Data Centers are Crushing Communities. One Virginia County is Changing That.

Henrico County, Virginia, home to the Richmond metro area and an epicenter for new data centers, is using the growth of data centers to fund affordable housing.

As Christina Plerhoples Stacy explains in a piece for the Urban Institute’s Urban Wire, “Using tax revenue from data centers, Henrico County seeded a new affordable housing trust fund to fuel homeownership and long-term housing affordability. This financing means developers don’t need to rely on federal programs with long processes and complex compliance hurdles.” The program also shores up funding in a time when federal housing assistance is in jeopardy.

By leveraging the success of data centers in the region, Henrico County offers a unique funding model for affordable housing that turns a potential liability into a community asset, helping to prevent displacement and a steep increase in housing costs.

According to Stacy, “The fund is projected to support the construction of roughly 150 homes per year for moderate-income buyers earning between 60 and 120 percent of the area median income, allocated over the next five years.” This approach increases affordability for residents and reduces red tape for developers, giving the county a more sustainable form of revenue that doesn’t depend on federal dollars.

The article also outlines how federal policy can support programs like Henrico County’s affordable housing trust fund by creating tax incentives for land sales to mission-driven organizations, modernizing requirements for federal programs, and allowing innovative revenue stream to contribute to matching federal funds.