How contention over a statewide definition of affordable housing in Virginia could complicate a larger crisis

Long before the COVID-19 recession put millions of Virginians on the precipice of losing their homes, the commonwealth already suffered from the country’s worst eviction epidemic. After five Virginia cities landed in the top 10 of Princeton University’s Eviction Lab rankings in 2016, the data served as a clarion call to action for policymakers and local officials.

In the intervening four years, Gov. Ralph Northam has made reducing the rate of evictions across the state a priority. Since March alone the Northam administration has helped over 4,000 families to stay in their homes via the Virginia Rent and Mortgage Relief Program, provided $1.3 billion in CARES Act funding to localities’ eviction diversion programs, and announced $4 million in grants to hire more lawyers to prevent families from losing their homes.

Although those actions and the governor’s repeated petitioning for a statewide eviction moratorium have grabbed headlines, an even larger structural problem with Virginia’s housing market has been looming in the background: the state’s worsening affordability crisis.

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