By Rev. Dr. Keith Savage, Senior Servant, First Baptist Church of Manassas and Rev. Dr. Michael Sessoms, Pastor, Little Union Baptist Church (Dumfries)
For centuries, the African American church has been the backbone of our Virginia communities. Our congregations — First Baptist Church of Manassas, founded in 1872, and Little Union Baptist Church, established in 1903 — have been places of worship, organizing, refuge and leadership through Reconstruction, Jim Crow, and generations of upheaval.
Today, we face a different kind of threat. It’s quieter than the ones our grandparents faced, but it’s hollowing us out just the same.
It has become unbearably expensive to live in Northern Virginia.
It is our sincere hope that Virginia lawmakers, now debating hundreds of bills during the General Assembly session, will invest in housing solutions to meet the dire needs of our congregants and residents statewide.
We’re losing our people
We have lost count of how many faithful, longtime members have left our region for the Carolinas, Georgia, Texas and Florida. They’re not leaving because they suddenly prefer those states’ politics or because they no longer love this community.
Elders who are retiring and young families trying to raise children simply cannot afford to stay.
Over the past month alone, our two congregations have lost five longtime families to retirement moves down south, where housing is affordable and their savings actually stretch.
Increasingly, our goodbye gatherings outnumber our baptisms.
When these families go, we lose more than numbers. We lose our history. We lose our mentors, our choirs, our ushers, our Sunday school teachers — leaders who invested in our churches for decades. Communities that took generations to build are being slowly dismantled. Not by a lack of faith, but by a lack of housing people can afford.
Even when young families join our churches, many are soon priced out of Prince William County. They’re forced to move farther away or leave Virginia altogether.
It’s not just about church
Every week, people from the neighborhoods surrounding our congregations come to our doors with tears in their eyes, asking for help to make rent. Our food pantry lines grow longer as families are forced to choose: food on the table or a roof over their heads.
And as our congregations shrink, we’re left with fewer resources to help people navigate a crisis that grows more severe by the day.
Virginians across the commonwealth understand this. Polling last summer showed Virginians view housing costs as the single biggest issue facing our state — cutting across region, race, and party.
Despite that consensus, our housing system remains locked in place.
The problem is simple
In much of Virginia, local rules make it illegal or nearly impossible to build the kinds of homes working adults and families actually need. Smaller homes. Apartments. Homes near jobs, transit and existing communities.
With too few homes available, families get pushed into bidding wars. Rents climb. Homeownership slips further out of reach.
This isn’t just a Northern Virginia problem. When one region shuts the door on new housing, pressure builds in the next one, raising prices everywhere. That’s why this statewide crisis requires leadership at the state level — just as Virginia already provides for transportation, education and public safety.
There’s a path forward
This year, the General Assembly is considering several bills that would take meaningful steps forward. And this week, as bills passed by the House or Senate move to the other chamber, lawmakers have several chances to take a stand for affordability.
One promising bill would allow faith institutions like ours to build affordable housing on our own property, with clear standards. That speaks directly to our call to love our neighbors. The House and Senate have passed their own versions of this bill. This week, they must work together to send it to the governor’s desk.
Other legislation would make it easier to add modest homes in existing neighborhoods, redevelop empty strip malls, and eliminate outdated parking rules that quietly drive up housing costs.
None of these proposals are radical. Many other states — red and blue — have adopted similar reforms. They enjoy broad public support. And they would unlock desperately needed homes without costing taxpayers a dime.
Virginia’s new gubernatorial administration campaigned on making life more affordable for families. When it comes to housing — the single biggest expense most households face — this is the test.
It’s one thing to run on affordability. It’s another to summon the courage to break from a failed status quo.
We want Virginia to be a place where people can build a life, raise children, retire with dignity and remain rooted in the congregations and communities they love. But it will require elected leaders truly willing to lead — so our churches, and our people, are not priced out of the commonwealth we have all worked so hard to build.