The City of Staunton began the planning process in September 2024 to create its first housing strategy, and city council received an update on the strategy at its regular July meeting.
A housing strategy describes activities a community will take to meet housing objectives, coordinates individual strategies through an action plan and determines possible funding sources and other resources.
“And as we’ve talked about it with you many times, the housing strategy is really the plan to begin out work on housing. So this is our plan to start, not a plan to completion,” said Rebecca Joyce, Staunton’s Housing Planner and Grants Coordinator. Housing is a constant challenge for a city, not a problem with a solution or end.
Joyce provided city council with an update on the city’s Pathway to Affordable Housing and Housing for Working Families. After two virtual and two in-person engagement meetings with the community and an online survey, which is still open for comment, the city will take input from the community and formulate a strategy.
According to Joyce, the city’s goals are to produce housing, preserve current housing and provide housing stability for residents already in homes.
“As far as a housing strategy goes, there’s no requirement to complete a housing strategy. It’s not like a comprehensive plan where you have to have one of those done and adopted every five years. We are doing this because we want to have a focused way to deal with some of the housing challenges that we face, to be able to work well with our housing partners in the city and to be able to provide more housing in the city of Staunton,” Joyce said.
The city began its implementation phase of the strategy in July and the phase will endure for 18 months through December 2026.
The city’s strategy includes using CDBG Entitlement Funds, establishing a Housing Fund, advocating for more Community Land Trust/Deed-restricted home ownership, explore options for creating Accessory Dwelling Units, prepare redevelopment strategies for underused properties and landlord education, recruitment and retention.
Other options are to explore the potential for a local or regional Land Bank, facilitate services in the city for unhoused persons, explore the potential for HUD-certified Housing Counseling services, promote legal services for renters that would reduce evictions and provide Community Housing Advocate training.
To move forward with the implementation phase, the city must form a Housing Commission, conduct a Housing Conditions Windshield Survey and Assessment and create a Housing and Housing Stability Services Grant Resource Guide, which Joyce can hand out to individuals.
“So that will just provide us a one-stop for us to give people information right away,” she said.
The city’s plan contains 11 strategies, the latest being a strategy to aid unhoused persons.
“This is a very lean, economical housing strategy,” Joyce said.
She said the city will work with local and area housing groups and ensure not to duplicate efforts.
Joyce provided city council with an online resource for information, which includes updates and presentations of the strategy.
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Rebecca Barnabi
