Committee will continue the work of an ad hoc committee formed this spring.
by Adele Uphaus
MANAGING EDITOR AND CORRESPONDENT
The Stafford County Board of Supervisors now has a standing committee dedicated to workforce and affordable housing.
At the Nov. 14 regular meeting, supervisors approved two motions related to the new committee – one making Chair Pamela Yeung’s request to establish the committee “time sensitive” and another formally creating the committee.
The standing committee will carry on the work of an ad hoc workforce and affordable housing committee that the board created in February.
Yeung and supervisors Monica Gary and Tinesha Allen were members of the ad hoc committee, which held nine public meetings between March and November of this year.
Both the motion to create the new committee and make approval time sensitive were approved by a vote of four-to-two. Rock Hill District representative Crystal Vanuch was absent from the Nov. 14 meeting, and supervisors Meg Bohmke and Darrell English voted against approval.
Bohmke and English said they didn’t feel sufficiently educated about the work of the ad hoc committee to be able to support making it a permanent standing committee.
“I don’t know where this is going. I would have liked a say,” said English, who represents the Hartwood District.
Bohmke, who represents the Falmouth District, said she has seen “no report on what has taken place” at the ad hoc committee meetings.
A report summarizing the presentations that were given to the ad hoc committee by Virginia Housing, the Fredericksburg Area Association of Realtors, the George Washington Regional Commission and the Rappahannock United Way, as well seven objectives and a short- and long-term action plan, was included in the Consent Agenda for the Nov. 14 meeting.
The ad hoc committee’s objectives included researching and defining terms important to housing affordability; researching authorized methods to address housing affordability; reviewing existing workforce and affordable housing efforts in the county; developing a workforce and affordable housing inventory organized by election district; exploring regional housing initiatives; and evaluating the most effective path forward for establishing future programs.
Virginia Code defines “affordable housing” as “housing that is affordable to households with incomes at or below the area median income, provided that the occupant pays no more than thirty percent of his/her gross income for gross housing costs, including utilities.”
The federal Department of Housing and Urban Development, the George Washington Regional Commission and Stafford County’s own comprehensive plan also use the 30% benchmark to define whether or not housing is affordable.
County Administrator Randall Vosburg told the supervisors that the term “workforce housing” isn’t as well-defined, but that it refers to housing for “maybe that population that might be in the middle, that doesn’t qualify for programs that are affordable” but that also struggles to afford the cost of housing.
According to the ad hoc committee’s report, which drew on data from the U.S. Census Bureau, Stafford is the sixth highest-income county in the nation. The median income is $119,818 and in 2021, the minimum annual income required to live in the county without being cost-burdened was $65,880.
About 25,500 people work in Stafford but live in other counties, according to the report.
“There is opportunity to explore if and how lack of housing contributes to the 25,509 commuting to Stafford County,” the report states.
According to the 2022 American Community Survey, 20% of the county’s workforce is employed in education, healthcare and social services and 18.8% in public administration. Ten percent is employed in retail.
“Retail and education are traditionally lower-paying sectors and workers employed in these sectors that live outside of Stafford could potentially benefit from workforce housing,” the ad hoc committee’s report states.
The report outlines both a short- and long-term action plan for addressing affordable housing needs.
Short-term action items, to be completed in three-to-six months, include beginning a strategic awareness campaign and compiling housing resources for citizens on the county’s website; identifying programs and strategies that will work best for the county; and appointing a board member to serve on the regional commission’s Housing Assembly.
Long-term action items identified by the ad hoc committee, to be completed in one-to-two years, include working to incentivize the development of affordable housing; surveying the housing needs of certain populations, such as teachers, law enforcement, nurses and military personnel; and establishing data-sharing procedures among service providers and community organizations to “create a dataset of housing quality and to make targeted code enforcement outreach to improve conditions.”
Yeung said it is important that a standing committee be ready to continue the work of the ad hoc committee as soon as the new board is seated in January.
“I do not want a break in this service,” she said. “We’re on a roll. I think this work is necessary and I would like to continue the work.”
Allen said Marine Corps Base Quantico is committed to improving housing options for its workforce and that it’s important for Stafford County to be part of the solution.
“The base has indicated that they’re struggling for housing, not just for their Marines and families but also for the civilian population,” she said.
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