ROANOKE, Va. – The Roanoke Economic Development Authority has given $225,000 of its funds to the Roanoke Workforce Housing Development Fund to increase the availability of affordable housing.
The funds are in addition to the $2 million the city received last year from the American Rescue Plan.
Director Marc Nelson with the Economic Development Authority said affordable housing is a continuing problem and has been an issue since COVID-19.
“Folks who can afford the market rate are now looking for the cheaper option. So, they look at things normally folks who need affordable housing would look at and that pushes the folks who are in the affordable housing arena down even further,” said Nelson.
A study by Virginia Tech’s Institute for Policy and Governance and the Virginia Center for Housing Research showed a lack of more than 4,000 housing units in Roanoke. It also showed that many residents spend more than 30% of their income on housing.
Nelson said one of the projects currently underway in Roanoke City is at the Belmont Baptist Church in Southeast. He said the church is being transformed into apartments that are slated to be finished by 2025.
“I believe it’s about 30 units, and under the requirement of the grant, 20 percent of those units will have to be affordable. Affordable is documented as the people who would be occupying the units have to be 60 percent of AMI or lower,” said Nelson.
AMI means the area’s median income. Nelson said in Roanoke City for two people that is a little more than $61,000.
Housing developers can apply to use the funds to build more affordable housing. However, 20% of the units must be affordable for families earning no more than 60% of the area’s median income. The new developments must also be affordable for 20 years.
He also said that some of the other projects that are being considered are in Southwest and Northwest in Roanoke.