94% Unaffordable
Isn’t Affordable Housing:
Virginia Beach's
Planning Commission recently
approved a project to build
1,080 homes near South Independence
and Princess Anne Road. Sixty-two
of these homes will be “affordable
housing” in an effort
to address our huge shortage
of work force housing. Let's
be serious. 1,018 homes will
be unaffordable to most,
and only 6% will be affordable.
That does as little to help
the affordable housing shortage
as the offered “turn
lanes and extensions” will
handle the 20,000-plus additional
road trips per day that this
development will add to our
roads. Sixty-two homes that
are "promised" by
the developer to stay under
$200,000 is not a major accomplishment
in the affordable housing
crisis. We could and should
do better. Affordable housing
needs to be a top priority
with our city leadership.
If City Council approves
the project "as is" in
May, it will prove once again
that affordable housing is
good to talk about but bad
to deliver on. This development
will also need taxpayer money
to foot the impending infrastructure
bill. Better grab your wallet!
