Hampton Roads residents have faced soaring housing costs in recent years, which have cost-burdened more people and held back the region’s economy.
While prices hit low to moderate-income earners the hardest, more professionals, such as teachers and tech workers, are finding themselves priced out of the market.
A Suffolk project is in the first round of state funding to increase housing options for middle-income earners. Virginia is investing $75 million in projects around the commonwealth through 2030 to expand options for these workers in a first-of-its-kind program in the state.
Three million of the almost $17 million distributed will help add 90 new income-restricted rentals to a historic peanut-factory-turned-apartment in the once "Peanut Capital of the World." Suffolk City Council unanimously supported the project at a September meeting.
Peanut Crossing is on the site of the former Suffolk Peanut Co. Founded in 1898, the company operated from 1903 until it sold the land in 1968. The plant closed in 2000 and sat vacant until former councilmember Charles Parr bought it from the Golden Peanut Co. in 2018.
The 90 units will complement 59 market-rate apartments finished in 2021 as part of Peanut Crossing’s first phase of work.
“Here in Suffolk, and in most areas of Hampton Roads, there is a need for affordable housing,” said Janet Days, Suffolk’s economic development director. “Housing that individuals who are probably in the in-between – our service providers, nurses, manufacturers, industrial workers and even people that work for the city – can afford.”
More than 50% of Suffolk residents are cost-burdened, meaning they spend more than 30% of their income on housing every month, according to the city’s funding application.
“And that’s true kind of across the board, not just one income level,” said Chris McNamara, Virginia Housing’s strategic housing officer for economic development.
“Using a site like this one is very strategic and allows them to continue an adaptive reuse project of an old commercial area to bring it back to life and bring more opportunity to the city.”
The new units at Peanut Crossing will be restricted to people earning between $90,000 and $135,000. Thirty-six units, or 40%, will be reserved for households whose income is at or below the city’s average; 54 units, or 60%, will be for those who earn up to 150% of the median income.
Most other state or federally funded programs that fund income-restricted housing developments are limited to projects for people making 80% or less of the area's median, according to McNamara.
Days said the project adds to invigorating downtown. She has her eyes on expanding attractions, venues and retail to bring more people downtown and enhance the city’s finances and residents’ quality of life.
“But development moves at the speed of development,” Days said. “Rooftops come before the retail does and the stores aren’t going to pop up if there’s not going to be the foot traffic.”
Firms are more regularly considering housing as they look for places to expand into, according to McNamara.
“In the past, I think a lot of people just kind of assumed that housing will follow where jobs go,” he said. “But now things have really changed and these companies are asking where are their employees going to live from the start.”
Statewide discussions about housing helped inspire the five-year funding program, leading Gov. Glenn Youngkin’s administration in 2024 to commit millions toward workforce housing. Youngkin, in a 2024 executive order, said the money is intended to spur an additional $750 million in investments and generate 5,000 housing units in areas experiencing business and job growth.
The 5,000 units are a fraction of Virginia’s 41,000-home shortfall in workforce housing reported in Gov. Youngkin's 2024 order. The shortage is felt most in urban centers and regions such as Hampton Roads, contributing to cost increases that make the region less affordable than Richmond and D.C. suburbs when accounting for wages.
Gov. Youngkin’s 2024 order instructed the Virginia Economic Development Partnership and Department of Housing and Community Development to work with Virginia Housing to integrate housing plans in economic development program applications as another way to generate more housing.
Days said the city doesn’t have a specific number of workforce housing units it’s looking to add, stating that the need shifts as the rate of growth, resident income and unit vacancies change.
She’s optimistic that the next phase of development at Peanut Crossing can help promote income diversity downtown, and contribute to the area’s economy and social scene.
McNamara said communities with a mix of housing options and income levels are a sign of a strong community.
“If your employees that work for the locality, that work in your schools, your restaurants, your baristas, if they have a safe place to go home, they’re more likely to be a strong contributor to the local community.”
