It was a full house at the June 17th Virginia Housing Board Meeting in Richmond, where VAHCDO Board Members Keith Viers, Michael Wong, Alisa Winston, Nehemias Velez, Nancy Tarkenton, and Nellie Sanchez (virtual), and Lobbyist Luke Priddy were joined by other industry stakeholders to address the board regarding the PBV overhang issue.

In response to the President's "Big Beautiful Bill" which brought into question the stability of future HUD program funding, Virginia Housing opted for a fiscally conservative approach by pausing underwriting of affordable multi-family projects using project-based vouchers in June 2025, in other words, no longer recognizing rental revenue committed by housing authorities under secure, and long-term HAP contracts.

Subsequent program funding was actually higher than expected and the precautionary pause did not take into consideration the prioritization of voucher programming.  

The continued pause has threatened the completion of over 500 units across the Commonwealth (Bristol, Portsmouth, Harrisonburg, and Norfolk) and risks other, pending funding without the ability to close the gap. There is also a reduced willingness of developers to include PBV's in affordable housing projects, resulting in fewer LIHTC projects for low- and extremely-low income households.  

VAHCDO is asking Virginia Housing to reconsider the pause and resume recognition of all projected rental revenue in projects.  Barring that, we encourage Virginia Housing to work with VAHCDO and other stakeholders to discuss options and avenues of compromise.