Brought to you by Scott P. Rogers, Funkhouser Real Estate Group, 540-578-0102, scott@HarrisonburgHousingToday.com
Brought to you by Scott P. Rogers, Funkhouser Real Estate Group, 540-578-0102, scott@HarrisonburgHousingToday.com
Tuesday, July 21, 2026
Sen. Mark Warner was in Harrisonburg last Friday to present $2,000,000 of federal funding to the Harrisonburg Redevelopment and Housing Authority. The money will be used to renovate and maintain the Lineweaver Apartments downtown. This money was part of the funding Congress secured in its most recent spending bills.
While in Harrisonburg, Warner talked about the recently passed ROAD to Housing Act, some of which he helped write.
Part of this new act is aimed at cutting through the red tape that slows down rezoning and new construction. The core idea is speed. Warner put it plainly... government has been slow, and this law is meant to strip out some of the regulatory hurdles that have been holding up rezoning and new construction. It also creates incentives for communities that move through their zoning process faster. So instead of a builder waiting months, sometimes years, for approvals, the hope is that timeline shrinks.
Laws like this take time to actually show up in a local market. We probably won't see the effects overnight, and Harrisonburg and Rockingham County's zoning and planning processes still have their own local pace regardless of what changes at the federal level. But it's a meaningful shift in direction, and it's the kind of thing worth watching over the next year or two to see if it actually moves the needle here.
Another interesting piece of this new legislation is the RESIDE Act, a pilot program that intends to take vacant buildings... old hotels, warehouses, strip malls... and converts them into affordable housing. A lot of these places already have water, power, and internet access but are sitting unused. Turning them into homes instead of building housing from scratch could be a faster, cheaper path towards expanded housing options. TBD if we will see any of these types of transformation in Harrisonburg.
The $2,000,000 of federal funding will certainly help the Harrisonburg Redevelopment and Housing Authority with their mission of promoting adequate and affordable housing - and hopefully the Road to Housing Act will create more opportunities for housing in our local community to support the continued growth of our area.
While in Harrisonburg, Warner talked about the recently passed ROAD to Housing Act, some of which he helped write.
Part of this new act is aimed at cutting through the red tape that slows down rezoning and new construction. The core idea is speed. Warner put it plainly... government has been slow, and this law is meant to strip out some of the regulatory hurdles that have been holding up rezoning and new construction. It also creates incentives for communities that move through their zoning process faster. So instead of a builder waiting months, sometimes years, for approvals, the hope is that timeline shrinks.
Laws like this take time to actually show up in a local market. We probably won't see the effects overnight, and Harrisonburg and Rockingham County's zoning and planning processes still have their own local pace regardless of what changes at the federal level. But it's a meaningful shift in direction, and it's the kind of thing worth watching over the next year or two to see if it actually moves the needle here.
Another interesting piece of this new legislation is the RESIDE Act, a pilot program that intends to take vacant buildings... old hotels, warehouses, strip malls... and converts them into affordable housing. A lot of these places already have water, power, and internet access but are sitting unused. Turning them into homes instead of building housing from scratch could be a faster, cheaper path towards expanded housing options. TBD if we will see any of these types of transformation in Harrisonburg.
The $2,000,000 of federal funding will certainly help the Harrisonburg Redevelopment and Housing Authority with their mission of promoting adequate and affordable housing - and hopefully the Road to Housing Act will create more opportunities for housing in our local community to support the continued growth of our area.
