JSblogA huge factor in making housing affordable is access to transportation. If you can’t easily get to and from your job, stores and other public places, transportation costs could actually be a drain on your financial situation and personal time.

The state of Virginia is currently weighing whether to make improvements to Richmond Highway or Route 1, a major north-south thoroughfare that is a key transportation route for our tenants and millions of commuters in the surrounding Northern Virginia area. At a March hearing held by the Northern Virginia Transportation Authority, I offered my “qualified” support for expanding Route 1—which is among the least safe and the most congested thoroughfare in the state of Virginia.

Several plans under consideration call for widening four-lane stretches of the highway to create a full, six-lane, Route 1 corridor, from Interstate 495, south past Fort Belvoir to Prince William County. Transportation authorities are also considering whether to add bus lanes to Route 1 and/or extend rapid rail transportation along the corridor. Expansion of a 3.5 mile section of Route 1 near Ft. Belvoir is already underway.

Unfortunately, state transportation officials have indicated that Route 1 improvement plans for Hybla Valley aren’t likely to leapfrog 40 other pending road projects in Northern Virginia. Officials say such plans aren’t yet fully fleshed out and lack “readiness” as well as funding.

However, to the extent the Authority undertakes any transportation improvements, I urge them to not just narrowly target traffic congestion but also address safety, long term infrastructure maintenance and quality of life issues.

For instance, overhead power lines should be buried along transportation routes to reduce the chances of power outages and improve skyline aesthetics. Fairfax County regulators failed to do that when they approved a big box store near Hybla Valley on Richmond Highway several years ago. Residents have felt the consequences ever since, as a spate of severe thunderstorms in the ensuing years have caused a series of power outages.

Similarly, conduit or dark fiber should be installed along the highway to facilitate the installation of advanced telecommunications services. The federal government has been doing this in the wake of a December 2012 executive order accelerating the deployment of broadband in interstate highway construction. However, states should do the same, especially in poor communities, which are often under-served by broadband Internet access.

Finally, every effort should be made to insure that any road improvements don’t compromise safety or reduce affordable housing. There are currently no pedestrian bridges or tunnels serving Route 1 in Hybla Valley, where the highway speed limit is 45 mph, for instance. The busy highway also poses challenges for fire trucks and school buses that  need to make turns at intersections or at breaks in the median. There are many crosswalks controlled by traffic lights on Route 1, but surely there are new road designs and technology that can improve the odds for pedestrians, school buses and first responders trying to navigate this busy highway. We should consider those.

We are off this month. Our regular blog posts will return in July.

Darius Nearly two decades ago, after relocating from the country roads of Mississippi to the city streets of Alexandria, Virginia, my family became homeless.

Our fall into hard times placed us among the thousands every year who must rely on emergency shelters in the metropolitan Washington area.

According to housing experts, the number one reason people become homeless is the high demand for low-income, affordable housing and the limited availability of vacancies. In many cities, people have a better chance of shaking President Obama’s hand than being placed on a waiting list for assisted affordable housing. Some waiting lists have been remained closed for at least a decade with thousands of people waiting patiently, and often in vain, for a decent home.

The U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development, other government agencies and non-profit groups have found creative and practical solutions to address some of the problems. But there are things we can do as well.

For starters, we can educate ourselves and others about the issue. Many people assume the homeless are self-sustaining, or that they lack motivation to live a better life. Such beliefs are far from true in many cases.

Hard-working people with minimum wage jobs often find their earnings are not nearly enough to pay for the rising costs of food, transportation and child care, let alone shelter, according to the federal government.

The more fortunate among us can also support local resources such as the Alexandria Community Shelter, a homeless assistance agency that provides a range of services including shelter, food, housing counseling and job skills. Agencies like ACS can have an enormous positive impact on an individual or family.

Although, I was only six years of age, I had a good sense of the environment. At first, I found it difficult residing with strangers, adjusting to early curfews, and eating shelter prepared foods. I did not have any toys of my own and the toys that were available were for the community. My only true possessions were that of my family. However, as time passed, Mondloch Shelter seemed a lot more like home. The shelter celebrated all of the children’s birthdays and held Christmas parties sponsored by the Salvation Army. For the duration of my residency, Mondloch fulfilled my family’s need for a home without disregarding that “home sweet home” feeling.

Life doesn’t stop when you’re homeless. I was never ashamed to share my experiences with other people for my family’s temporary homelessness, ironically, helped make me the determined person I am today. When dealing with hardships, my mother told me to keep in mind that problems are only temporary. Your “mentality is everything,” she said.

Now, whenever I encounter someone who is homeless, I tell him to always keep a positive outlook even if it appears that life is never on his side. Circumstances can change. My family and I are living proof of that.

Have you done something to help the homeless or have you ever been homeless? Maybe you have suggestions on how to fight this national problem. Share your story or ideas in the comments section below.

JSblogThere was no way around it.  To obey the law, I had to force my tenant to make an unconscionable choice: drop out of college or lose your home.

This was not the sort of thing I envisioned I would be doing as a part of my work running a business that provides affordable housing to the poor. But three years ago, compelled by federal housing rules aimed at preventing fraud, I had to tell my 22-year-old tenant that he could not continue to attend Ferrum College in southwestern Virginia’s Blue Ridge mountains and maintain an apartment in Alexandria, Virginia that was subsidized by the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development.

The young man faced this housing dilemma after his mother, who was renting the subsidized apartment from me, died of cancer—leaving behind her 22-year-old son and 8-year-old  granddaughter. He decided to return to the Alexandria apartment.

Under HUD regulations, college students younger than 24, who are not married or veterans, and do not have dependent children, are not eligible for subsidized housing.

The perverse impact of this rule is that it rewards poor young people who have children and penalizes young people who pursue higher education if they want to stay in Section 8 housing subsidized by HUD.

Last month I recalled my unease about backing the college student into a corner when I attended a meeting the National Association of Hispanic Journalists arranged with  Julián Castro, Secretary of the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development. Castro said he was not familiar with the rule, when I recounted my tenant’s story, but appeared concerned and said he would have his staff review it.

Ironically, it was the rich, not the poor, who initially prompted HUD to double down on limiting federal housing subsidies to college students. The restrictive housing policy was adopted in 2006 as a result of several incidents of fraud involving well-to-do college students living in subsidized HUD housing.

One notable case was in 2004 in Iowa, where Brian Ferentz, the son of millionaire University of Iowa football coach Kirk Ferentz, was discovered to be living in HUD subsidized housing, despite his father’s wealth and a $700-a-month university stipend for housing, according to the Des Moines Register newspaper.

But in the bid to free up housing for truly needy people, the federal government closed off opportunities for poor people, like my tenant, who pursued higher education in search of a better life.

“This is a categorically bad rule,” said Jim Schaafsma, a housing law attorney for the Michigan Poverty Law Program. “The rule was aimed at preventing dependent children of wealthy families from getting HUD assistance. But it can be too rigid.”

Schaafsma told me that because Congress gave HUD only 30 days to craft rules to crack down on the student housing abuse, the agency didn’t have time to adequately research the problem or solicit and weigh public comments that might have resulted in a better solution.

“The result is that we have a rule that is clearly and indisputably unfair.” Schaafsma said.

Luckily, my 22-year-old tenant’s college administrators were more understanding than HUD. The school allowed my tenant to study on his own in Alexandria and take final exams online, since he was only a semester away from completing his college degree. Since graduation, he has been working part time for Fairfax County.

In the meanwhile, HUD should revise the college student housing rule to make it means-tested or allow landlords to apply for waivers on a case-by-case basis.

Darius    Welcome to the inaugural post of the new blog of Shiver Management Group, a real estate company with long and deep roots in Northern Virginia.

This blog is our effort to improve communications with our tenants, vendors and homeowner communities. Along the way, we’ll offer some thoughts and advice we hope you’ll find useful on real estate management, investing and home building.

A little more background on Shiver Management and me: We are the parent entity of several real estate partnerships and limited liability companies founded by the late Jube B. Shiver Sr., a pioneering home builder who helped reshape Northern Virginia and broke through racial and economic barriers in housing. As someone who began his career as a public-school teacher, Mr. Shiver never lost sight of the idea that serving his community was among the highest of callings.

Our affiliated partnerships and companies include: Spring Garden Apartments, a complex of 19 residential buildings in the rapidly redeveloping Hybla Valley in Fairfax County; 211 West Street, near historic old Town Alexandria; and Poupanca Funding, LLC., a three-year-old company whose aim is to acquire, own, manage, develop and invest in other businesses as well as real property.

I joined Shiver Management last year. Among my other duties, I’ll be your lead blogger.

In future posts, I plan to cover a number of important topics, including homelessness, government housing programs, the future development of Hybla Valley’s Route 1 corridor, home-energy efficiency, financial strategies and Shiver Management Group’s recent meeting with Julián Castro, Secretary of the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development.

This blog is meant as a forum for you too. We would appreciate feedback from you, our readers. Please feel free to use the comments section (please respect others and stay civil) or call me at 703-780-6700 for additional information or with questions. I promise to respond.

Thanks for reading and, again, WELCOME!