Virginia Could Tweak Its Eviction Diversion Program Law Next Year, Legislators Say

An eviction diversion program Virginia piloted before making permanent this year is likely to be further revised in next year’s legislative session, lawmakers said at a Virginia Housing Commission meeting Thursday.

The program — which was first tested in Richmond, Danville, Hampton, and Petersburg — allows delinquent renters and landlords to negotiate before people are removed from their homes. It means that tenants who fell behind on rent may qualify for the diversion program, but certain criteria still pose a barrier to the people who could benefit from it.

For instance, eligible people can’t have fallen behind on rent more than twice in the past six months or more than three times in the past year, can’t have previously utilized the eviction diversion program within the past year, and must be able to pay 25% of what they owe as they enter the program. They also can’t have used a right-of-redemption, when tenants pay their owed rent before an eviction court date to avoid the proceeding.

But people who face a struggle to pay rent to the point that they need an eviction diversion program are likely to have been late on rent a few times in the months leading up to seeking the program, Housing Opportunities Made Equal policy director Laura Dobbs said.

“People have been trying to do the right thing, to catch up, and they haven’t been able to, so now they have this one last-ditch program,” she said.

Data presented to the Housing Commission on Thursday showed mixed success with the cities that have stood up eviction diversion programs, as causes for evictions are often nuanced.

Richmond saw a dip in 2023 from pre-pandemic levels, but evictions rose again in 2024. Hampton saw a consistent drop, while Danville was fairly level, and Petersburg saw relatively static numbers before a small decrease last year. The commission reviewed pre-pandemic years along with 2023 onward; the period of 2020 through 2022 could be an outlier considering COVID-19-era protections.

Rent in Virginia has risen by about 1% over the past year, and Virginia is ranked the 12th most expensive state to rent in, according to data from Apartments.com, a leading housing search tool.

Between inflation, rising rent, and often stagnant wages, the consensus is that meeting the criteria may only become harder for people, Virginia Poverty Law Center policy director Christine Marra said.

“We’re going to see fewer people take advantage (of the program),” she told members of the commission Thursday.

It’s why Del. Adele McClure, D-Arlington, said she plans to adjust the law in 2026. Del. David Bulova, D-Fairfax, and Sen. Mamie Locke, D-Hampton, emphasized that adjustments could mean a more successful program and that more people need it.

McClure, who is also a member of the commission, spearheaded making the program statewide and permanent in this year’s legislative session.

In an interview after the meeting, she said that she wants to make the program “more expansive and more inclusive.”

McClure recalled experiencing evictions herself when she was growing up, which gave her personal familiarity with how disruptive it can be. Those experiences have shaped her passion for housing policy since she became a state lawmaker.

Addressing housing affordability and stability was a pillar of winning campaigns this year, from Gov.-elect Abigail Spanberger’s race to many of Virginia’s House of Delegates candidates’ contests, setting the stage for it to become a prominent policy focus in the 2026 legislative session.

Dobbs, of HOME, noted that policies that perhaps needed more workshopping or that did pass the legislature in the past before being vetoed by outgoing Gov. Glenn Youngkin could fare better next year.

Examples include proposals to extend Virginia’s five-day grace period to 14 days for renters behind on rent and to prohibit landlords from denying housing to applicants with an eviction proceeding on their record, even if they won the legal battle.

With holidays and the 2026 legislative session approaching, McClure said lawmakers will be fine-tuning their proposals and preparing to deliberate on them. Housing, she said, is intrinsic to so many other things.

“Housing is the foundation for access to child care, for access to education, to health care, to anything that is an essential need,” she said.

by Charlotte Rene Woods, Virginia Mercury

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