Hampton Roads Does Not Need Just One Kind of Housing

Every new housing proposal seems to restart the same debate.

Do we need more apartments? More affordable housing? More single-family homes?

I think we are asking the wrong question.

Hampton Roads does not have a housing need in just one direction.

We need quality rental housing. We need attainable starter homes. We need options for people ready to move up. We need homes that allow older residents to age in place. And we need opportunities for people who want to make the transition from renting to owning.

Not every renter wants to become a homeowner, and homeownership is not the right choice for everyone.

But people who do want to own need somewhere to go.

That matters in a region where housing needs can look completely different from one city to the next. The Hampton Roads Planning District Commission works across the region on housing and community-development issues, while statewide housing data from Virginia Housing helps show the affordability pressures affecting both renters and buyers.

There Is Another Side to This

More rental housing is necessary.

Hampton Roads has military families, college students, young professionals, retirees, people relocating for work and residents who simply prefer the flexibility of renting.

Apartments are not the problem.

A lack of choices is.

When redevelopment happens, the conversation should not automatically become rental versus homeownership, affordable versus market rate, or apartments versus single-family homes.

A healthy housing market needs room for all of them.

That is especially important when we think beyond today’s housing demand and consider what happens next.

Where does the renter go when they are ready to buy?

Where does the first-time homeowner go when their family outgrows their starter home?

Where does the longtime homeowner go when they want to downsize without leaving their community?

Housing is not one stage of life.

Neither should our housing supply be.

So when the next development is proposed somewhere in Hampton Roads, maybe the first question should not be:

What are they building?

Maybe it should be:

Who does this give another option to?

Because the strongest communities do not create only one path to living there.

They create choices.

For more conversations about housing, development and life across the region, explore Brit Sells The City.