9. Workforce Housing

Everyone in our community deserves a decent, safe, and affordable place to live.  To accomplish this, the City should develop affordable or “workforce” housing policies to protect and improve its existing supply of affordable housing and strengthen the neighborhood where the housing is located.  Workforce housing includes single-family homes, townhouses, condominiums, starter homes, and apartments that are affordable to workers who provide essential services in our community such as healthcare, manufacturing,public safety, and retail workers. One definition of workforce housing is housing that is affordable to households earning incomes within the range 60% - 120% of area median income.


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HUD is using its Hope VI program to redevelop existing public housing into mixed income housing (Popup full image) 
 

The City can promote mixed income housing in Newport News by:

  • Recognizing the importance of an adequate and balanced housing supply to the community's economic well-being and ensure that planning, zoning and land-use regulations and practices permit and encourage the development of a range of housing types that will adequately meet the region's and state's housing needs.
     
  • Ensuring that regulatory policies, such as building and fire codes, do not add unnecessary or burdensome costs to the creation of new workforce housing.
     
  • Exempting affordable housing from fees and building caps, and create flexibility in other requirements, such as density standards, to reduce the cost of housing development.
     
  • Implementing mechanisms like inclusionary zoning, which require new housing developments to include a certain amount of housing for low and moderate income households or providing density bonuses to developers in return for a specified amount of workforce housing that is integrated within a development.
     
  • Supporting the work of local non-profit housing providers to help meet housing needs and consider transferring municipally-owned land and buildings suitable for residential use to non-profit housing providers. (44)

Lastly, the City should consider the creation of a “Housing Department” that is responsible for implementing City housing policies and initiatives put forth in the Framework for the Future.