Housing

Lawmakers are about to return to Richmond for the General Assembly session, and one of the items they'll be talking about is expanding the stock of new housing.

Increasing rental prices and high eviction rates are pushing more people out of their homes, a trend that’s happening in many communities across the Commonwealth, including in the New River Valley, putting pressure on some shelters who offer a warm bed for the night.

Virginia Tech moved forward with a plan to add a student life village to its campus —a move that could provide housing for 5,000 students.

Affordable housing advocates are seeing high numbers of people asking for help, as pandemic protections for renters expired recently, and housing costs continue to increase. Southwest Virginia is just one of many places where the housing market is increasingly stretched thin.

Virginia Poverty Law Center runs an eviction help-line and since last summer there’s been a 500% increase in the number of folks reaching out for help.

Since 2020 Roanoke has seen an increase in the number of people sleeping on sidewalks and downtown areas. Last December, the city council voted to make sleeping on sidewalks a criminal offense. Other communities across southwest Virginia, including Bristol and Pulaski, have enacted similar policies in the past few months.

Finding housing is an issue for many Virginians, but it’s also presenting an issue for the organizations trying to resettle some of the Afghans coming to the U.S. on special immigrant visas, Virginia refugee advocates say.

Virginia’s rent relief program has allocated more of its federal rent relief funds than any other state, Senator Tim Kaine told the Virginia Housing…

June 30th is the last day a key tenant protection will be in force, even as a federal moratorium on evictions for non-payment continues and new state…

Our pandemic reality is precarious. And many Virginians have struggled like never before to keep the lights on and pay the rent.Since a special session…