Home sweet home: A reach for many in Rappahannock, Fauquier and Culpeper

With contributed reports from Ireland Hayes, Hunter Savery and Allison Brophy Champion

Housing insecurity triggers stress, risk, despair

People who are financially secure and people who are financially strained both consider housing central to their well-being.

But beyond that baseline, their experiences with house and home diverge radically. The affluent find security in a home, while low-income workers encounter insecurity.

For well-off families, a house functions as an address and an investment, one likely to appreciate if owners can ride out the economic cycles. For lower-income families – forever-renters or owners chronically worried about foreclosure – housing is a vulnerability, a provisional arrangement poised to unravel as circumstances shift.

The housing budget for lower-income renters can claim as much as 50% of their  income, so that other priorities such as health, nutrition and education are crowded out.

Scanning the last four decades in Piedmont Virginia, the Housing Assistance Council, a national nonprofit that supports affordable housing in rural areas, found a quadrupling in the number of Culpeper and Fauquier renters paying over 30% of their income for housing, which is the generally accepted threshold for being cost-burdened. In Rappahannock, the number of cost-burdened renters tripled.

When a cyclone of bad luck comes via an illness, an injury, a layoff or a change of landlord, there are few shock absorbers to stave off a continuing spiral downward. Mortgage or rent payments falter, eviction notices follow and home mutates into a noisy shelter or a car tucked into a Walmart parking lot. Mental and physical health deteriorate, job performance suffers and families and social structures fray.

Tidbits of good luck and acts of kindness sporadically relieve the chronic strain of a real estate market that seems stacked against the young, the old and those stranded in lower-paid livelihoods. Organizations like Community Touch in Bealeton, Hero’s Bridge in Warrenton, and the Benevolent Fund in Washington hear about approaching crises, and can help avert evictions or secure transitional housing when homelessness becomes an immediate threat. 

Meanwhile, in state after state, including Virginia, governors and lawmakers are sounding alarms about the short supply and surging prices of homes. In Charlottesville last month, more than a thousand protestors of all ages gathered to demand more action and more investment in affordable housing. Earlier in the month, the Biden White House weighed in, recognizing that despite easing inflation and dropping unemployment, the housing squeeze is turning Americans into pessimists, convinced they’re falling behind.

The lucky few

Kayla Midkiff, 24, grew up in Rappahannock County and was happy to secure a job as a wellness integration specialist with Rappahannock County Public Schools. Finding a home in the county was far more difficult. “There was little to nothing,” she said. “It was like two, three-bedroom houses, or not even two bedroom houses for over $500,000. For two people just starting out, it was ridiculous.”

Like many others working at the schools, she and her husband, Dylan, 26, who works as a purchasing agent for a construction firm in Manassas, gave up on living in Rappahannock and accepted a commute, buying a house in Front Royal.

However, the Midkiffs were lucky. A parcel of family land in Flint Hill became available, and the couple plans on someday building a home there. “Without being born into land, I don’t know that it would be a possibility,” Midkiff said.

Mallory Grady, 30, has a master’s degree in education, an associate’s degree in culinary arts and works as a farm-to-school liaison for the Rappahannock-Rapidan Regional Commission. Her husband has an information technology job in Charlottesville.

Grady longed for a home in Culpeper, her hometown, but those on the market were too big and too costly. The couple lived in an apartment in Orange for a time, then spent more than a year residing with her parents and saving up.

Two years ago, they found a townhouse in Culpeper they could afford. Initially, feeling fortunate to have secured the house, they soon faced the downside of their move as a cascade of maintenance problems surfaced. The couple depleted their savings replacing the roof, the windows and the HVAC system.

Grady says contemporaries envy their good luck in finding a home that wasn’t too large or too expensive. “All my friends in our age group would buy homes like that,” she said. “There just don’t seem to be many available.”

Many young families are still straining to gain their first foothold in the housing market before it’s too late, while lower-paid older residents accept that they never made it onto the real estate escalator, and never will. Though renting provides a solution, renters are vulnerable to increases in the monthly rent – some sudden, some steady – and studies show they devote more of their income to housing than owners do.

Behind the statistics are individuals seeking living space in a housing market that too often seems to shut them out. Following are snapshots of Piedmont neighbors who navigate the precarious edge of America’s current housing market:

Steve Lillard

Rappahannock County: Social Security life-line falls short

After working more than three decades in a calf-and-cow operation near Middleburg, and holding a mix of jobs in Rappahannock County, Steve Lillard, now 67 and retired, is relieved to have secured three rooms to rent on Bump Lane off Gid Brown Hollow Road.

He prizes the washer-dryer that came with the place, and has lined the walls with hunting trophies, including the gaping head of a 300-pound wild hog he shot in Tennessee. It pleases him to find space in the tiny apartment to take in now and then a long-time friend with special needs.

But, as with thousands of other Virginians, Lillard understands that the modest life he composed this winter could easily fall apart. Each month he pays $800 in rent, or 57% of his financial lifeline — the $1,400 Social Security check that arrives each month. The remaining $600 has to cover food, electricity, car maintenance and fuel, telephone and internet service. National housing experts say that when housing costs exceed 30% of income, they become a risky burden; paying more than 50% is generally considered unsustainable.

“It’s very tight, but I make it,” Lillard said. But he added: “The Benevolent Fund paid my rent in February.” And while federally funded supplements help with food outlays, he sometimes needs to visit the Rappahannock Food Pantry, where donated food is available for free. Finally, Lillard notes, the apartment requires that he navigate a steep flight of stairs connecting the driveway to his front door. For a heavyset man with chronic arthritis and a bad hip, one wobble or misstep could wreck the fragile comforts of Bump Lane.

David Evans

Warrenton: Died waiting for a safe home

Like Steve Lillard, David Evans needed a home that was affordable and accessible – meaning without stairs. The stairs he had to climb to reach his shared apartment in Warrenton were similar to Lillard’s, but Evans’ mobility challenge was more acute: he couldn’t walk safely without a walker. 

Evans entered the Navy during the Vietnam War, serving on the USS O’Hare and the USS Vulcan. He received a Purple Heart after surviving a coma, caused when under enemy fire, he was hurled across a room.

Though Evans struggled post-service with alcohol abuse, he was close to his family and in his later years lived in Warrenton with his sister, Diana Bennett. For Evans, the disruption began when Bennett and her husband moved to the southwest corner of Virginia, and Evans insisted on sticking to Warrenton.

Bennett scrambled to find a new home for her brother, but she discovered that if finding an affordable home was difficult, finding one that was affordable and accessible was next to impossible.

Lacking a better solution, Evans settled for a shared apartment with stairs, understanding that it was temporary – and unsafe. Bennett worked the phones to find something better, but nothing was turning up in Warrenton. She left messages with a Veterans Administration assisted-living facility in Roanoke, but she says her calls were never returned. She kept scanning the real estate ads.

The search ended in September when Evans, at 73, died of alcohol poisoning. His sister regretted that she never found “the right fit” for her brother. “He was a really, really good guy and he deserved better.”

Donna Lane

Warrenton: Illness and the path to homelessness

In 2017, Warrenton resident Donna Lane, then in her late 50s, was working in Gainesville for two corporate giants – Walmart and Amazon.

The work was demanding, and often tiring, but she kept up with the schedule. Then a series of setbacks changed everything. She became sick and decided she needed to shed the Amazon job. “You have to be in tip-top health, and I wasn’t,” Lane said.

Lane didn’t discuss her finances in detail, but she said she initially managed to cover her expenses with the income from Walmart. But the ownership of her apartment building changed, and the new landlord hiked up the monthly rent by $300, which pushed the precarious living arrangement over the edge.

Lane moved in with friends while she searched for an apartment she could afford. The search dragged on, and she chose to move to a shelter rather than burden her friends. She scanned the ads daily for an apartment, and walked down busy roads to her Walmart job. Community Touch, a nonprofit based in Bealeton, helped with a move to transitional housing.

Lane, now 60, is still there, searching for an apartment. She still feels she is on the edge of homelessness.

Jerry Clatterbuck

Culpeper County: Destabilized by a landlord shift

Jerry Clatterbuck’s life was never easy. He weathered a hardscrabble childhood on a farm 15 miles from Culpeper. He endured a stressful and frightening military tour in Vietnam during the Tet Offensive, when the Viet Cong and the North Vietnam Army launched a major offensive against South Vietnam and its U.S. allies. His marriage ended in divorce in 1990 and he worked at a string of disconnected jobs that mostly covered basic expenses but left no savings for old age.

For 14 years, he enjoyed the comfort of a basement apartment in a Culpeper house, for the bargain rent of $500, under a sublease with friendly renters of the entire house.

A chain reaction was ignited when the owner of the house, elderly herself, broke her hip and needed to sell the house to finance her own care and lodging. The new owners planned renovations, followed by an increase in rents that put the location well beyond Clatterbuck’s budget. “I was between a rock and a hard place,” the 73-year-old veteran said.

Dependent on a $1,200 monthly check from Social Security, he found that at current levels, rent would consume everything, leaving little for food and other necessities. One of his two sons had explored building a new home in Madison, with space for his father, but he deemed interest rates too high to proceed with the project.

With eviction weeks away, and no plan for housing in sight, Clatterbuck was connected with Hero’s Bridge, a Warrenton nonprofit that helps elderly veterans. The organization secured a place in a former motel that offers “extended stay” arrangements. The cost is still above Clatterbuck’s budget, but Hero’s Bridge covers part of each month’s rent. It has also set up meal deliveries from Mom’s Meals, a service for needy residents.

Hero’s Bridge is pushing to establish a village in Warrenton, with small, accessible homes for financially strained elderly veterans. A staffer with the organization says Clatterbuck would be the ideal resident for the project. At this time though, zoning changes and other approvals for the village are still pending.

Meanwhile, volunteers delivered a microwave plus a comfortable chair and side table to the former motel where Clatterbuck lives. He has a spacious bathroom and a television. He likes to watch decades-old movies and episodes from TV westerns such as “Gunsmoke” and “Wagon Train.” Visits arranged by Hero’s Bridge brighten days that would otherwise pass without company or conversation.

Megan Dill

Sperryville: Preparing, sadly, to leave Rappahannock

Megan Dill and her family have been floored by the outpouring of support from the Rappahannock community after family illnesses made it impossible to pay monthly bills.

Now, the growing family needs more space. Available larger homes would break the family budget, she said, so they are preparing for the sad day they will have to say farewell to a community they love.

Dill, 29, her partner, Robert Orange, 31, and their three children have squeezed into a 1,000-square foot narrow shotgun-style house on Sperryville’s Main Street. Dill explained that a “kind-hearted“ landlord has set the family’s rent well below market levels, enabling them to remain in the house, even when they hit a financial rough patch at the end of last year.

“We have very much outgrown the house,” Dill said. “Our landlord keeps our rent very affordable.”

The scarcity of child care led Dill to quit a corporate job and patch together three part-time jobs. Last year, after the two youngest children went through a string of illnesses, she missed many work days and was worried about keeping food on the table. The Rappahannock Benevolent Fund helped the family sidestep a financial crisis.

Heating the historic but poorly insulated home is a beast, said Dill, with an   electric bill of about $400 a month. The family can budget about $2,000 a month for rent, and larger houses in the county cost far more.

“We have to leave,” Dill concluded. “It very much makes us sad . . . We love it here.”

About this project

Part One (Published March 14): A nationwide housing shortage brought down to the local level shows that homes are scarcer, costlier and more likely to be beyond the financial reach of teachers, health aides, elderly on fixed incomes and young adults.

Part Two (Today): Community Voices: Across the three counties —Culpeper, Fauquier and Rappahannock — young families, elderly and underemployed residents tell how the housing squeeze left them cornered.  

Part Three: Emerging solutions show nonprofits, government and the private sector at work in a spirit of innovation and compassion. But the partnerships, financial arrangements and political approvals require commitment, carefully structured teams and patience. 

This three-county series is a Foothills Forum collaboration with journalists from the Piedmont Journalism Foundation, Fauquier Times, Culpeper Star-Exponent and the Rappahannock News.

The series is funded in part by a grant from the PATH Foundation. In compliance with Foothills Forum’s Gift Acceptance Guidelines, PATH had no role in the selection, preparation or pre-publication review of these stories.