Fredericksburg Area Association of REALTORS® Supports Affordable Housing Development with Thirty-Day Video Campaign (website)
In Fredericksburg, Virginia, as in so many other regions across the country, there is not nearly enough affordable housing – and not enough housing stock for REALTORS® to sell. And, while the Fredericksburg Area Association of REALTORS® (FAAR) does not back particular development projects, when a promising affordable housing community developed by a local non-profit cleared certain zoning hurdles, the REALTORS® launched a pointed public awareness campaign timed to coincide with the City Council’s final consideration of the project. This ‘arms-length’ support was made possible by a Consumer Advocacy Outreach Grant from the REALTOR® Party.
FAAR Government Affairs Director Kim McClellan explains that the 100-unit Jeremiah Community is “the kind of project we’ve been talking about forever. It’s worth tens of millions of dollars, will create one hundred housing units, and will provide services to help transition the homeless. It’s being developed by Micah Ministries, one of FAAR’s partner organizations, which has done a great job of shepherding the project through numerous zoning complexities; although association policies prevent us from directly supporting specific developments, we were determined to raise public understanding of the issues driving or blocking what these housing advocates are trying to do.”
Strategically timed to air for thirty days preceding the public hearings addressing the most important considerations for the project, the online campaign featured poignant testimonials by two local individuals: one, a working single mother repeatedly shut out of the homebuying process, and the other, an affiliate member of FAAR who works as a housing counselor.
“Our goal was to highlight how challenging the market is now, and I think the videos did a good job of that,” says McClellan. “We knew there could be some serious opposition, because an attempt to approve zoning for Accessory Dwelling Units recently went down in flames. With that in mind, we knew we should be putting effort in to creating a more sympathetic and positive environment for affordable housing.”
The campaign footage was filmed at the association’s simple in-house studio by a local house photographer and videographer, as part of his in-kind arrangement for affiliate membership in FAAR. “Access to our members is a valuable asset, and we love that some affiliates will provide services in exchange for membership. It’s a high-value, no-cash, win-win for both sides,” notes McClellan. An advisory focus group of members with an interest in public policy devoted hours to reviewing all the campaign material at various stages of production, and the approved video and written copy was delivered to NAR partner Real Strategies to be placed in a template and customized to connect with the local market. The nearly five-minute video was embedded on a dedicated webpage featuring key affordable housing statistics, and several fifteen- and thirty-second teasers were deployed to grab attention on social media. The campaign paid to boost the ads widely in the region, and by the time it was over, the video had been viewed hundreds of thousands of times.
The Jeremiah Community was approved by the Fredericksburg City Council, and McClellan likes to think that the campaign helped pave the way; she also believes the development could be a model for affordable housing programs elsewhere in the region – and beyond. “The NAR programs are a gamechanger!” she says. “They’re so easy to work with. It’s daunting to think of bidding out a project and hiring your own consultant, but the REALTOR® Party has its own team, ready to go, out of the box. The ability to rely on them for professional production and smart distribution allowed us to concentrate on our message and goals.”
To learn more about how the Fredericksburg Area Association of REALTORS® is working to raise awareness of housing supply challenges and efforts to create more affordable housing in the region, contact Kim McClellan, Government Affairs Director, at kmcclellan@faarmembers.com.
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