What Isabel McLain has been doing at the Virginia Housing Alliance is no mean feat in this age of growing political partisanship.
As the director of policy and advocacy, she’s been successful in securing from the Virginia General Assembly an additional $12.5 million a year in funding for the Virginia Housing Trust Fund, a financial resource, normally under-resourced, that creates and supports affordable housing projects that cater to Virginia’s low-income residents. Since its inception, the VHTF has helped to spur at least 19,367 affordable units and supported over 8,500 households experiencing or at risk of homelessness. It’s now funded at $87.5 million per year, the most ever.
But McLain’s job is only getting harder. “We depend on the federal government for the vast majority of our funding for housing assistance,” she notes, adding that there are very significant threats to those funding sources. “There’s also this transition away from seeing people experiencing homelessness with dignity; and there’s a lot that we need to be pushing back on … Everybody really does deserve a safe place to sleep at night.”
In a short time, says the Alliance’s Executive Director Brian Koziol, McLain has become a trusted voice at the statehouse as members, on both sides of the aisle, turn to her for data and guidance related to housing affordability and homelessness services.
“She led an Advocacy Day in 2025 that connected affordable housing advocates and homelessness service providers with elected officials,” he says. “Isabel was also instrumental in securing bi-partisan support for 5000 Families, a statewide rental assistance program designed to help families with school-aged children stay in their homes.” While the legislation was eventually vetoed by the governor, “the overwhelming support by the General Assembly demonstrated how Isabel was able to bring the topic of affordable housing to the forefront of this year’s session,” he adds.
A Kentucky native, McLain also works closely with larger nonprofits like the National Low Income Housing Coalition and the National Coalition for the Homeless, while serving on the Junior Board of the Better Housing Coalition. There, she helps to throw fun fundraising events like an annual gingerbread house making competition at Hardywood Park Craft Brewery. “Last year we raised over $60,000 for the coalition, which was incredible.”
When she isn’t advocating for the homeless, McLain lives in Jackson Ward with her dog Jasper, a Pomeranian/Shih Tzu mix. “I’ve made a lot of friends through the live music scene,” she says, “and by going to all of the different live music events. I love Richmond. This is home for me. I feel very much myself here.”
