The City of Waynesboro, an independent city in Virginia that is home to 22,000 residents, is facing the perfect storm of housing instability: high demand and low inventory.
With high demand for housing, rising rents and eviction notices are leaving a growing number of residents scrambling, some on the verge of homelessness.
With low inventory, residential development in Waynesboro is booming with more than 1,600 units in different phases of planning and construction.
Some residents are questioning: Is it too much, too fast, and will it actually help those desperate for affordable housing?
Beautiful views of the mountains enjoyed by longtime residents are being blocked by mounds of dirt; the sounds of birds chirping are being replaced by the sounds of roaring construction equipment and rock blasting.
For years, long-term residents of Waynesboro, who chose their home for both affordability and the serene attributes of a quaint small city, have faced growing commercial development, particularly in the city’s West End.
The same residents are now facing a wave of new residential construction, which, in theory, should provide more choices and affordable housing options to its citizens.
However, working-class residents are convinced they are being left behind as the city moves forward. With apartment complexes and landlords seeking to capitalize on market rates, low-income families in Waynesboro say they feel forgotten.
And those who set out to enjoy retirement in their quiet neighborhood are now faced instead with noise and new construction, both impacts of increased demand but not necessarily solutions to the housing crisis.
Video: Waynesboro housing shortage
Working people on the verge of giving up
At Brandon Ladd Apartments in Waynesboro, where most people living there are on “very tight budgets” or government assistance, approximately 30 residents were allegedly served eviction notices or are entering the court process for eviction, according to one former tenant who said he was recently given five days to move out.
The resident was able to move with his child to a family member’s house, at least for now, but he said he worries about other people in the complex who don’t have that option. (AFP reached out to Neighborhood Properties and Brandon Ladd Apartments for comment on the resident’s claims, but we did not hear back from either to confirm or deny the number of evictions.)
On B Street, a woman reported to AFP that she is also being evicted because new owners want to raise her rent from $655 per month to $1,500. She said she has lived in the small house for nine years and is a single mother with two kids. She told the owner that she couldn’t afford the increase and was told to move out by Sept. 30. For now, she’s packing up and preparing to move in with a friend.
She told AFP that she has been looking for a new place for her family but said rent for a two-bedroom house or apartment is as high as $2900 per month.
“People are so money hungry,” she told AFP. “It’s insane seeing $1500, $1875, for a two bedroom. Being a single parent, you can’t make these rent prices unless you work two full-time jobs.”
“Jobs aren’t increasing their wages, but rent is rising fast,” she said.
Soon, she predicts, 75 percent of people in Waynesboro will be homeless.
Additional housing options under way could cause rental rates to level out as inventory increases and demand decreases, but for the time being, low-income individuals don’t think the new options will be something they can afford. Home ownership is even further from many renters reach with starter homes generally running $225,000 or more in the region.
“All these new apartments being built, houses, but no one can keep up the payments each month,” the B Street resident said. “I really feel like that’s why a lot of these working people just give up. You will never be able to pay your rent even if you hand over your whole check.”
The perfect storm: Low inventory, high demand
Waynesboro City Council member Terry Short, who is running for re-election in November, told AFP that he thinks about the “gravity and weight” that families like those in this story face after being evicted for non-payment or lack of affordability as landlords increase monthly rent charges.
“The demand is so high, and the inventory is so low, that folks feel entitled and enabled to make these decisions, and it’s awful,” Short said. “It affects the lives of really good people.”
“What we’re realizing now is the perfect storm of low inventory, high demand and an environment where we have one of the lowest tax cities in the Commonwealth of Virginia,” he said. “So when you have this perfect storm, it creates an environment where there’s a lot of demand and interest, and I think that’s what we’re seeing right now.
“My heart absolutely goes out to them (the displaced residents). Those are the folks that I think all of my colleagues think about when we look for opportunities, try to identify opportunities to lean in, participate, and where we can, advocate. It definitely weighs on you as somebody who is not just caring about our community but caring about people. I wish there was an easier solution.”
Out with the old, in with the new
Known for years as a bedroom community to Charlottesville and Albemarle County, Waynesboro has traditionally offered more economical housing options and space to families who cannot afford the high prices of rent and home ownership offered in neighboring areas.
With low inventory in the region, new job creation is creating even more of a crunch on rental and ownership opportunities.
A new Waynesboro facility of Northrop Grumman, now under construction, will create more than 300 new jobs over the next five years. Northrop Grumman is building a $200 million manufacturing facility on a parcel behind the Waynesboro Town Center on Shenandoah Village Drive. The facility is expected to open in mid-2025.
The jobs are expected to pay above average for a working-class city where the median household income is just 58.6 of the state average, according to U.S. Census Bureau data.
Planned unit development in the works
In August, Waynesboro City Council approved the rezoning of 147 acres of property at Hopeman Parkway and Duke Road. The planned-unit development, or PUD, by Stockbridge OPCO, is expected to offer a number of different housing options: single-family detached homes, attached homes, duplexes, townhouses, manufactured homes and/or cottage housing.
Approval of the rezoning, according to Short, was better than the alternative.
The property was already zoned for single-family detached homes, and Short said he felt that if development was inevitable, at least the rezoning might lead the developer to build a mix of units with the potential for more affordable options.
“These aren’t easy decisions. They really are complicated. They’re nuanced, and it does require some time and attention and balancing as to multiple scenarios of unknowns,” Short said at the meeting where councilors voted to approve the rezoning. “Here’s what we do know … what we do know is that there is an inadequate portfolio of housing stock in the City of Waynesboro.”
Beyond the PUD: Other residential development in Waynesboro
In addition to the planned-unit development, Waynesboro is seeing more and more residential construction under way to meet the demand.
A long-term resident of Waynesboro, Marsha Berg, is furious watching the Kira Heights development literally happening in her Belvue Road home’s back yard. Her property, where she once enjoyed birds and deer, is now looking out instead to mounds of dirt and the sounds of constant construction starting at 7 a.m. each day.
“The frustration of seeing yet another subdivision of 58 houses crammed onto 18 acres makes me angry and sad,” she said, blaming both the greed of developers and the city.
She now cringes as she watches wildlife scrambling to find their way to the bare land that has been leveled.
She wonders if the city is adequately prepared for the additional infrastructure that new residential construction brings with it and the increased workloads for already understaffed city workers and school system staff.
“Our quiet neighborhood is now dealing with the noise and dirt particles all over the surrounding homes … It’s depressing.”
While the growing number of residential units in the works should increase the housing stock in the city, it won’t necessarily address the portfolio and the city’s biggest need: affordability.
Residential units in the works
B Street
Possible location of 53 units
No site plan submitted but approved for low-income tax credits
Creekwood Village
Located behind Martins
Approved for 220 units with a mix of single-family detached, attached and townhomes.
Kira Heights
Located behind Sumter and Belvue roads
Approved for 58 single-family detached homes
Rosser Avenue subdivision
Located next to Choice Healthcare
Approved for 80 townhouse units
Creekwood at Bookerdale
Located on Bookerdale Road behind the new Secure Store
Approved for 29 single-family detached units
Summit Townes
Located on Hopeman Parkway across from Food Lion
Approved for 163 townhouse units
Alston Court
Located adjacent to the Brandon Ladd apartments
In review for 96 apartments; received low-income tax credits
Town Center Drive
Located on former P. Buckley Moss Museum property
Approved for 252 apartments
Ivy Commons
Located on Ivy Street across from Ana Marie
Approved for 215 single-family detached units
Hannah’s Ridge
Located on Ivy Street north of Ivy Commons
Approved for 109 single-family detached units
Low-income housing tax credits
Governments role in what they can accomplish is somewhat limited in Virginia in part because it is a Dillon Rule state, giving local governments limited authority, Short said. Waynesboro City Council, therefore, can only pass ordinances in areas where the General Assembly has granted clear authority.
Waynesboro City Council, despite this, has found some ways to make positive steps to support affordable housing.
In March, the City Council approved resolutions designating two areas in the city as revitalization areas for the purpose of low-income housing tax credit applications by Enterprise Community Development and Woda Cooper Companies.
The proposed 1030 Alston Court location would provide 96 units offering a mix of one-, two-, and three-bedroom apartments.
The proposed 1008 B Street location would be 53 units and would offer a mix of one-, two-, and three-bedroom housing options.
“The current housing market is not providing workplace housing that is affordable to those of low- to moderate incomes,” said Waynesboro Director of Community Development Leslie Tate, in a presentation to City Council on Feb. 26. “The developments would make a small dent in the overall workplace housing shortage among those that are low- to moderate income.”
Tate said a regional housing study found that 53 percent of Waynesboro households are low income, and over half of the region’s residents are considered cost-burdened.
Tate acknowledged in her remarks that there is already a considerable amount of residential development ongoing in Waynesboro and confirmed that many of those homes and rental units under development will be at market rate.
With City Council’s stamp of approval for the revitalization zone designations, the applications were ultimately approved for tax credits by Virginia Housing and should lead to some of these units being offered at below market rate in exchange for the tax credits, Short said. However, both projects are still in the review and planning process.
“As good of a step as that is,” Short said, “it doesn’t really move the needle, but it’s better than standing still, right? At least this is one way that the city could contribute to try to drive down and create some opportunity and rural entrance into some affordable housing.
“I don’t want to oversell it, either,” he said, “because it’s not going to change the game.”
The approval should lead to the development of multi-family housing “that is affordable to low-to moderate-income individuals and families,” Tate said in her presentation to City Council.
Long-term solutions to housing
A long-term effort to solve the housing crisis, led by the Community Foundation of the Central Blue Ridge and numerous other organizations, met on Wednesday to kick off two working groups that will seek solutions to the growing problem over the next decade in Staunton, Waynesboro and Augusta County.
One group is focused on actions that can be taken to spur the development of new rental and home-ownership opportunities.
The second group is focused on the systems that need to be in place to ensure the community can respond quickly and efficiently when households are experiencing a housing crisis, as well as having systems in place that foster housing stability.
Eighty participants took part in the housing kickoff event to lay out the framework for the two groups which will meet monthly, according to Dan Layman, president and CEO of the Community Foundation. He said the groups focused yesterday on what they could accomplish in the next three months.
Short is encouraged by the work being done by the Community Foundation and its partners.
“I think that we’re very fortunate and blessed to have a lot of engaged and caring people in our community who are very focused on this topic. I believe when good people stick together and do good things, good things will happen.”
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Crystal Graham
