Affordable housing to be a key issue in General Assembly

Housing advocates want, once again, to tackle the affordable housing crisis with legislation that could tap into one of the commonwealth’s longest-standing points of political tension.

That’s the General Assembly’s power to dictate to cities and counties — entities that have among the most influential voices in the halls of the Virginia Capitol.

In recent legislative sessions, local governments have said proposed state mandates on zoning codes and land-use regulation could override policies they’ve adopted in response to residents’ wishes. Legislators listened carefully, and agreed.

But the members of Commonwealth Housing Coalition think the price of homes and the rise in rents mean different voices will echo more loudly around the Capitol. The group is made up of nine affordable housing organizations, nine business associations and 31 advocacy groups. Members range from the conservative Americans for Prosperity to the progressive New Virginia Majority.

The coalition wants to focus on an Econ 101 approach: increasing supply makes prices decline. This is unlike New York City mayor-elect Zohran Mamdani’s promise to freeze rents for the more than 2 million New Yorkers living in rent-controlled apartments. It also differs from a failed 2025 proposal from Del. Nadarius Clark, D- Suffolk, that cities and counties be allowed to impose caps on rent increases.

Gov.-elect Abigail Spanberger, who takes office on Jan. 17, pledged during her campaign to focus on affordability, citing housing, health care and energy.

Pricing out the middle class

“In 2023, Austin, Texas, permitted more homes than the entire commonwealth of Virginia,” said state Sen. Schuyler VanValkenburg, D- Henrico.

“From December 2019 to September 2025, the median sales price went up 42% in the commonwealth, so the average home went from $295,000 to $420,000. That’s effectively pricing out the middle class,” he said.

“If you look at my locality in Henrico, it went from $261,000 to $398,000 — that’s a 52% increase. And people are feeling it, and they know it,” he said.

A recent poll for the coalition found that more than seven in 10 Virginia voters say there aren’t enough homes people can afford to rent or buy across the state. Six in 10 voters said it’s more important for the General Assembly to act to boost affordable housing than to protect local government authority. More than half said their own localities’ efforts to keep housing affordable should be rated as poor or very poor.

“I’m an optimist … but at the end of the day, if I go back to that number, two-thirds of people said the state needs to act, rather than trust local government,” VanValkenburg said.

“And that’s because people recognize how dire the problem is, and we’re at a position now where we have to act. I would rather act working with the local government. I would rather we do it in a collaborative way, but we got to act,” Van Valkenburg said.

Returning proposals

That means that proponents will try again on several proposals that have failed in recent years.

Efforts in the 2025 and 2024 sessions to enact measures directing local governments to allow “accessory dwelling units” stalled in response to local governments’ objections, but the coalition wants to try again. Accessory dwelling units are backyard buildings that could be a home for grandma, or a family’s new college graduate or just a way to make a bit of money from rent.

The coalition argues that this would protect homeowners’ rights to build an accessory dwelling unit without needing special permission from a city or county. The earlier bills died in committees, on voice votes.

Richmond, where affordable housing has been an especially acute issue, moved in 2023 to allow accessory dwelling units without a special permit. This came after city officials heard from hundreds of residents about the city’s need for affordable housing alternatives and property owners’ interest in using accessory units to generate rental income.

The coalition also wants to try again with a measure that would legalize residential development in areas zoned for commercial uses. It asserts that this would make it simpler to convert emptying strip malls and office parks into affordable homes. In 2025, a version of this approach, Senate Bill 839, died in a Senate committee on a 7-5 vote, with all seven Republicans voting against, while three Democrats abstained.

VanValkenburg wants to try again with legislation setting targets for local governments to increase their total stock of housing. The 2025 version, Senate Bill 975, and a parallel House version, House Bill 2641, sponsored by Del. Dan Helmer, D- Fairfax, would have required localities to increase housing units by at least 7.5% over a five-year period. Localities that do not make a good-faith effort to do this would risk having the state step in to take over review and approval of applications for zoning and permit approval for new housing.

VanValkenburg’s bill died on an 8-4 vote in the Senate Local Government Committee. The House version passed that body on a party-line vote, then eked through the Senate Local Government Committee, only to die in the Senate Finance Committee.

“Delegate Helmer and I are focusing on this housing targets bill, which … we think is … autonomy with accountability,” VanValkenburg said. “The locality has the autonomy to figure out the best way to increase supply, but there’s some accountability in the state end … They have to try to meet the targets. They have to do some collection of policies to increase supply, but at the end of the day, they get to choose among (an) assortment of policy areas to get there.”

He said one change in 2026 could be to include financial support from the state.

“Helmer and I talked with VACO (The Virginia Association of Counties) about what are some possible ways that we can ensure that there’s a conversation where we can get the actual strong bill that we need right to really move the needle,” VanValkenburg said.

He said they want “to do it in a way where we’re working with localities, and hopefully those conversations will bear fruit.”

Another supply-oriented effort that also died in 2025 is legislation that would make it easier for religious groups and nonprofit entities to build income-restricted housing on land they own. It would tell cities and counties to streamline approval processes for such proposals, with set standards and timelines for action. This year, this idea, Senate Bill 1178, made it past the gatekeepers of the Senate Local Government Committee on a 12-3, bipartisan vote — a rarity for a housing measure — but died without a vote in the Senate Finance Committee.

New efforts

VanValkenburg will also carry a bill that would bar localities from adopting and enforcing local zoning ordinances that discriminate against manufactured housing that otherwise meets state and local laws. This is a new effort, as is another bill the coalition would like to see, which would remove the mandates on parking spaces that many city and county zoning codes dictate. These can derail multi-family projects or make housebuilding in already densely populated neighborhoods more challenging.

In 2023, Richmond eliminated its longstanding requirement that developers provide a set number of off-street parking spaces for new projects.

Del. Josh Thomas, D- Prince William, said he’s looking at measures that “may be less sexy, but more in the weeds, small changes that also are not expensive.”

“There is a pretty easy appeal process to the appellate court, and that’s fine, and that’s great,” he said. “People should be able to appeal if they disagree. In the context of housing, though, it is really slowing down a lot of developments, and it has not been that way for all of Virginia’s history, until about five or six years ago,” he said.

He said he’d like to return to the older process for appeals that involve housing, arguing it would keep appeals from stalling projects until developers give up.

Counties’ and cities’ views

The local government associations that have been the most vocal opponents of the 2025 bills say they’ll be reviewing the 2026 measures, some of which legislators plan to revise.

“Addressing housing supply is one of our key legislative priorities for the upcoming 2026 legislative session,” said Joe Lerch, VACO’s director of local government policy. He said “VACO supports increasing federal and state funding and appropriate incentives to assist localities to create and sustain more affordable housing.”

In the 2025 session, “we opposed supplanting the ability of our members to craft land-use and zoning regulations that are particular to their unique characteristics,” he said.

“Not only does a one-size-fits-all solution not apply to all counties, but it is also true that it does not apply to all areas within a jurisdiction, where limitations in public infrastructure and geography must be wisely incorporated in land-use planning and zoning. It’s important to note that local planning commissioners and boards of supervisors meet throughout the year making these decisions and are constantly adjusting laws and regulations to meet these challenges,” he said.

He said counties hope for legislation that could tackle the costs that discourage new construction and redevelopment, including funding for public infrastructure to buy down the capital costs for water, sewer and roads.

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The Virginia Municipal League, which speaks for cities, argues that localities must maintain control of local land-use decisions.

“Neither the state nor the federal government should usurp or pre-empt a locality’s authority to make such decisions; nor should they impose requirements that weaken planning and land-use functions,” VML says in its 2026 legislative program.

“This includes all types of housing, including but not limited to, short-term rentals.”

In particular, it says localities should retain local land-use control when regulating accessory dwelling units.

https://www.dailypress.com/2025/11/23/affordable-housing-to-be-a-key-issue-in-general-assembly/