Housing Stability is the Foundation of Dignity

I live in a rent-controlled apartment building in Norfolk designed to address the affordable housing crisis. It’s not glamorous. It’s practical. It works. And it proves something important: when government acts with restraint, care, and accountability, it can stabilize people during moments of disruption instead of pushing them closer to the edge.

Housing is not a luxury. It is the foundation of dignity, health, and economic stability. Yet too often, when people face illness, job loss, or a temporary crisis, housing policy turns delay and bureaucracy into punishment. A missed form, a slow review, or an opaque process can turn a short-term setback into long-term instability.

That is not inevitable. It is the result of choices.

Across Hampton Roads, families are doing everything right—working, caring for children, serving our community—yet still find themselves one medical bill or one delayed paycheck away from housing insecurity. When government systems hesitate in those moments, ordinary people pay the price.

The question I start from, across every issue, is simple: Does government use power to stabilize people—or to control or destabilize them?

On housing, the answer too often has been the latter.

Our current representative, Congressman Bobby Scott, has served in Congress since January 1993. Experience matters, and long service deserves respect. But longevity alone is not leadership. After 32 years in office, too many quiet failures persist—especially in areas like housing stability, where delay and fragmentation have become normalized.

In those three decades, housing costs have risen faster than wages, eviction protections remain inconsistent, and emergency support systems are often too slow to meet the moment. That’s not a partisan observation; it’s a lived reality for thousands of families across our region.

I didn’t come through a traditional political pipeline. I came through lived experience inside the systems people encounter at their most vulnerable—housing, healthcare, finance, and law. I’ve seen how small procedural failures cascade into life-altering consequences. And I’ve seen how modest, well-designed interventions can prevent that cascade entirely.

That’s why, if elected, one of my first actions in Congress will be to introduce the Housing Continuity and Dignity Act.

The bill is guided by a simple principle: bureaucratic delay during crisis should never be the trigger for homelessness.

Specifically, the Housing Continuity and Dignity Act would require notice and mediation before eviction during documented medical or economic crises; expand and streamline emergency rental assistance triggers so help arrives when it’s actually needed; strengthen protections against retaliatory evictions; and fund housing navigators who help tenants understand and assert their rights before problems spiral.

This is not about absolving responsibility. It’s about proportionality. It’s about recognizing that when someone is already under pressure, piling on complexity and delay doesn’t improve outcomes—it makes them worse.

The building I live in shows what’s possible. It was designed intentionally to be affordable, predictable, and fair. Residents know what to expect. Landlords know the rules. Stability replaces fear. That model should not be the exception—it should be the baseline. 

Too often, we accept housing instability as an unfortunate byproduct of modern life. It isn’t. It’s the result of policy choices that prioritize procedural convenience over human continuity.

Congress sets the standards for how power is exercised across agencies and programs. When Congress hesitates, ordinary people pay the price. When Congress acts with clarity and accountability, systems work better—for everyone.

I’m not running to be loud. I’m running to be effective.

This race matters because leadership matters most before crisis becomes catastrophe. Housing policy isn’t abstract. It determines whether children stay in the same school, whether families can recover from illness, and whether communities remain intact.

We can do better. We already know how. What’s missing isn’t knowledge—it’s urgency and accountability.

It’s time for representation that treats housing stability as a cornerstone of dignity, not an afterthought.

Justin Garvin Maffett is a candidate for Congress in Virginia’s 3rd District.