The NRV Chapter of Virginia Organizing was established in April of 2017.
Lori Graham
Contributing Writer
Virginia Panbecker, representative of New River Valley’s Chapter of Virginia Organizing addressed the Montgomery County Board of Supervisors March 25, 2024, with a request for funding for a program that is proposed to improve low-income community members’ housing safety issues.
“We are a community-led non-partisan organization that focuses on addressing issues in our community,” Panbecker said. “Everyone needs safe, healthy, and affordable housing. Unfortunately, this is not a reality for all NRV residents. According to the Housing and Urban Development, 14% of Virginians lived in inadequate housing between 2014 and 2018, which is defined as housing having three or four maintenance issues such as water leaks, mold, holes in the floor, inadequate heating, non-functional plumbing or major appliances and faulty wiring.”
“Many families in the NRV face just such living conditions in the only homes they can secure, over 4,000 of whom spend more than 50% of their monthly income on housing and cannot afford needed repairs increasing the risk of severe health consequences.”
Panbecker said critical funding is necessary to combat these housing issues.
“We are asking for the Montgomery County Board of Supervisors to support establishing a whole home repair program to grant money to low-income homeowners and also to landlords with low-income renters for needed repairs,” Panbecker said. “In this program, for landlords to be eligible they must keep renters in their homes for at least three years. This helps with housing security and holds landlords accountable so that if they get money for repairs, the residents have the opportunity to stay for at least three years before they raise rates.”
According to the organization’s website at virginia-organizing.org, “Virginia Organizing is a non-partisan statewide grassroots organization dedicated to challenging injustice by empowering people in local communities to address issues that affect the quality of their lives.”
