The fight against price gouging: affordable housing discussions continue

By Grace Bennett

On November 18, the Loudoun County Board of Supervisors convened to discuss the current state of affordable housing applications. The pilot program for attainable housing—approved in October 2025—is being polished to ensure that its draft policies are as beneficial as possible for residents in the area.

Housing, Chair Phyllis J. Randall (D-At Large) communicated, is no small matter within Loudoun County. “This is one of the largest discussions we’re going to have to address this year as we go down to the general assembly,” she forewarned. 

Finances are becoming increasingly problematic for residents. Randall added, “Between 2020 and now, rent has gone from $1,618 to $2,310 [per month]—in five years … people can’t afford to live here, and that’s true all over the Commonwealth.”

The attainable housing program is attempting to combat the rise in costs to provide a greater number of homes at lower prices in the metro area. The current price trajectory portends doom for rental properties.

“My concern here is that we’ll end up seeing fewer rentals ultimately because fewer units will go into the rental market,” said Matthew F. Letourneau (R-Dulles). 

“We have got to do something because what’s happening right now is price gouging, is rent gouging, and going up 40 percent in 5 years is unsustainable,” agreed Randall.

Attendees—the Board and Staff alike—were unanimous that the County support statewide anti-rent-gouging programs, even if no rent stabilization process is being established.

The most recent developments on the affordable housing legislation have involved Board discussions on language accessibility, power/energy distribution, and generators—although Staff documentation covers more general issues such as application qualification criteria and timelines.

Language accessibility has been brought up several times over the course of multiple meetings. One of the Transportation and Land Use Committee representatives lobbied for “a bill to ensure that the five most-spoken languages are translated within the summaries on lease agreements. This was a bill that passed the general assembly and was vetoed [because] there were already bills that passed the general assembly requiring summaries to be provided for lease agreements.

“However, it is important to note that there were no translation requirements in those bills. This bill—or the bill that was vetoed—would have required that translation aspect occur.”

Members of the Board agreed that they would plan to review language accessibility as conversations continue into the future. 

Awareness is rising regarding energy for affordable properties, too. There needs to be a “middleman” or a representative to ensure that power is appropriately distributed to areas with land use applications.

On the subject of power and electricity, meeting attendees discussed the policies surrounding tier four backup generators. Conversation on this topic was brief, but it was made clear that tier four backup generators should be used only in emergencies due to their low financial sustainability despite being known as cleaner power sources.

Staff documentation addresses other semantics of affordable housing legislation. Recent clarifications have been made to its guidelines to say that a missed deadline on the part of an external referral agency will not prevent an application from moving forward. 

So, for example, if the Virginia Department of Transportation fails to meet an expedited deadline, then the individual applicant will not be delayed or canceled. Application qualification criteria are being worded more in favor of individuals, too, by stating that Staff will adhere to established deadlines.

“There seems to be an emerging belief that might be true for some localities—although absolutely not true for Loudoun County, for Fairfax County, for Arlington County—that municipalities do not want to build housing or attainable housing,” said Randall. She confidently concluded: “That is just not true.”

Discussions on affordable housing legislation will continue through December and into 2026. The Board of Supervisors and relevant Staff are committed to providing financially viable properties for all of Loudoun County’s residents and residents-to-be.