Transcript 5.20.26 Good morning. Anybody out there? Good morning. Okay, that's better. Thank you. Thank you. And my screen just went blank. Okay. All right. Okay. It keeps going blank. Welcome to the Virginia Housing Commission meeting. This is our first meeting in the interim, and we are going to get started. In lieu of calling the roll, I'm going to have everybody introduce themselves, and that will be our roll call for the morning, starting to my immediate right. That would be you, Martin. Madam Chair, good morning. I'm Martin Johnson. I'm a gubernatorial appointee to the commission. Good morning, Madam Chair. Senator Bill Stanley, I represent the 7th Senate District, which includes but is not limited to Franklin County, Henry County, City of Martinsville, Patrick County, Floyd County, Wythe County, Carroll County, Grayson County, I think, oh, City of Galax, also known as the Lobster District. Thank you. Too soon. Good morning, Madam Chair. I'm Delegate Brianna Sewell. I proudly represent the 25th District, which is located in Prince William County. And I'm Mamie Locke. I represent the 23rd Senate District, which is all of the City of Hampton and part of the City of Newport News. Jesseca Hoff, Director of the Commission. Marcus Simon, I represent the 13th House of Delegates District, which is Falls Church City and parts of Fairfax County around Falls Church. And I'm pleased to be here on the Housing Commission. I chair the Housing Subcommittee of General Laws, and so this will be useful overlap here. Good morning. I am Lashrecse Aird and I represent Senate District 13, which includes I think just a few less than Senator Stanley does, including all of Eastern Henrico, Sussex County, Surry County, parts of Dinwiddie, Prince George County, Charles City County, Petersburg, and Hopewell. And I'm thrilled to join my first Housing Commission meeting. Yeah, I'm Delegate Eric Phillips. I represent the 48th District, which is Pittsylvania County, Henry County, City of Martinsville, and I'm also pleased to be at my first Housing Commission meeting. And I'm a home builder and a Class A contractor. Josh Goldschmidt I'm an appointee, uh, active in the Home Building Association and a home builder as well. Delegate Adele McClure here, representing Arlington County, and really proud to be back on the Housing Commission. Sad that I can't be there in person. I was actually an hour away from you all, and then there was an accident in front of me, so then it increased my commute, and I had to turn right back around. So we'll hope to be there with you all in person next time. Thank you, Delegate. Okay, thank you, and welcome, everybody. We want to welcome our Delegate Thomas. Are you there? Yes, ma'am. Delegate Josh Thomas, District 21, Prince William County, south of the accident on 95, should be there in about 15 minutes. Okay, thank you. So welcome to our new members, Senator Aird, Delegate Phillips, Delegate Simon, and Delegate Thomas. Welcome to the Housing Commission. Happy to have you here. So we'll get right into the business of the commission by discussing our 2026 topics of study for the interim. We had bills that passed with language directing the commission to study. That would be House Bill 1518 by Delegate Convirs-Fowler, dealing with buyer beware, and it will talk about reviewing existing required disclosures, and we'll address the area that that will go into for a work group. Several bills were sent to the Commission from the 2026 session. There are six of those: House Bill 278 and Senate Bill 355. 278 was Delegate Clark. Senate Bill 355 was Senator Boysko dealing with anti-rent gouging authority. House Bill 1252 from Delegate Anthony, dealing with algorithmic pricing devices used by certain landlords. Senate Bill 585 from Senator Salim, addressing fair housing laws, also dealing with personalized algorithmic pricing and disclosures. House Bill 1409 from Delegate Schmidt, dealing with the Virginia Residential Landlord and Tenant Act, addressing maintenance responsibilities and prohibiting provisions in rental agreements. Senate Bill 349 from Senator VanValkenburg, also addressing the Virginia Residential Landlord and Tenant Act, addressing pre-tenancy fees for Manufactured Home Rental Act. And House Bill 1394 from Delegate Cole addressing unhoused persons. We had one bill continued from the 2025 Commission agenda, and that deals with Senator Surovell's bill on home inspectors and insurance requirements, and also from Senator Surovell, a notice of change in assessment resource protection area disclosures. So those have already been assigned to work groups, and Jesseca, if you can address how those will be assigned. Yes, absolutely. For the 2026 session, the Housing Commission is shifting our operational strategy by moving away from our standing work groups. Instead, we're implementing a targeted approach with work groups specifically tailored to our chosen topics and the legislation referred to us during the General Assembly session. The following work groups are being formed, and will center on these key topics: The Algorithmic Pricing Workgroup. Addressing SB 585 and HB 1252 regarding personalized algorithmic pricing use and disclosures for purposes of the Virginia Residential Property Disclosure Act and the VRLTA. Residential Rental Fees Workgroup. Consolidating studies on HB 1409, SB 349, and portions of HB 379. Local Anti-Rent Gouging Workgroup. Evaluating the provisions of HB 278 and SB 355. Commission staff will be publishing our preliminary study and analysis of this topic and proposed legislation in the coming weeks. The document will be updated towards the end of the year to reflect conclusions reached by the work group and full commission, and any additional information requested for analysis during the work group process. Home Inspector Requirements Workgroup. Continuing the study on insurance and contract revisions from 2025. This work group will meet virtually. Additionally, the stakeholder group participants required in the HB 1518 study on the required disclosures for a buyer beware have been selected and staff has begun a preliminary study for stakeholder feedback. DPOR will be assisting with this study. Please note that this is a dynamic plan. Additional work groups or small groups will be formed as needed to address legislative mandates and directives from the full commission. We expect to finalize all work group decisions by the end of May, with meetings kicking off as soon as possible to ensure our findings and recommendations are ready for the commission's consideration. More information will be available on our website in the coming weeks, and a copy of the Commission staff's work plan is available on our website. If any organization feels they have information to share relevant to staff studies on these topics, please contact me or our policy analysts. Thank you. Are there any questions with regard to the study groups and how they have been formed, or the issues that we will be studying with those work groups? If not... I will now advise as to the chairs of those work groups. For the algorithmic pricing work group, the two bills are Senate Bill 585 from Senator Salim and House Bill 1252 from Delegate Anthony, and Senator Aird will be chairing that work group. Fees and residential rental agreements work group. There are three bills there: Senate Bill 349 from Senator Van Valkenburg, House Bill 379—it's a House bill, but it's from Senator Bennett-Parker—and House Bill 1409 from Delegate Schmidt, and Delegate Simon will be chairing that work group. The anti-rent gouging work group, the two bills, but the same bill, House Bill 278 from Delegate Clark and Senate Bill 355 from Senator Boysko, and I will chair that work group. The insurance requirements for home inspectors work group will be Delegate McClure. So those work groups will be meeting prior to the next full commission meeting. We will determine the membership of those work groups prior to those work groups meeting. And additional study topics as we move forward will be the study of 2026 legislation that impacted the Virginia Residential Landlord and Tenant Act, as well as tracking and analyzing eviction data in Virginia, as we do each year. I believe that covers all of the issues before us right now. So we are down to the election of a chair and a vice chair for the commission moving forward. Nominations are open for the chair. Delegate Simon Madam Chair, I would—I'm not sure what to call you actually. I would nominate Delegate Sewell to serve as chair of the Housing Commission for the 2026 session. Delegate Sewell has been nominated to be the chair. Are there any further nominations? Further nominations? Then we will close the nominations on the name of Delegate Brianna Sewell. Bless her heart. All in favor of Delegate Sewell becoming the chair of the Virginia Housing Commission, please say aye. Aye. Those opposed? Bless you. So Delegate Sewell will become the chair of the Virginia Housing Commission. Nominations are now open for vice chair for the commission. Senator Aird Madam Chair. I'd like to nominate you, Madam, as the Vice Chair. Okay. Any further nominations for Vice Chair? Further nominations for Vice Chair? Any further nominations for Vice Chair? Okay. Nominations are closed for Vice Chair on the name of Senator Locke. All in favor, please say aye. Aye. Those opposed? Okay. Look forward to working with you. Okay, so anyone in the public just dying to come up and give us some comments? Why? Please come up. Hi there. So my name is Sam Runner. I am a tenant within the state of Virginia. I actually reside here in the City of Richmond. I was able to walk and take the bus ticket here this morning. I just briefly wanted to speak to some of your upcoming work for this session, this work group, in specific as it relates to House Bill 1409 and all of the work group around rent gouging. I recently had an incident where my landlord unexpectedly started charging me extra for a monthly insurance fee, despite the fact that I had continuing, ongoing insurance with them. I know I'm not the only one impacted. What happened was this corporate landlord decided to switch their payment system, and as a result, they lost some records. So despite the fact that I was still correctly listing their address, they never notified me of the change of address and wanted to charge me fees. I had to fight with them back and forth to get them to eventually remove those fees. So despite no wrongdoing on my part, despite me remaining a tenant in good standing, keeping up on my end of the obligation, I decided to go through an uphill battle in order to get those fees removed. And I know I'm not the only one impacted because there are other people at my properties who were affected. Similarly, in terms of algorithmic pricing, Senate Bill 585, I think, is a lot stronger than House Bill 1252 because 1252 only has a disclosure requirement, whereas I know my landlord is using an algorithm to set their price. They told me themselves, which is why it is cheaper for me to use a 12-month lease at my next renewal rather than 15, because they want my lease to be up in July. So despite the fact that, again, I am a tenant of multiple years in good standing, I was told I have no room to negotiate or work with my landlord in good faith; whatever the computer determined is all that I get. So I'm just overall asking you from the perspective of a tenant to continue to review and look at the VRLTA and see what options are available to tenants to be able to exercise and have their rights fulfilled without having to go through these uphill, myriad of confusing battles. I've become a lot more familiar with the VRLTA in the past few months than I personally would like, and so I hope that other residents of Virginia don't need to do so. Thank you. Thank you for that. All of the work groups will be meeting prior to the August 18th next full commission meeting. And testimony will be taken from individuals at those work group meetings. And at the final commission meeting, there will be recommendations coming from the work groups as to the actions that will be taken by the full commission. So look for the notification on when the work groups will be meeting with regard to those specific topic areas. Is there any other business to come before the commission? Good morning. Good morning to all of you all. I am Dr. Rosa Holmes-Turner. I am the Principal Chief of the Quiyoughcohannock and the Warraskoyack tribe, which are located in Isle of Wight County and Surry County. I also have an office in Newport News, Virginia. One of the things we're here for, because we've been actively involved with Virginia Housing when it was VHDA a long time ago, and just celebrating 30 years of our organization along with the Hampton Roads Planning District Commission. I'm here with my colleagues, LaWanda Carter and also Ms. Farrah Massenburg. We have all just graduated from the Virginia Housing Emerging Developers Program, and we are all Class A design builders. So we are here to support what you all are doing, but we are here to also help you with that. We've been—some of our tenants that we serve and clients that we serve have experienced those issues when it comes to the gouging. In Surry County, Poolesville Trailer Court, my brother who was a Marine lost his life in December 27, 2024, due to some areas and concerns of the landlord's property. So we are actively working together to reclaim that land back into the tribe. So we want to make sure that we're here to support what you all are doing as also a victim of housing fraud myself. We've worked together with the legislators. We've worked together to make sure from here, all the way to DC, that we identify those. There's not a lot of housing resources in our area, and we're working with our local there, so we need your support there. But as we're doing what we're doing in Surry County, in Sussex, in all of those areas, as I saw on the Surry side of the James River, is that our organization, Rushmere Community Development Corporation, a tribally owned and governed CDC, has been the only resource in that area, in our rural area, supporting our housing, supporting housing our veterans, our homeless clients, supporting those that have been evicted because of what you all are talking about in these bills. And when we come, they come to us and we house them for over 24 months. We had to house them for over almost three years during the pandemic because there was nowhere for them to go. So we have committed not just to help with the policies, but to help with the building of the affordable housing that we need in our community. We are here to be a part of that cause, and we want to support you, and we ask that you support us. Thank you. Thank you very much for that. Anyone else? If not, since Delegate Thomas has arrived, it's time to adjourn. Second. Okay, thank you all so very much for being here this morning. So look for the notifications with regard to the work groups starting up their work. And the next full commission meeting will be, as I noted, August 18th, under the stellar leadership of Delegate Sewell. Thank you all very much.