RD332 - The Indoor Plumbing Program


Executive Summary:
Item 104 B.3 of the 2007 Appropriations Act requires the Department of Housing and Community Development (DHCD) to prepare a report on the Indoor Plumbing Program.

DHCD has administered indoor plumbing improvement activities since 1989. The current Indoor Plumbing Rehabilitation (IPR) Program improves substandard housing for income-qualified households in non-entitlement localities by installing indoor plumbing in units lacking complete facilities (or those where existing water supply or waste disposal systems has failed).

For twenty years the Indoor Plumbing Rehabilitation program has helped reduce the number of occupied homes lacking complete indoor plumbing. However, changes in census methodology and the relatively small proportion of homes remaining in this category will make census data an imperfect guide to the problem in the next decade. There will, nevertheless, continue to be areas of the Commonwealth where this remains a relatively significant component of the overall housing quality problem. Many of the affected homes will be located in places that are difficult to serve because of their isolation, remoteness from viable drinking water sources, or other site-related factors.

Each year the program has obligated and expended all available funds to complete the upgrading of deficient units. Because DHCD recognizes limits on the availability of state funding for this program, it has developed and encouraged options for leveraging additional funds from federal, local, and private sources. The creation of Virginia Community Capital and the introduction of supplemental loans are the most recent examples of this approach. By encouraging and incentivizing efforts to leverage outside funding sources, DHCD attempts to stretch state appropriations to the fullest possible extent.

Controlling program costs has been a challenge in the recent housing market. By focusing on maintaining a reasonable set of housing quality standards, setting limits on the amount of work that can be completed under the rehabilitation option versus reconstruction, using appropriate approaches to lead hazards, and other steps DHCD has attempted to dampen inflationary impacts. Whether the current economic circumstances of the housing industry affect the program adversely or positively will become clearer in the next year.

Alternatives to rehabilitation have long been a feature of the program. In the most recent three-year period, substantial reconstruction has been more common than rehabilitation. If the remaining stock of units lacking complete plumbing is in poorer condition than the units that have been served by the program in the past, relocation and reconstruction or the use of manufactured units may become more prevalent. At any rate, the overall program design and the policies that implement it will continue to emphasize the most cost-effective response to the circumstances encountered on the ground.