NBC12: Richmond partners with LISC to put $100 million towards affordable housing crisis

Madison McNamee, NBC12

RICHMOND, Va. (WWBT) -Richmond city leaders now have a new partner to help tackle the affordable housing crisis, which was declared back in the spring.

The Local Initiatives Support Corporation (LISC) is investing $50 million over the next five years to help build more housing units. This matches the amount the city council cited in its resolution in April, totaling the investment to at least $100 million to fix this problem.

The goal is to use that money to build at least 1,000 units a year, as it all comes back to basic supply and demand. Mayor Levar Stoney says as the city ups housing supply, the cost of it will have to go down.

The crisis was initially declared because of low housing supply and high rent across the city. Mayor Stoney says more people have just been moving to the river city. He says there is a 40,000-unit shortage in the area.

“My team believes we need all types of housing in every neighborhood. Therefore, we are heavily investing in housing options for our residents,” Stoney said.

The $50 million from LISC is supposed to roll in through $10 million increments each year over the next 5 to create at least 1,000 new housing units each year. Mayor Stoney says we should start to see more of those spots and some relief soon, as he says 9,000 have already gone up since 2019.

The new funds LISC is contributing are supposed to come from interest lenders and philanthropic organizations. The city and LISC hope these big investments attract others to invest, too.

They want state and federal powers to contribute, too. LISC president Denise Scott says $100 million is the investment, but it leverages significantly more.

Mayor Stoney rejected the idea that the city’s $50 million investment would create high-interest rates and debt.

“We recognize that we want to be fiscally responsible,” he said. “But also, we do want to be bold, 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. And so yes, there will always be naysayers who state that it’s too big, it’s too bold. This is the right approach.”

In addition to the financial resources, the president of LISC announced the group is planning to create a “housing development training institute,” with the goal of building local affordable housing development and a loan program for small buildings.

More details on this center are supposed to be available soon.

“It’s really to be focused on helping to grow the talent in this market so more small businesses,” LISC president Denise Scott said. “Small developers can benefit from this big investment. We will also provide what we call leadership and advisory services on topics like surplus property disposition, policy and advocacy.”

Mayor Stoney and city councilors call this investment critical, as they hope for ripple effects over the years. Councilor Mike Jones says if they can get more families into homes, that could mean more kids in stable living environments, too.

Read the original article here.