended close to the 8:30 scheduled wrap.
I was there with a cluster of teammates from the Greater Richmond Chamber of Commerce's Richmond Challenge; there were 20 of us delving into the topic of affordable housing back in June, and about 10 of us have remained engaged. Our focus is looking for ways to increase awareness, to support legislation creating the Virginia Housing Trust and to get our hands dirty in the community with organizations like Elderhomes and Habitat for Humanity.
The discussion was wide-ranging, and I took poor notes. Speakers touched on housing and rental costs -- noting that it takes more than 80 hours of minimum wage work each week to afford the average two-bedroom apartment rental in the Richmond area. They discussed demographic trends -- both rising immigration and the expected (and poorly planned for) explosion of elderly. The 40,000 people in the region living below the federal poverty level were discussed, as were the 4,000 crumbling public housing units managed by the Richmond Redevelopment Housing Authority -- and RRHA's plans to redevelop all 4,000 units, and the need for this redevelopment to be a regional issue, not a City of Richmond issue.
About 2/3 of the audience was from Richmond, and I was surprised that Chesterfield seemed to have more representation than Henrico. Others came from Hanover, Goochland, New Kent, Prince George.
Renters, county and city officials including Richmond Mayor L. Douglas Wilder, builders, housing nonprofits, local college students, mortgage lenders and homeless advocates were represented. The forum was moderated by Thomas A. Silvestri, president and publisher of The Times-Dispatch.
"If this isn't proof that this is an important issue, then I don't know what is," Silvestri said, referring to the crowd. "This is a deep issue."
At times, the discussion became passionate. Some argued many people don't want low-cost housing in their neighborhood because of perceived problems associated with it.
"One of the reasons for 'not in our backyard' is people don't want ugly houses," said Karl Bren with the Better Housing Coalition. "We need to build affordable homes that are beautiful."
It was a builder from Prince George who hit the first comments out of the proverbial park -- well into the evening. He talked about proffers -- an agreement (read: cash) between a developer and a local government designed to offset ongoing costs, such as road maintenance or schools. Proffers are a huge and hidden source of revenue for local government, and a huge and hidden cost for homebuyers.
The builder noted that the impact from proffers and from the outright cost of land in Prince George County create an upfront cost of $53.98 per square foot for residential construction -- before the first footing is even laid. Proffers and land costs can add up to as much as $70,000; one example given by a Hanover builder involves a $14,000 proffer coupled with $11,000 in water and sewer fees. Because the builder incurs these costs upfront, and floats them through the sale of the house, they can rise as high as $32,000 -- which works out to an additional $189 a month to the cost of a home. (The Hanover example does not include land costs.)
The other superstar of the night was a VCU graduate student, Jamie Jackson, who raised the roof as she described her hunt for an apartment -- "over $900 a month with no utilities" -- and a call for action. "It's time for coalition building in Richmond" around the issue of affordable housing, she said to applause.
A few folks I spoke to after the discussion expressed the typical frustration that no real solutions were discussed, that the wrong people were there, that nothing will change. Humbug. Nearly 300 people came together to speak, learn and listen. That doesn't happen every day. It wouldn't have happened if the Times-Dispatch hadn't rolled the ball. Some of us left with a stronger commitment to keep the conversation moving toward solutions. VCU's Jackson said it best:
Jamie Jackson, a graduate student at Virginia Commonwealth University, recently experienced how difficult it can be to find an affordable apartment in the city. She stressed the need for affordable student housing and thanked Times-Dispatch officials for holding the forum.
"I think this is a great opportunity to start [the discussion]," she said. "But we've got to finish it."
