Since 2019, Barry Merchant has supported BHC’s affordable housing mission. As it turns out, he is an expert in affordable housing and housing policy, having devoted his entire career to it.

Barry embarked on his housing career in 1978 after earning a Master of Urban Planning degree from Princeton. Following a two-year tenure at the City of Portsmouth Planning Department where he contributed to developing the city’s first housing plan, Barry moved to Richmond. There, he joined the newly established Virginia Department of Housing and Community Development’s (DHCD’s) Office of Housing. In 1984, Barry joined the Virginia Housing Development Authority (now Virginia Housing), where he stayed until retiring in 2023. Over his nearly 40 years at Virginia Housing, Barry analyzed housing needs and market conditions, and played a key role in shaping state housing policy.

We were eager to hear Barry’s insights on housing trends he has observed and researched throughout his extensive career. We are delighted to have the opportunity to learn from him and deeply appreciate his willingness to share his knowledge and expertise.

BHC: Over the span of your career, how have you observed the landscape of housing in Virginia change? / What are some of the most pressing housing issues facing Virginia today compared to when you began your career?

Barry: When I first started my career, Virginia was still struggling to address a serious legacy of poor quality inner-city and rural housing conditions. Public policy was mainly focused on replacing substandard housing with new quality housing units for households being displaced. Neighborhood revitalization and urban renewal were the focus of much of state and local government efforts.

In addition, the enormous Baby Boom generation (e.g. those born between mid-1946 and mid-1964) was trying to achieve homeownership during a period of high inflation and record high mortgage interest rates, so Virginia Housing and local governments were also focused on providing mortgage assistance to first-time homebuyers.

Since that time, poor quality housing has been substantially reduced through building code standards and enforcement, and publicly funded demolition efforts. However, in focusing on housing quality, the cost of housing has been driven up substantially. Now the housing challenge is mainly one of cost, rather than quality.

BHC: Could you highlight key trends or shifts in housing patterns or demographics that you’ve observed during your tenure?

Barry: The needs of young households entering the housing market were front and center when I first started my career, due to the needs of the Baby Boom generation. This made affordable housing a high public priority. As the Baby Boomers moved into middle age and were followed by a smaller “Baby Bust” generation (Gen X), the focus of new housing production moved away from rental housing and small starter homes, and instead focused on larger, more expensive “trade up” housing on much larger lots. This ate up enormous amounts of buildable land in urban areas and substantially drove up the cost of land. Now, Millennials and Gen Z have again increased the need and demand for smaller, more affordable housing. However, developable land for housing is now scarce and too costly to enable the construction of lower cost units without public subsidies.

BHC: Can you share insights into any notable successes or challenges in addressing homelessness and housing insecurity in Virginia throughout your career?

Barry: A decade ago, Virginia adopted the “housing first” model for addressing homeless needs. This model prioritizes rapid movement of homeless and at-risk households into permanent supportive housing over lengthy stays in emergency or “transitional” housing. The housing first model has generated substantial coordinated state and local inter-agency efforts to expand supportive housing for homeless people along with an array of disability populations previously lacking safe and accessible permanent community housing alternatives.

The challenge of this model is that it requires ongoing rental assistance subsidies for tenants and so is challenging to bring to scale. However, the long-run cost of permanent supportive housing is lower than the cost of either emergency homeless services or incarceration/institutionalization, which often serve as the only housing alternative.

BHC: Have you witnessed any notable shifts in public perception or attitudes towards affordable housing and housing policy in Virginia throughout your career?

Barry: Unlike poor housing quality, which is readily seen and understood by the public, unaffordability doesn’t become real to many people until they directly experience it themselves.  This largely explains the public apathy toward affordable housing during the decades when the inventory of poor-quality housing was declining but the middle class could still largely afford a home purchase. Now that households of all income levels are experiencing challenges in locating available, quality, affordable housing that meets their needs, we are again seeing housing policy and affordability issues gaining prominent public attention.

BHC: Looking ahead, what do you foresee as the most critical priorities or opportunities for housing policy and advocacy in Virginia in the coming years based on your extensive experience?

Barry: Today, the public is focused on a reduction in mortgage rates as the solution to housing affordability.  Unfortunately, the extremely low level of mortgage rates over the past two decades was an historic anomaly, driven largely by federal stimulus that cannot be sustained over the long-term. Relief will have to largely come from increased housing supply and development cost savings.

This will require a broad change in land use practices to allow for increased housing density, as well as much wider adoption of lower cost construction practices (e.g. increased use of modular housing components and other construction innovations). These changes are difficult to implement without broad public support. Therefore, advocacy needs to focus just as much at the local level on public education/awareness of land use issues and construction innovations as at the state and federal level on increased subsidy funding.