♪ ANGIE MILES: Whether from news reports or personal experience, most Virginians are familiar with the affordable housing crisis that's plagued the country for years.

A number of people on a number of fronts are pressing for innovations to solve the problems.

We'll explore some of these potential solutions, next in a special edition of VPM News Focal Point.

Production funding for VPM News Focal Point is provided by ♪ ♪ ANGIE MILES: You're watching a special edition of VPM News Focal Point.

I'm Angie Miles.

As the need for more affordable housing has reached new levels, providers of public housing have encountered new pressures, aging and outdated housing stock, coupled with new demands and desires from those seeking shelter, have often coincided with diminishing public funding.

What's arisen includes new public private partnerships and effectively a reimagining and a rebranding of public housing.

I checked in with housing development leaders across the state, and here is a survey of some of the ways they're attempting new solutions.

TOM FLEETWOOD: It's important to understand that affordable housing today is very different than it used to be.

ANGIE MILES: There's a new vision for public housing in America.

TOM FLEETWOOD: Formerly public housing authorities would build large complexes that tended to serve only families with extremely low incomes.

In the modern era of affordable housing, we firmly believe that mixed income, mixed use housing in communities of opportunity is the way to go, and the way to help our families be successful, and to contribute to our economy.

ANGIE MILES: Mixed use meaning (car engine humming) there is more than just housing in a redeveloped community, but also there are services like grocery stores, health clinics, childcare, et cetera.

STEVEN NESMITH:We're going to be looking at not just residential development, we're going to be looking at whether or not we can have a job incubator in there, job training for our youth, whether or not you want a Boys and Girls Club, do you need a food center there, so we can have food.

JOHN SALES: Sixth Street I think is a really good example.

We have a partnership with UVA to have a clinic in that facility.

We're also talking to another organization about setting up a food bank or a food hall where folks can come and get fresh produce from that little market.

We're looking at bringing in the service providers to the site and having dedicated spaces as we do the redevelopment at other sites.

ANGIE MILES: And mixed income, meaning people with varying levels of income are living in the same community, some perhaps through the use of government subsidies, like vouchers to cover a portion of the rent or mortgage.

STEVE MORALES: And that's one of the biggest issues that we face is just having basic services, drug stores, grocery stores, services for the families.

Its because there's not the income essentially in order to support all of, you know, that amount of commercial space.

ANGIE MILES: And so that's a benefit then of mixed income?

STEVE MORALES: Huge benefit of mixed income, not just supporting commercial space, but instead of everyone in poverty, it's more of a mix, more opportunities, and just that interaction between families I think it just broadens, really broadens the thought process overall.

TOM FLEETWOOD: There are examples all over Fairfax County communities of opportunity in mixed income, mixed-tenure type intergenerational housing that we are extraordinarily proud of.

The Residences at North Hill, it was a 33-acre property on the historic Route 1 corridor owned by the Redevelopment and Housing Authority, and we redeveloped it through a public-private partnership to deliver 279 affordable rental units, including 63 affordable senior units, 175 for sale market rate, town homes, and a 12-acre Fairfax County Park.

That's the wave of the future.

That is how we deliver affordable housing here in Fairfax County.

SUNSHINE MATHON: I have myself heard people directly say, "If you're born poor in Charlottesville, you die poor in Charlottesville."

So if all we are doing is building housing affordability, while that is in and of itself a good thing to do, but if that's all we're doing, we're potentially just creating the condition where people are poor better.

We need to be investing in those economic opportunities for pathways to upward mobility, services to help people get a leg up.

ANGIE MILES: And this is the model for affordable housing, including what used to be known as public housing all over the state and all over the country.

The lack of federal funding at its lowest point in nearly a quarter century is forcing new approaches, including a move to more public-private partnerships.

SUNSHINE MATHON: And that historic underfunding has created a situation where the only solution for public housing authorities to really to redevelop or grow is in partnership with private organizations, and to use the capital that is available in the private market to redevelop public housing properties.

ANGIE MILES: Private partners such as Piedmont Housing Alliance say, That as federal funding shortfalls alter the footprint of public housing, they are among the private entities who are fully committed to keeping housing affordable and livable for the many who need reliable safety nets, for the long term.

SUNSHINE MATHON: Private nonprofits have been a crucial part of building affordable housing stock for the last 30 or 40 years, and work sometimes hand in hand with local public housing authorities, sometimes separately.

In our case we try to do a balance there.

We're working on the redevelopment of Kindlewood, formerly known as Friendship Court.

We're just wrapping up phase one, and about to start phase two, and planning for phase three.

We are working on a project in Southwood, which is a region just outside the city in Albemarle County, building 121 apartments down there in a collaboration with our local Habitat chapter.

We are working on planning a number of projects in the city as well, in various stages of planning, including a project in the Fifeville neighborhood, at 501 Cherry, which is a location of a former, now defunct grocery store where we're going to try to bring back that grocery store, but also add affordable housing.

We're working with a church in North Downtown trying to build on their vacant lots that they have on site, trying to address a whole range of issues.

ANGIE MILES: Not everyone is convinced that these partnerships and visions for redevelopment will truly serve those who live far below the poverty line, and who've relied on public housing.

Community organizer and housing advocate, Omari Al-Qaddafi points to the thousands of residents in Richmond alone, displaced through the demolition of aging public housing units, presumably through temporary planned relocation.

But for him, the math that works for mixed income success doesn't add up for protecting the vulnerable.

OMARI AL-QADDAFI: With the Creighton Court development, you know, the Housing Authority signed that agreement with the City that restricts the amount of extremely low income people to no more than 25% of the new redevelopment.

You know, when the entire Creighton Court, all 502 units had an average income of like 12,000 a year.

You know, so people with those types of incomes, you'd basically be limited to like about 180 of the units that are going to be in the new development.

TOM FLEETWOOD: Displacement is always a concern.

I can say that in our own developments at the top of our priority is ensuring that our existing residents are able to return to their homes post redevelopment.

In the case of one university, we had 46 units of former public housing on that site, and it was a requirement as part of the redevelopment that those 46 families had a right to return.

So we put a real premium on that for redevelopment on our own property, STEVE MORALES: We had a community called Tidewater Gardens.

It was 618 units.

And so using a combination of funding, we relocated the residents, we tracked the residents.

The City actually brought another contractor group that does the case management services, mobility services, and continues to work through residents, through what we still consider temporary relocation.

We then demolished the units, and now we are rebuilding.

The total number of affordable units and replacement units is less, but more importantly, all the units that would be built in a project would be open to our families that are using a housing choice voucher.

We want them to come back, so, you know, provide the services, provide the mobility counseling, the funds to move.

We even have lease breakages fees.

So if somebody's living somewhere else, but they want the opportunity to come back, and it's made available, we will pay that breakage fee.

Our intention is not to displace.

Our intention is to just transform the community, and make it a place, instead of a place where you have to live, make it a place where you want to live.

ANGIE MILES: Housing authorities are tasked with maintaining the old, while working to find new partners and new approaches to deliver affordable living that is workable and worth the wait.

ANGIE MILES: Imagining something beyond public housing is the challenge faced by a number of people who've never known anything different than public housing.

Focal Point producer Roberta Oster introduces us to a Richmond woman who explains how she managed to acquire a new home that is beyond what she could have dreamed.

TAMIKA DANIEL: I thought I was going to be stuck in public housing for a very long time.

Due to my credit, it was hard for me to find housing outside of public housing.

All of the rent that I was seeing was fifteen to $1,600 for a decent three bedrooms.

There was no way I could afford that comfortably on my own and still support me and four children.

I was living in Fairfield Court housing project.

I was there for approximately six years.

My rent was high for an unsafe environment.

I didn't like to be outside.

I didn't like my children to be outside.

There was crime happening on a regular basis.

I had my children early.

I had my first son when I was 18 years old.

I dropped out of high school 'cause I got pregnant at 17.

I suffered through some domestic violence.

That definitely took a hit to my self-esteem.

And due to me not having a job and my credit being bad, the only thing I could afford at that time was public housing.

So I filled out the application for Urban Hope, and I started going through the credit counseling and the financial advisory classes.

LAWSON WIJESOORIYA: Urban Hope is a faith-based housing nonprofit in the East End of Richmond, and we have been on a mission to make a home a cornerstone of opportunity by keeping it affordable.

Tamika came to us initially to seek rental housing.

She was looking to leave the public housing community in which she was living.

So she began renting with Urban Hope at an affordable rate.

Less than 30% of her income is spent on her housing, and then she joined in our financial counseling program.

So she meets with a caseworker and housing counselor.

We really see our primary goal as partnering with families to move out of poverty.

So we're coming up on Fairfield Court, which is one of five public housing communities all in the East End, And these were all placed in the East End, kind of cut off by some highway arteries.

Fairfield Court, where Tamika used to live, is now only about two blocks from where she is now, but she feels a lot safer.

TAMIKA DANIEL: Right before I moved in September, I received a letter from public housing saying that my rent was going up to $1,231, and when I got here, my rent was $750, and this is a new residence.

This was new.

It was never occupied before me and my children.

So I'm extremely blessed.

When I signed my lease on September 1st of 2021, it was one of the best feelings of my life, and I got my keys to this amazing house.

This is my home, and I love it.

It's peaceful.

I always say if you can't find peace anywhere on Earth, it should be your home, and I'm thankful to finally be able to find peace when I walk through my doors.

So being able to connect with an organization like Urban Hope, who not only focuses on the affordable housing, they helped me come up with spending plans.

They helped me come up with debt resolution plans.

It's like everything has gotten better, not just my housing with Urban Hope.

It's been like a all-around effect on my mental health, my physical health, my spiritual health.

Like, everything is better now.

LAWSON WIJESOORIYA: Tamika is an incredible Urban Hope tenant.

She is a strong mom who has chosen a pathway to more thriving for her family, and I think she represents a lot of what it means to reinvest in the community in which you've come from.

This is one of Urban Hope's newest construction projects.

This was a renovation actually of a very dilapidated abandoned building that was pretty much falling down.

Project:HOMES is developing the property.

This project is still being constructed, and we believe that it will be finished and ready to be rented in about two months.

Urban Hope owns 35 units of rental housing.

Our current average rent is, I believe, $785 depending on the family's income, the size of the unit.

We have everything from single family units that are one bedroom, two bedroom, three bedroom, and four bedroom.

Our primary model of how we are creating affordability is actually through a social impact lending model.

Urban Hope is able to rent affordably because of ways that we acquire and develop the home more cheaply, both with philanthropy opportunities, as well as a lending model that reduces our financing cost.

Urban Hope really seeks to be a part of the fabric of the East End community.

When you drive around our neighborhood, you see tons of new construction, a lot of bakeries and restaurants, and some coworking spaces.

What we talk about at Urban Hope is a racial equity lens.

So we do believe that our work should be and is pointed towards a goal of creating more racial equity.

The housing actual history of the United States is one of the most influential perpetrators of systemic racism.

The greatest asset in the American economy for growing and transferring wealth is your home, and we have systematically... we have systematically created inequity based on race in the ability to gain wealth.

So Urban Hope does see part of its work as repairing some of those injustices.

TAMIKA DANIEL: The biggest thing for me was they helped me to understand and start the journey of my self-discovery, and what I wanted to do in life.

Because it's easy to just give gift cards or food here and there, but they actually invested in me as a person, so that I could become self-sustainable, so now that I'm in a place where I can actually provide for me and my children, they actually put me in a place to, where I actually obtain employment.

When I'm walking around here, it's still surreal sometimes.

There have been plenty of times where me and my children, when we're walking into the house, we may stop right before we walk down the path and just look at each other and be like, "Can you believe we live here?"

So that still happens to us a lot.

And because of the space that I'm in now, this will be my third year hosting Christmas dinner at my house 'cause my family loves my space now.

So it's amazing like looking from the outside.

It's a great feeling.

It's a great feeling, especially coming from public housing to something like this.

ANGIE MILES: For those who are remaining tenants in what has traditionally been public housing, there are some who are finding their input and advice are in greater demand.

Such is the case in Charlottesville, where rock stars and residents have collaborated for some results that are completely brand new.

ANGIE MILES: Behind certain Charlottesville buildings, you'll find a band of builders you might not expect.

Among the designers and funders of these public housing developments are residents and rock stars.

♪ ANN KINGSTON: One of the many things I love about Dave Matthews Band and all of its members is they just have really always loved Charlottesville, and this is where they got their start.

And they have remained true to that.

And I think they just love Charlottesville and want to make Charlottesville a better place and a more inclusive place.

The band has a long history of giving back and raising funds from their shows, and had developed a relationship with some of the residents of public housing, and following the tragic events of August 2017, the band decided they wanted to do more in town, and we partnered with some of the residents of public housing in an effort to redevelop all of public housing.

We realized that public housing was in a deteriorating state, so the band decided to put in $5 million up front as a catalyzing gift.

The first thing we did was to tackle this building, Crescent Halls, which is behind us.

It's 105 units, houses a lot of low income seniors and people facing other challenges.

Meanwhile, we started building brand new units on the backside of South First Street.

So those are completed and we're getting ready to break ground on the second phase of South First Street.

And we're also getting ready to break ground on sixth Street.

And eventually we'll make our way to West Haven.

So all of Charlottesville's public housing.

JOHN SALES: A couple of years ago, we started investing in the preservation of housing, of affordable housing.

ANGIE MILES: The head of Charlottesville's Redevelopment and Housing Authority, John Sales, is overseeing major improvements or replacement projects for all of what has been public housing for the city.

Increasingly, private partnerships have come into play as public funding shrinks and the need for affordable housing is more pressing.

Sales says philanthropy allows the housing authority to solve big problems and unexpected crises as well.

JOHN SALES: So this building, when we first started the project, within six to eight months, we had a huge flood without having the private donors that that came to the table.

I don't know how we would have moved all the residents out and put them in hotels for months.

I don't know how we would have fed them.

I don't know how we would have got them into new housing for the year and a half it took to complete the project.

I don't know how we would have eaten the $2 million change order for the water pipes to be replaced, and so having the private donors that have come to the table, I mean, this project probably wouldn't have happened without it.

This building is testament to the power of resident directed design, something that was far from the minds of the first public housing planners nearly a century ago.

But it is becoming more the standard for housing receiving public funds.

JOY JOHNSON: The residents are the ones who actually knows and feel and can tell you whats going on.

They have stakeholders because they have a lease with the Housing Authority, and the Housing Authority has a signed lease with them, and so they're stakeholders.

And so why wouldn't you have a stakeholder at the table?

They basically designed this patio here, the parking lot, the breezeway.

And it's beautiful on the inside.

Their kitchen, you know, it was what the residents wanted and asked for.

Was it an easy task?

No, but they stuck- we stuck through it.

ANGIE MILES: The process was similar at South First Street, where old row style units are being replaced with multi-story apartments.

Phase one was finished in 2023.

JOY JOHNSON: Groundwork started without the residents.

Where South First Street is now it was open and it was a ball field.

There wasn't anything there.

And so when they decided that that's where they were going to build first and the residents found out about it, they decided that, oh, okay, we want to get involved.

And they got involved and all of the design inside was done with residents.

ANGIE MILES: One of those residents is Audrey Oliver.

She and Joy Johnson both serve on PHAR, the Public Housing Association of Residents.

AUDREY OLIVER: The old units were like row units, and I lived in a unit that was like to have somebody living overtop of you and underneath of you.

And then we had a nice sized fenced in back yard, and the front yard was just plenty of room there.

All in all, I miss a lot, but I also enjoy a lot of what I do have because, you know, we didn't have the patio like we have in the new units.

ANGIE MILES: Both women say the experience of being included in the planning process for redevelopment was pivotal for those who live in these communities.

AUDREY OLIVER: I think that people have alwayslooked at public housing residents as slow people not really able to catch it, and they realize how intelligent that public housing residents were.

So it was really a challenge for them.

But it was also a challenge for us to be able to deal with a lot of them because they didn't know how to deal with us.

JOY JOHNSON: They learned about ceilings, learned about roof, they learned about windows.

They learned about critical slopes.

So they got a crash course in those kind of things.

AUDREY OLIVER: I think I just witnessed our residents being empowered.

They were just so empowered.

They were they were so proud of themselves.

They were just so excited about learning the process.

And being able to go into the public and and do public speaking and being able to look at the blueprints and just be able to pick out some of the designs that they liked, what they didn't like, and what, you know, what they saw.

I mean, they were just excited about being able to just get out there and do something different.

JOHN SALES: I think it's good for the city to see that, hey, there are other folks that want to see public housing still exist in 20 years, and they want to see new public housing units that are safe for the residents to live in with amenities.

And so I do think its great for everybody.

ANN KINGSTON: We really feel that this is a blueprint that can and will and hopefully will be replicated in other communities.

It feels very doable to us, and we've been amazed by the generosity of the other donors who've stepped up.

But I feel like other communities could follow this lead and hopefully do the same.

ANGIE MILES: Partnerships and friendships grew out of the renovation process, and these builders of new homescapes say they didn't get all they wanted, but they are eager to keep going, pooling ideas and resources to build better communities.

ANGIE MILES: In many ways revamping public housing, or the experiences of public housing residents, means forging new kinds of relationships.

That can mean that people with different income levels become neighbors.

It can mean individuals who've had public assistance find subsidies or allies to help them afford new and improved housing.

In some instances, land trusts come into play whereby home buyers simply lease the land on which their new property is built.

Keeping that property affordable for generations.

Our land trust story is available online.

That's it for this special edition.

Thank you for watching VPM News Focal Point.

Production funding for VPM News Focal Point is provided by ♪ ♪ ♪