Building Belief

Introduction

Henrico County created the Affordable Housing Trust Fund with a clear purpose: to make homeownership attainable for the families who keep the community running — and to prove that affordability and quality can coexist. The Fund represents a $60 million commitment from the County to expand access to homeownership and strengthen economic mobility.  

Through partnership with the Partnership for Housing Affordability (PHA) and a network of private homebuilders, the Fund is already helping deliver more than 270 new homes for first-time buyers, with the potential to reach 750 within five years.  

What makes Henrico’s story remarkable isn’t just the scale of investment — it’s the belief that collaboration could turn an ambitious idea into real outcomes. The Fund launched with no local precedent to follow, only shared conviction that affordability could work if everyone had a stake in the outcome.  

The Challenge

Henrico, like much of the region, faces a widening affordability gap. Home prices have risen faster than wages, and the housing stock hasn’t kept pace with population growth. Many residents who work in the county — teachers, health aides, and public employees — have been priced out of the communities they serve.  

For decades, affordable homeownership was treated as an abstract ideal: good in theory, hard to fund, and even harder to execute.  

“We’ve been underbuilding for years,” said Shelby Carney, PHA’s Director of Special Projects. “We had to create something that not only added units but built wealth for the families who live here.”  

That dual focus — production and prosperity — shaped the Fund’s design. It offers subsidies to builders developing homes for buyers earning between 60% and 120% of area median income, the range where many working families fall. The revenue comes from a modern source: taxes generated by Henrico’s growing network of data centers.  

Building Belief

Before the first home was built, PHA spent a year establishing relationships with builders, lenders, and realtors to shape a program that worked for everyone involved. The early meetings weren’t easy — the idea of a publicly supported homeownership initiative raised both excitement and skepticism.  

“The red tape in most affordable projects keeps builders away,” said a homebuilder who participated in the Fund. “PHA’s approach took that off the table. They created a system that was fast, fair, and predictable. Once we saw that, we were all in.”  

By cutting permitting timelines, waiving certain fees, and providing public support upfront, Henrico and PHA gave builders both the confidence and the incentive to participate. That commitment was reciprocated. Builders began designing homes that met both affordability and quality goals — the same materials, craftsmanship, and neighborhoods as market-rate properties.  

Lenders followed. Silverton Mortgage, Virginia Housing, and Virginia Credit Union helped families close on their first homes and provided essential input to establish program documents that support expanded access to additional first-time homebuyer resources, while the County’s tax assessor’s office ensured that affordable units were valued and taxed correctly so buyers could realize equity over time.  

That alignment — across government, nonprofit, and private sectors — became the heartbeat of the initiative. “When people talk about collaboration, this is what they mean,” Carney said. “Everyone made time to talk. Everyone was transparent about their goals. That’s what made belief possible.”  

Turning Vision into Proof

To date, the Fund has awarded $24.7 million to developers, supporting 270 homes sold between $185,000 and $350,000 — price points almost unheard of in the current market. The average buyer earns roughly $78,000 a year, with a median family size of two and an average credit score near 750. About 60% of buyers already lived in Henrico, and nearly one-third are County employees.  

Each number represents a shift — families moving from rent to ownership, local workers able to live where they work, and neighborhoods gaining new stability. The Fund’s impact also extends beyond housing. At full build-out, the initiative is projected to create 1,700 local jobs, generate $125 million in wages, and contribute $6.3 million in annual tax revenue to Henrico’s economy.  

A participating homebuilder described it simply: “We’re builders of the American Dream. This program proves that affordability and quality can thrive together. It’s not just about selling homes — it’s about broadening who gets to call this region home.”    

Shared Momentum

A Foundation for the Future

In a housing landscape often defined by division — public versus private, market versus mission — Henrico’s Affordable Housing Trust Fund offers a different story. It’s proof that collaboration can replace competition, and that belief, when shared, can become infrastructure.  

What began as a leap of faith has become a working blueprint: 25 homes built and sold, hundreds more awarded and underway, and a growing network of partners who now see affordability not as charity, but as smart community design.  

And somewhere in Henrico tonight, another family is turning the key to their first home — not knowing their closing is part of something much larger: a region learning, together, what it means to build belief.