Housing Starts: Q1 2024

News & Updates from HDA

HDAdvisors provides housing and community development consulting services to developers, non-profits, housing authorities, local governments, lenders, and other members of the affordable housing industry. 

In the spotlight:  Eric Mai promoted to HDA partner and Vice President

Erica and Jonathan are proud to announce Eric Mai as HDA’s newest partner. Many of you have worked with Eric since he joined HDA in 2020. Recognizing his skills and leadership, Erica and Jonathan asked him to join them as their business partner and co-owner. The three of us are working hard to build an organization that continues to meet the needs of Virginia's affordable housing infrastructure.

Finally—and most importantly—we are nothing without Flora, Amelie, and Maria, who round out our team in the best ways possible. Together, we’re ready to work with you to make affordable housing a reality for every Virginian.

HDA helps launch the state’s first regional—and rural—housing trust fund

Working through our client HousingForward Virginia, HDA and the Virginia Center for Housing Research at Virginia Tech (VCHR) completed a regional housing study for the New River Valley Regional Commission (NRVRC) in 2021. In early 2022, we began providing technical assistance to NRVRC for the creation of a regional housing trust fund, which was one of the flagship recommendations of the study. The fund was launched in June 2023 and is the first regional—and the first predominantly rural—housing trust fund in Virginia.

Recommendations developed for reparative housing efforts in Charlottesville following analysis of housing outcomes

Throughout 2022 and 2023, HDA worked with Piedmont Housing Alliance (PHA) to review and recommend steps to deliver racially equitable outcomes for their homeownership program in the Charlottesville region. Alongside PHA, HDA collaborated with Virginia Community Voice, an organization that specializes in equitable community engagement to foster resident inclusion in the program evaluation and development process. HDA  reviewed PHA’s program data to offer recommendations for future reparative lending and  outlined the steps to build racially reparative programming in alignment with Fair Housing and Equal Lending laws.

HDA helps Alexandria evaluate options for a new local rental subsidy program

The Housing Choice Voucher program is the primary way low-income renters access monthly financial support to pay for otherwise unaffordable market-rate rents throughout the country. Unfortunately, the program is vastly underfunded. This has led localities to search for new solutions. Last fall, the City of Alexandria hired HDA and VCHR to research best practices and propose a structure for a potential rental subsidy program supported entirely by local funds. HDA provided City leaders with detailed and comprehensive information to use as they weigh options during the upcoming budget cycle. While our final report hasn’t been released yet, you can find the presentation and recording from a virtual community meeting we helped lead in December.

What we’re reading, listening to, and watching:

Erica visited New Orleans and had a chance to visit the Le Museé de f.p.c.  dedicated to New Orlean’s history of free people of color (f.p.c.). It was an amazing experience - a museum with a twist she won’t spoil. While there, thumb through a book of all property owned by f.p.c. before the Civil War. Painstakingly compiled from historic property records, the book illuminates many important truths, including that f.p.c owned 80% of property in the Treme district by 1841. An amazing history of a powerful people.

Amelie is hooked on T-Pain’s new album, On Top of the Covers, and wants the world to know! T-Pain is one talented guy! Check out this amazing performance, featuring a cover of Black Sabbath’s “War Pigs” that Ozzy himself is proud of.

Maria is reading her way through translated murder-mysteries by the late Japanese author Seishi Yokomizo and trying to solve the locked-room cases based on her knowledge of real estate! If you’re looking for a counterpart to familiar Holmes and Poirot-style novels, check out the quirky young detective in this series and cozy up through the cold early months.

Flora is digging into Richmond’s local music scene with bands like Destructo Disk, Alex Jonestown Massacre, Dead Billionaires, The Mitras, Rikki Rakki, and Oh Devil. She’s embarking on her own musical journey as well; with songs written between 2019 and today, she’s hoping to record, produce, and release a demo EP soon. As well, she has been working with two friends—one on bass, one on keyboard and saxophone—to start playing shows as a full band as soon as this spring. She swears she’s this close to finding a drummer.

Eric has been relaxing by watching cooking videos on YouTube. He highly recommends checking out Kenji López-Alt’s channel and Molly Baz’s channel. He started going down the YouTube cooking rabbit hole after watching Molly Baz’s Bon Appétit video showing how to roast a whole chicken with potatoes in a cast iron pan with gochujang (highly recommended!).

Jonathan is again revisiting the entire run of the original Law & Order. He’s ecstatic that critics are finally appreciating its role as the crown jewel of the endangered background television genre. That said, he still finds it hard to multitask when it’s on, because you could miss special moments like the first screen credits for Philip Seymour Hoffman and Claire Danes.