Affordable Housing

This is a bill to add a new part to Virginia law about keeping affordable housing in place.

• This bill explains some important words:

  • Publicly supported housing: buildings managed as a set that have:

    • At least 10 spaces to rent

    • Limits on how much people make small amounts of money can be charged to rent there. 

    • Getting support from national or state programs

  • Affordability restriction: a rent limit on publicly supported housing.

  • Bona fide offer to purchase: a signed purchase agreement.

  • Day: one day’s time unless clearly called as a business day.  

  • Owner: people, firms, partnerships, companies, trusts, organizations, LLCs, or other groups holding paperwork to publicly supported housing. 

  • "Sale" or "sell": when an owner transfers publicly supported housing within two years 

    • Does not count as a “sale” if:

      • The seller and owner are business partners

      • The new owner already owns part of the property

      • The seller and buyer are family member 

      • The change happened because the owner died or got a divorce

      • The bank took it from the owner because the owner could not pay for it.

      • The government took it from the owner. 

  • Tenant association: a group made by renters to deal with problems in their living conditions.

    • They work together to represent everyone who lives in the area, and to tell owners and local governments that they exist.

  •  Termination: ending or getting rid of a rule that makes publicly supported housing cost less, without having another idea ready to go.

  • "Third-party buyer": a group other than the local government or someone with an agreement with the local government that makes a real offer to buy the house or building.  

• If this bill passes: 

  • Local governments can make local rules that make owners give a heads up in writing two years before something that keeps housing cheap ends. 

    • This has to explain their plans—whether they want to: 

      • Keep it going

      • Change it to a place people cannot live 

      • Sell to a third-party.  

    • The heads up has to include:

      • The address

      • Owner

      • Date of the change will happen 

      • Details about renters’ rights to stay

    • If many limits that keep housing cheaper are ending in a year, one update can cover them all, as long as it’s sent two years before changes start. 

    • These warnings have to be written a certain way.

    • Owners who have less than two years left on something that keeps a rental cheaper on the day the rule starts, must update the local government within 90 days.  

  • Owners need to show proof of they are following the rules within 30 days. 

  • Local governments can fine owners up to $5,000 per broken rule unless: 

    • Paperwork showing they followed the rules is kept or 

    • The owner was not told that they had broken a rule.  

  • After telling an owner they are not allowed to own a building anymore, local governments can have someone they have an agreement with by it, as long as there is a written agreement to keep the housing cheaper for at least 15 years.  

    • Owners have five business days to tell the local government if they take a real offer from a third-party buyer.  

    • Then, the local government or the group they have an agreement with can match the offer.

      • There are some specific times where the local government is not allowed to match the offer.

    • Owners must make sure the person who made the offer is following the rules within two months of taking an offer 

      • The local government then has two months to argue this or write down that they are following the rules.

  • Local governments can start lawsuits against owners for breaking rules.

  • Any local government overseeing more than 3,500 people that has  made a local rule because of the changes in this bill has to turn in a write up about each year to the state government office in charge of housing and communities.

Position Statement:

New Disabled South supports cheap housing for everyone. Poor people deserve to live in places that are not expensive. NDS also supports having building owners tell the people when housing prices will change before changing the prices..