2016 in Review: Williamsburg tackles tourism, housing issues

(RECAP: City addresses housing: The city lacks affordable housing, and housing for senior citizens, according to officials who started researching the issues in the past year. Williamsburg doesn’t have enough market-rate senior housing. Mayor Paul Freiling mentioned in the city’s Goals, Initiatives and Outcomes that the city will actively look for solutions to the issue over the next two years at the very least. Affordable housing can be hard to obtain for some of the area’s underemployed residents, many of whom have jobs with restaurants, hotels and tourism attractions. Rita Smith, the executive director at Williamsburg Area Faith in Action, said nearly every senior housing facility has too high a price tag for poor families, or a long waiting list. Finding available land and enticing developers into the area is one of many steps the city would need to take, and by placing the initiative into its goals for the next two years, the city has shown the issue is and will continue to be on its radar.)