By Stephen Smoot
Last month, the Region 8 Economic Planning and Development Council hosted a presentation and information gathering session by Daniel Eades, an associate professor and rural development specialist with West Virginia University Extension Service in Morgantown.
He came to Petersburg to share data accumulated about housing in the Potomac Highlands while also getting the perspectives of local elected and economic development officials.
The invitation to Eades came after reports in recent years of a shortage of housing throughout the area. His visit was a part of a statewide needs assessment conducted by the West Virginia Housing Development Fund as part of a partnership with Virginia Polytechnic University.
He explained that the purpose of the study lay in “helping communities to address housing needs” by “looking at where and why things are happening.”
Scotty Miley, Grant County commissioner, shared that local conditions create “a perfect storm to have a housing crisis.”
Eades provided information to the council both at the regional and county level. Region 8 counties include Pendleton, Grant, Hardy, Hampshire, and Mineral. Both Eades and council members stated that reference to county boundaries in housing studies can get complicated, due to the fact that many reside in one county, yet work in another.
The total population of the region sits currently at 81,671 with almost 31,000 households. Four in five own households while renters live in the remainder.
As stated in annual Region 8 planning meetings, the five-county region lacks two kinds of crucial housing. It faces shortages in both housing for sale and rental units for “extremely and very low income households.” Costs for housing have increased in Hampshire and Hardy, while remaining below the statewide median in Grant and Pendleton
The word median can be misleading, merely representing the number halfway between the highest and lowest in a set. It is not an average of the numbers in the set and, if used alone with no other contextual data, can create a false perception. This is not to say that officials have used this term to intentionally mislead, but some may mistake the term for other concepts.
Median single wage earners, according to the study presented by Eades, can afford to rent, but not to buy.
Multiple dynamics work against the expansion of affordable housing stock. One reason has its root in one of the area’s more beneficial values. Frugal renters and owners often choose to remain in low cost housing, even though they can afford more expensive options.
Competition, however, for affordable low income housing has intensified during recent years. The Pilgrims Pride complex of chicken processing plants relies heavily on foreign imported labor. To house them, the company pays landlords significantly higher rents than locals with low incomes can afford.
Dave Workman, Hardy County commissioner, spoke to this when he described an experience he had during door knocking for his campaign. He shared that he came upon a trailer inhabited by 13 people, dividing the time between some who worked at night and others who worked day shifts.
Landlords have received as much as $900 per month to house laborers, according to Miley. He also described “a bidding war for a run-down hotel in Petersburg” where a property valued at $200,000 sold for $800,000.
Another area of housing shortage often focused on by local officials, but not state, lies in homes for the middle class of earners. Miley explained that “the big issue we’re missing in this area is housing for young professionals.” He went on to explain that “we recruit nurses to the hospital and they can’t find places to stay.”
Meanwhile, he also noted that the rise of interest rates and the cost of materials to either construct or repair houses have climbed to unaffordable levels for many. Miley shared that it has led to “a major crisis in our area.” Roger Leatherman, Mineral County commissioner, echoed Miley’s frustration when stating that new high income employees at Rocket Center choose to live in Maryland, rather than Mineral County, because of the lack of housing for professionals.
Regardless of the type of housing needed, the lack of infrastructure in developable areas has also blocked growth. Steve Schetrom II, Hardy County commissioner, explained that if developers did not have to pay to build it out themselves, that they could construct more housing than currently.
The study broke down median housing costs by county. Statewide, homeowners paid a median monthly cost of $1,180 for a home with a mortgage and $371 for one fully paid off. Pendleton County residents, in comparison, paid a median of $924 for a home with a mortgage and $331 for one without, in both cases, lowest in the area.
Rents statewide hit a median of $618 for contract and $831 for gross rent. Pendleton County saw $413 and $667 for each, respectively.
Mineral County faced the highest costs while Pendleton and Grant enjoyed the lowest of all in the region.
Another facet to the professional housing shortage lies in where professionals prefer to live versus where they have to work. Bob Hott, Hampshire County Commission president, stated that many who earn high wages in the far Eastern Panhandle would rather live in Hampshire County and commute to Berkeley or Jefferson. Hott said that he himself once “used to drive two and a half hours a day.”
People prefer a “rural way of life,” Hott stated. He went on to explain that Hampshire County sought to avoid the type of growth seen particularly around Moorefield.
Leatherman agreed with Hott, but warned that those who move in from outside and “try to push their way of life in our rural area . . . it doesn’t work too well. It creates a little animosity.”
Carl Hevener, Pendleton County Commission president, noted a slightly different dynamic with his county’s relationship with Harrisonburg and Rockingham County, Virginia. He said, “Our county is more of a retirement county, like Highland County in Virginia.” That said, he added that many work in Virginia and live in Pendleton, as well as vice versa.
The impact of land values held Hevener’s attention, as he related that costs in Pendleton County have at least doubled. He also shared that a near 60 acre piece of land that he purchased recently for $128,000 had quadrupled in value. That built on a point made by Hott previously that “as our valuations go up, our taxes go up.”
After a council member referred to the possibility of Sugar Grove becoming low income housing for labor, Hevener replied by saying there are “so many negative things” that would spring from that, least of which being the very limited capabilities of the infrastructure, schools, law enforcement, and emergency services in the Brandywine and Sugar Grove areas.
Toward the close of the meeting, Eades floated a suggestion that part of the hotel-motel tax be set aside for housing, a proposal immediately shot down by elected officials. Hott responded by saying that the state could empower counties by providing financial support “and let us control it.”
