W.H.A.T.

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W.H.A.T.

• Workforce Action Housing Team
• Planning District 16
• January 2007

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Workforce Housing Action Team

• Who- W.H.A.T.
• What- Strives to develop affordable housing for
  regional workforce
• When- Ongoing
• Where- Regionally
• How- By forging partnerships between local
  government, regional civic organizations
  and regional builders and developers

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Free Lance - Star 1/10/2007
Current Home Price Ranges for Free Lance - Star
distribution area

• 3,610 Homes for SaleAverage Sales Price
  426,236
• 524 Rental PropertiesAverage Rental Price
  1,599

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Median Home Prices- 01/06-09/06

• Virginia
• VAAlexandria 805,000
• VAVienna 754,372
• VALeesburg 598,750
• VAWoodbridge 506,712
• VAVirginiaBeach 355,949
• VARichmond 346,850
• VAWinchester 346,250
• VARoanoke/Blacksburg 275,210
• VALynchburg 262,325

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Live Where you Work

• Our hard working county employees, teachers, and
  young professionals cant afford to live in the
  communities they serve. Planning District 16
  risks losing essential services, economic
  vitality and great neighbors.

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Entry Level/ First Year Pay Scales PD 16
Spotsylvania City of Fred. King George Caroline Orange
Firefighter 35,517 37,369 25,815 33,424
EMT I 35,517 37,369 25,815 33,424
Police Officer 37,293 37,369 32,170 31,832
Teacher 35,000 35,250 34,500 35,978
Pre School Teacher 19,000 15,000 15,000
RN 41,000 43,000 41,000 36,000
LPN 21,000 22,000 19,000
Info not available for survey 12/06 - Stafford County did not return data Info not available for survey 12/06 - Stafford County did not return data Info not available for survey 12/06 - Stafford County did not return data Info not available for survey 12/06 - Stafford County did not return data Info not available for survey 12/06 - Stafford County did not return data Info not available for survey 12/06 - Stafford County did not return data
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Local Employers

• GEICO Internships/ Entry level positions

Claims Service Rep (CSR) 25,000-28,000
Inbound Sales 30,000-35,000

AS OF 1/9/07 HOTJOBS.COM
More than 3,500 people work for GEICO in Stafford
County, in a spacious office building completed
in 1994 and the National Print Mail Facility
completed in 1998.
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Local EmployersIntuitInternships/Entry level
Customer Service 22,000-28,000
Intuit Sales Intern 28,000-30,000


Intuit Inc (software- Quicken, Turbo Tax) 110
Juliad Ct. Fredericksburg, VA, Currently
employs Over 240 employees in their call center
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Various Local Employers/ Free Lance Star 1/14/07
Full Time Entry Level
Employer Position Salary
PW County Grounds Maint. 30,431
Germanna Community Coll. Education Support Specialist 23,000-34,000
Clean Machine Car Wash Asst. Manager 25,000
Stafford County Deputy Court Clerk 23,264
University of Mary Wash. Library Intern Asst. 27,577


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Mortgage Payments
FNMA Freddie Mac have set the qualifying
standards at 28/36 for debt to income
calculations. This means no more than 28 of
your gross monthly income should be going towards
your total mortgage payment. (PITI)

Gross income 28 of monthly 36 of monthly
20,000 467 600
30,000 700 900
40,000 933 1,200
50,000 1,167 1,500
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County Employee ExampleCity of Fredericksburg
Firefighter/EMT/Police Officer

• As an entry level employee of the city, this
  applicants first year income would be
  37,369.00.
• Gross monthly income 3114.08
• 28 of gross monthly income 871.95 for PITI
  (principal, interest, taxes insurance)

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PITI Example

• Based off the previous employee - 30 yr fixed
  rate loan at 6
• PI 731.45
• Taxes 100.00
• Insurance 40.00
• PITI 871.45

This employee would qualify for a maximum
mortgage of 122,000.00.
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Housing Facts

• This employee could not purchase any home within
  PD 16.
• This employee would have trouble finding a home
  to rent within PD 16

Average Home Price- 426,236.00 Median Rental
Price- 1599/month
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Commuting Facts

• Some area workers are now forced to live outside
  our Planning District- forced to commute from
  Tappahannock Westmoreland outlying areas.
• strains our road systems
• response time for emergency personnel
• high employee turnover
• costs to recruit retrain new employees

"We basically recruit teachers from eight to 10
states who we want to retain because of the
investment we place in them as new teachers,"
Sara Branner the spokesperson for Spotsylvania
Schools said. "Teachers who want to make
Spotsylvania their place of long-term employment
really do desire, we found out, to invest in
housing rather than renting."
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Fannie Mae- Workforce Housing

• Who Needs Affordable Housing?
• Let us consider how public policies and
  discussions characterize housing needs. First we
  had "public housing"operated by the government,
  with some infamous and costly failuresa term
  that now carries a lot of negative baggage.
  Currently, the emphasis is on "affordable
  housing," which is supposed to mean privately
  provided housing affordable to the massesbut
  this concept seems to have gotten stuck with the
  subsidized housing tar baby. Inevitably,
  subsidized housing will continue to be needed for
  the lowest-income populationsbut in fact, much
  of the housing constructed today is not
  affordable to most middle-income households.
  Often overlooked are the housing needs of
  productive individuals or families whose
  life-cycle situation or income, or both, limit
  their housing options in the current marketplace.
  The term "workforce housing" is gaining
  popularity in reference to school teachers,
  public safety professionals, medical technicians,
  and the like. It does not, however, include the
  fastest-growing group retired households on
  fixed incomes, who can be labeled collectively as
  "pensioners." Thus, focusing attention on
  "workforce and pensioner" housing needs may be
  the most effective communications approach to get
  the public to say "Yes, in my backyard" to
  affordable housing.

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Workforce Housing Crisis

• When a police officer cannot live in the
  community he protects, when a teacher must travel
  an hour each way to school or when a firefighter
  has to rent and never own a home, theres a
  problem. These are also the signs of a workforce
  housing crisis.
• by Frank Spadea- Franciscus Homes

Virginia passed an Affordable Dwelling Unit law
in the late 1990s giving Local governments the
power to enact workforce housing programs And yet
to date-few counties in Virginia have enacted
this program
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Fairfax County Virginia- Affordable Dwelling
Unit Program

• In 1990, Fairfax County, Virginia, adopted its
  mandatory inclusionary zoning law called the
  Affordable Dwelling Unit (ADU) Ordinance. It
  requires that 12.5 of for-sale units must be
  affordable for families under 70 percent of Area
  Median Income 6.25 of rentals in garden
  apartments must also been affordable. (High-rise
  apartments are exempt from inclusionary
  requirements.)
• Moreover, like Montgomery County, builders must
  sell one-third of the ADUs to the Fairfax County
  Redevelopment and Housing Authority in order for
  benefits to reach families below 50 percent of
  AMI. Both re-sale prices and rents are controlled
  for thirty years. To date, private, for-profit
  homebuilders have delivered over 2,500 ADUs.

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The House Next Door MD/VA Study

• This study reviewed every real estate
  transaction in fourteen counties in MD VA from
  1992 through 1996. Overall, they found that
  there were no significant differences in price
  trends between the non subsidized units and the
  market as a whole- whether measured by zip codes
  or county wide. Further, they found that even
  homes located immediately adjacent to a
  subsidized unit were unaffected.

Study can be found at www.inhousing.org/housenex.h
tm
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WHAT interviewed planning administrators in PD 16

• THERE IS LITTLE RECOGNITION OF AN AFFORDABLE
  HOUSING ISSUE IN THE AREA
• THERE ARE NO RESTRICTIONS OR REQUIREMENTS FOR
  AFFORDABLE HOUSING
• THERE IS LITTLE SUPPORT FOR ADDRESSING AFFORDABLE
  HOUSING

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Where do you come in?

• Realtors- Time and Resources
• Statistics
• Number of people who cant afford housing
• How far out into other counties are you now
  taking clients to qualify for homes
• How do you perceive the slow down/ high prices
  knocking out section of home buyers/ Homes prices
  climbing faster than salaries/ etc.
• Has the number of employees transferring into the
  PD 16 area slowed down- ( 2-3 years of
  statistics). Number of rentals versus home buyers.

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Where do you come in?

• GWRC - Time and Resources
• Commitment from GWRC to take this forum and
  put it at top of their agenda for 2007. Workforce
  Housing needs to be addressed now.

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Where do you come in?

• Chamber of Commerce- Time and Resources
• Commitment
• Develop a Workforce Housing Column in newsletter
• Develop a Housing Forum Committee
• Host a Housing Day Forum
• Provide statistics on local area employees
• Do any area employers offer home purchase
  benefits
• Do any area employers offer relocation pkgs to
  new employees

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Where do you come in?

• Fredericksburg Regional Alliance- Time and
  Resources
• Statistics/ Commitment
• Economic Development-Number of employers moving
  into area but hesitant due to high home prices
• To develop a regional committee to get behind a
  Challenge Grant

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Challenge Grant

• Model a Challenge Grant after Fairfax Counties
  program. Live Where You Work Challenge Grant
• In 1995 the Fairfax County Board of Supervisors
  allocated 1,000,000.00 to the Housing Trust Fund
  as a Challenge Grant, with 500,000.00 earmarked
  for employee homeownership for moderate income
  county school employees seeking to purchase
  their first homes. To date 26 2nd trust loans
  have been made to employees under this program.

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Action Steps WE all need to Take

• Address Concerns
• Most people- including decision makers- have
  limited information on contemporary affordable
  housing.
• Educate early and often
• Accurate information is important
• Humanize the object of concern- put a human face
  on the proposed development

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Article from Freelance Star 10/26/06 Tricord
Helps Teachers/ County Employees Purchase Homes

• By KELLY HANNON (Excerpts from this article)
• Tricord Homes will sell 42 three-bedroom
  townhouses at reduced cost to school teachers and
  local government employees. These homes will
  sell for 205,900.00
• Teachers and government workers in Orange and
  Spotsylvania County may benefit the most, given
  the subdivision's location..
• The 2005 median home value in Spotsylvania was
  293,100.

Tricord has already stepped up to the plate to
help local employees purchase homes
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Thank you for your participation