Growing up in sleepy Fluvanna County, Jovan Burton knew he wanted to be in a city. Richmond seemed like the perfect fit.
So, after graduating from Hampden-Sydney College, Burton first moved to Richmond as a participant in AmeriCorps VISTA, a national service program designed to alleviate poverty. In that role, Burton conducted a year-long independent study on housing in the city.
At Partnership for Housing Affordability, the nonprofit arm of the Richmond Association of Realtors, Burton led the implementation of the Richmond Regional Housing Framework, established PHA’s Housing Resource Line that assists 8,000 low-income residents annually and managed the distribution of a $3 million grant from Virginia Housing to regional housing nonprofits. Burton says PHA’s role is to champion policies that allow for the building of more affordable housing.
“We’re a unique actor in this space because we don’t provide direct services. We don’t build housing,” Burton says. “We have that ability to be a trusted source for local government while also being an educational tool to further socialize this issue.”
Recently, Burton worked in partnership with Henrico to establish a $60 million affordable housing trust fund that PHA will administer. The fund will provide grants to private and nonprofit developers to build housing that will facilitate affordable homeownership. He says the move “will be a great turning point for how affordable housing gets done in Richmond.”
Burton serves on the boards of Housing Families First, Chamber RVA and the leadership committee of the Amandla Fund for Racial and Economic Justice. He is board chair of the Greater Richmond Continuum of Care and is board secretary of ACTS: Area Congregations Together in Service.
Affordable housing “should be viewed as something that’s a benefit for our community, not a liability,” Burton says. “It’s not a burden that we have to take care of. It’s something that, if we address holistically, our region will be better off for it, will thrive economically, will thrive in a more equitable manner.”
