With about 40% of the workers in Martinsville and Henry County choosing to live elsewhere, the county is taking a first step to incentivize housing by waiving residential building fees.
The move comes amid an economic development jumpstart, with projects bringing in 328 jobs, officials said. Over the past year, the county announced three major projects — Rural King, Fokuku Korea and Nathan Trotter — that will bring an estimated investment of $123.9 million.
“Economic development and job creation needs to go hand in hand with having adequate housing for those employees and their families,” said Lee Clark, the county’s director of planning, zoning and building inspections. “When you’ve got good jobs and … not enough desirable housing for people to live, that’s a problem, and it needs to be fixed.”
The board of supervisors voted in June to waive the fees until July 1, 2028, for any construction or renovation exceeding or equal to $100,000. Waiving the fees is a “quick and easy way” to incentivize residential construction because it doesn’t cost the county or taxpayers, Clark said.
“People around the world don’t wake up thinking about Henry County every day,” said County Administrator Dale Wagoner. “So we’ve got to do these things and make them notice.”
County officials and local housing leaders agree that waiving the fees might not directly increase construction because the fees are small in comparison to building a home.
“It’s more of a gesture to state publicly that Henry County is open for business and open for construction,” said Joy Wood, the president of the South Central Virginia Home Builders Association.
The residential fees were previously eight cents per square foot. That would cost a homebuilder a couple hundred dollars, Clark said.
“It’s not substantial, but every dollar counts,” said Rives Coleman, the president of Rives S. Brown realty company. “The county’s not giving away a whole lot there but they’re saying, ‘hey, we’re friendly’ … and I think it’s a good move.”
However, dollars can add up quicker for developers who are building an apartment complex with nearly 50 units and have to install roads, water and sewer, Wagoner said, and the waived fees can make a much bigger difference.
Meanwhile, the South Central Virginia Home Builders Association was established last month to promote cooperation and find solutions to the housing demand. Wood spearheaded the creation of the region’s home builders association, which includes Martinsville, Henry County, Danville, Pittsylvania County and Halifax County. Wood said she hopes the county waiving residential fees will increase interest.
“If you’ve kind of been on the fence” about building a home, “now’s the time to do it,” Wood said.
Almost 10,000 workers in Martinsville and Henry County did not live in either locality, according to 2023 data, the most recent collected by the county. And, almost 11,000 Martinsville and Henry County residents commute somewhere else to work, including nearly 1,300 who travel to North Carolina, according to the 2023 data.
One problem is that workers who commute into Martinsville and Henry County don’t do a majority of their shopping there, Clark said.
“If we can get people who work here to live here, then they contribute back into the well-being of our community,” Wagoner said.
Textile departure results in lower housing stock
In the late 1980s, the Martinsville and Henry County area was considered the “Sweatshirt Capital of the World,” but when the textile industry moved overseas, it meant many employees had to leave, too.
“They moved with the jobs and moved out of the area,” said Coleman, of Rives Brown. “That’s where we lost a lot of people. I mean, I think at one point in the mid ’90s, early 2000s, there were 750 to 800 houses on the market. It’s crazy.”
Between 1990 and 2005, Martinsville and Henry County saw a population decrease of nearly 3,000 people, according to U.S. Census data. With a smaller population and an area going through a significant economic downturn, there was a lack of residential construction.
“It’s made the problem escalate because we haven’t been building them all along,” said Wagoner, the county administrator.
Since 2019, the population in Henry County has decreased by nearly 2,000 people, according to U.S. Census data. But it is expecting people to move to the area with the significant strides in economic development, Wagoner said.
“We have people moving back here and all we have is older stock of house or no stock at all,” Wagoner said.
The younger generations aren’t interested in older homes, Coleman said.
“That’s not what they’re looking for anymore,” Coleman said. “They want new, clean … they don’t want to fool with an old home.”
Although the textile industry left the area about 25 years ago, the county still has low numbers of new home construction. Between July of 2024 and June of 2025, there were 40 building permits for new homes, according to county records. Up until the end of May, there had only been 13 for 2026.
The county is also making an effort to remove unsafe homes or buildings to open locations for new construction.
Henry County tore down 16 homes in the Villa Heights area in 2024 because it was unsafe and drug blighted, Wagoner said. They have built four houses back so far.
The next steps to address housing will be planned out over the next six to 12 months, Wagoner said. They will be more substantial than waiving residential building fees and will require investments and policy decisions by the board of supervisors, Clark said.
The county is considering additional incentives such as tax rebates to people who build houses and assisting developers with building infrastructure, Wagoner said.
There’s plenty of land to build homes in Henry County, Coleman said, but it often requires putting in all the necessary infrastructure, like streets, curbing, water and sewer.
“To do all this, you know, you’re going to have to find money,” Coleman said.
