The Town of Blacksburg’s Office of Housing & Community Connections serves as the lead agency for the New River Valley HOME Consortium, which comprises Floyd, Giles, Montgomery, Pulaski, and Radford. Established in 2007, the Consortium aims to expand affordable housing opportunities for low to moderate income households, strengthen public-private partnerships to produce and operate affordable housing, and invest in critical public services to prevent and end homelessness in Blacksburg and the New River Valley.
We recently caught up with Blacksburg HCC staff to ask them about their work in the affordable housing and homelessness response sectors.
Q: Tell us a little bit about what you’ve been working on lately.
The 212 Project: The New River HOME Consortium is helping to materialize a permanent supportive housing (PSH) project in the City of Radford. HOME-ARP funds have been leveraged to provide capacity for New River Community Action to take the steps to successfully develop and manage the project and to garner further funding from the Virginia Department of Housing & Community Development (DHCD) for the rehabilitation of a building to create PSH units that will serve qualifying populations in the New River Valley.
New River Home Trust: The New River Valley’s Community Land Trust will grow from 7 homes to 38 homes when Community Housing Partners’ Stroubles Ridge project (20 modular construction homes off of Merrimac Road in Blacksburg) and Habitat for Humanity’s Airport Acres project (11 townhomes on Airport Road in Blacksburg) are completed.
Claremont School Apartments: Landmark Development leveraged HOME and Low Income Housing Tax Credit (LIHTC) funding to revitalize a historic elementary school in Pulaski. The project created 50 new affordable units – 23 apartments in the [original] school building and 27 apartments in a newly-constructed building located behind the school.
AmeriCorps VISTA Program: The Town of Blacksburg will be supporting a [Virginia Housing Alliance] VISTA member who will design and implement a sustainable landlord engagement program as part of a regional effort to expand permanent supportive housing opportunities in the New River Valley. Blacksburg will also be the home base for the VISTA working with New River Community Action, who will be leading a comprehensive effort to strengthen and expand shelter services across the New River Valley.
Q: What do you believe to be the most rewarding or valuable part of your affordable housing work?
We help our neighbors to have safe, affordable, and welcoming spaces to live and build their futures – this includes folks in our community who are first time homebuyers, those looking for an affordable apartment, our neighbors seeking safe short-term shelter, or our friends who need extra services and might utilize permanent supportive housing. Providing opportunities along the housing continuum that meet the needs of our communities is the most rewarding aspect of our work.
Q: How has your VHA membership helped amplify your impact?
This year, we were able to use the VHA State Legislative Tracker – that was an amazing resource for us. We used the tracker to help keep us up-to-date when the legislative session was ongoing. We have also used it as a spring board to conduct our own analysis of how these bills may affect our locality.
We value our membership to VHA because we know we have so many resources at our fingertips when we need them, and it makes us feel connected to the wider efforts to address housing in Virginia.
Responses were lightly edited for length and clarity.