Lots of cities, towns, and counties have affordable-housing programs — anything from help paying for fuel to assistance with buying a first home, to everything in between.
Who has what? What’s available in your area? What kinds of programs have these places tried?
Housing Virginia now has everything in one place. Check it out: It’s call PlayBook, and it has information on every affordable-housing program in the state, sortable by location and program type; the organization calls it "a comprehensive inventory of affordable housing policies and programs within Virginia."
So what’s the idea?
If there’s a particular kind of program you’re interested in — say, a housing trust fund — you can see which areas offer something. (Hint: Alexandria, Fairfax, Prince William.) Then you can get details to see how they do it and who to contact for more info.
If there’s a particular area you’re interested in, you can see a list of everything offered there. (For example, Bedford County has housing goals and land use programs, as well as a manufactured housing overly district and tax relief for the elderly and disabled.)
If you or someone you know or love is interested in housing policy in the commonwealth, this is an incredible resource — not only can you see what is where, you can get the details and the contact information to find out as much as you need.
