By Stephen Smoot
Last month, the Region Eight Economic Planning and Development Council hosted a
presentation and information gathering session by Daniel Eades , an associate professor and rural
development specialist with West Virginia University Extension Service in Morgantown.
He came to Petersburg to share data accumulated about housing in the Potomac Highlands while
also getting the perspectives of local elected and economic development officials.
The invitation to Eades comes after reports in recent years of a shortage of housing throughout
the area. His visit comes as part of a statewide needs assessment conducted by the West Virginia
Housing Development Fund as part of a partnership with Virginia Polytechnic University.
He explained that the purpose of the study lay in “helping communities to address housing
needs” by “looking at where and why things are happening.”
Scotty Miley, Grant County Commissioner, shared that local conditions create “a perfect storm
to have a housing crisis.”
Eads provided information to the Council both at the regional and county level. Region Eight
counties include Pendleton, Grant, Hardy, Hampshire, and Mineral. Both Eads and Council
members stated that reference to county boundaries in housing studies can get complicated, due
to the fact that many reside in one county, yet work in another.
The total population of the region sits currently at 81,671 with almost 31,000 households. Four in
five own households lie in owned homes while renters live in the remainder.
As stated in annual Region Eight planning meetings, the five county region lacks two kinds of
crucial housing. It faces shortages in both housing for sale and rental units for “extremely and
very low income households.” Costs for housing have increased in Hampshire and Hardy, while
remaining below the statewide median in Grant and Pendleton
The word median can be misleading, merely representing the number halfway between the
highest and lowest in a set. It is not an average of the numbers in the set and, if used alone with
no other contextual data, can create a false perception. This is not to say that officials have used
this term to intentionally mislead, but some may mistake the term for other concepts.
Median single wage earners, according to the study presented by Eades, can afford to rent, but
not to buy.
Multiple dynamics work against the expansion of affordable housing stock. One reason has its
root in one of the area’s more beneficial values. Frugal renters and owners often choose to
remain in low cost housing, even though they can afford more expensive options.
Competition, however, for affordable low income housing has intensified over recent years. The
Pilgrims Pride complex of chicken processing plants relies heavily on foreign imported labor. To
house them, the company pays landlords significantly higher rents than locals with low incomes
can afford.
Dave Workman, Hardy County Commissioner, spoke to this when he described an experience he
had during door knocking for his campaign. He shared that he came upon a trailer inhabited by
13 people, dividing the time between some who worked on night and others who worked day
shifts.
Landlords have received as much as $900 per month to house laborers, according to Miley. He
also described “a bidding war for a run-down hotel in Petersburg” where a property valued at
$200,000 sold for $800,000.
Another area of housing shortage often focused on by local officials, but not state, lies in homes
for the middle class of earners. Miley explained that “the big issue we’re missing in this area is
housing for young professionals.” He went on to explain that “we recruit nurses to the hospital
and they can’t find places to stay.”
Meanwhile, he also noted that the rise of interest rates and the cost of materials to either
construct or repair houses have climbed to unaffordable levels for many. Miley shared that it has
led to “a major crisis in our area.” Mineral County Commissioner Roger Leatherman echoed
Miley’s frustration when stating that new high income employees at Rocket Center choose to
live in Maryland, rather than Mineral County, because of the lack of housing for professionals.
Regardless of the type of housing needed, the lack of infrastructure in developable areas has also
blocked growth. Steve Schetrom II, Hardy County Commissioner, explained that if developers
did not have to pay to build it out themselves, that they could construct more housing than
currently.
The study broke down median housing costs by county. Statewide, homeowners paid a median
monthly cost of $1,180 for a home with a mortgage and $371 for one fully paid off. Pendleton
County residents, in comparison, paid a median of $924 for a home with a mortgage and $331
for one without, in both cases, lowest in the area.
Rents statewide hit a median of $618 for contract and $831 for gross rent. Pendleton County saw
$413 and $667 for each, respectively.
Mineral County faced the highest costs while Pendleton and Grant enjoyed the lowest of all in
the Region.
Another facet to the professional housing shortage lies in where professionals prefer to live
versus where they have to work. Bob Hott, Hampshire County Commission President, stated that
many who earn high wages in the far Eastern Panhandle would rather live in Hampshire County
and commute to Berkeley or Jefferson. Hot said that he himself once “used to drive two and a
half hours a day.”
People prefer a “rural way of life,” Hott stated. He went on to explain that Hampshire County
sought to avoid the type of growth seen particularly around Moorefield.
Leatherman agreed with Hott, but warned that those who move in from outside and “try to push
their way of life in our rural area . . . it doesn’t work too well. It creates a little animosity.”
Carl Heavner, Pendleton County Commission President, noted a slightly different dynamic with
his county’s relationship with Harrisonburg and Rockingham County, Virginia. He said “our
county is more of a retirement county, like Highland County in Virginia.” That said, he added
that many work in Virginia and live in Pendleton, as well as vice versa.
The impact of land values held Heavner’s attention, as he related that costs in Pendleton County
have at least doubled. He also shared that a near 60 acre piece of land that he purchased recently
for $128,000 had quadrupled in value. That built on a point made by Hott previously that “as our
valuations go up, our taxes go up.”
After a Council member referred to the possibility of Sugar Grove becoming low income
housing for labor, Heavner replied by saying there are “so many negative things” that would
spring from that, least of which being the very limited capabilities of the infrastructure, schools,
law enforcement, and emergency services in the Brandywine and Sugar Grove areas.
Toward the close of the meeting, Eades floated a suggestion that part of the hotel-motel tax be
set aside for housing, a proposal immediately shot down by elected officials. Hott responded by
saying that the state could empower counties by providing financial support “and let us control
it.”
