City Manager Sanders provides update on Charlottesville’s efforts to assist the unhoused

One of the largest social issues facing Charlottesville and other communities across the United States of America is a growing number of people who do not have a place to live. Last October, City Manager Sam Sanders said he would dedicate himself to creating a plan to address the issue. 

Eleven months later, he provided an update to City Council at their meeting on September 4, 2024. 

“It is complicated,” Sanders said. “There is no single solution and if there is one I would have bought it by now but it doesn’t exist.” 

Sanders said there are many issues that compound the problems that many face and the city’s work toward a strategy continues.

“I have an internal working group, I’ve had external community conversations going on for the past few months,” Sanders said. “We are actively working with the Salvation Army and other partners hopefully to establish for the first time a permanent year-round low barrier shelter.”

Sanders said the earliest that might be in place is next summer and that he would have more details in the near future.  One issue is that there is not yet an entity that has the resources to operate a shelter. 

“That is going to be a very costly initiative,” Sanders said. “It will require a significant annual investment for us to be able to support those individuals who are outside struggling, to give them the ability to have at least that first rung available to them but a shelter is not the solution all by itself. It is just a rung on a ladder and there are a lot of rungs on that ladder.”

Sanders said the city is also applying more scrutiny to organizations that receive local government funding to provide services and those that aren’t measuring up may not continue to receive funding. There will soon be a work session in the near future to review a range of options.  

“City government can’t do it all so we’re going to need a number of partners to join us in that work,” Sanders said. 

Sanders has presented many of these options to Council in private meetings.

“From the initial conversations that we’ve had I think it’s promising,” said Vice Mayor Brian Pinkston. 

Snapshot of one source of funding

The consent agenda for the September 4 meeting included a grant and I’ll republish what I wrote in the Week Ahead preview for September 2. 

At that meeting, Council held the first of two readings on $470,805 in funding from the Virginia Department of Housing and Community Development that will go to the Blue Ridge Area Coalition for the Homeless. That agency serves as the “Continuum of Care” for the community and have a resource hotline that can be reached at 434-207-2328.

The money goes to eight specific categories but there’s no specific financial break-down in the packet.  (staff report) (resolution) (grant agreement with Virginia Homeless Solutions Program)

• Coordinated Assessment: Funding goes to The Haven which “serves as the physical front door to the homelessness system of care.”
• Emergency Low Barrier Shelter: This funding goes to PACEM for their cold-weather emergency shelters that operate at a rotating series of churches. 
• Rapid Rehousing and Housing Navigation: This funding goes to The Haven. Click here to learn more about this program.
• Case Management: This fund goes to The Haven for “supportive services, including crisis intervention, case management, and service referrals.” 
• Targeted Prevention: The Haven runs this program which assists households that are two weeks or less from losing their home.
• Homelessness Management Information System: This goes to the Blue Ridge Area Coalition for the Homeless to run their database of people who are experiencing homelessness. Other agencies also use this data, which goes by the acronym HMIS.
• Continuum of Care: The Blue Ridge Area Coalition for the Homeless gets funding for providing leadership of the overall system.
• The City of Charlottesville passes through $25,959 to BRACH and the Haven and does not get any funding though it is eligible to do so. This was originally reported incorrectly but corrected on September 15, 2024.

Purchasing land

Earlier this year, the city agreed to spend $4 million in American Rescue Plan Act funding to buy property at 405 Avon Street. The staff report for the January 22, 2024 meeting said one potential use would be a homeless shelter, but Sanders later backed off on that as a guaranteed use. 

Meanwhile, work continues toward establishing a land bank for Charlottesville which would purchase property for housing purposes.

Sanders met with the Housing Advisory Committee in August to get an update on their work to craft an ordinance. 

“We’re right now taking that through a legal review and the intention would be to bring that forward to allow Council to have some time to think about establishing a land bank as an additional affordable housing tool,” Sanders said. 

What do you want to know about all of these issues? What questions do you have? Drop me a line or leave a comment. 

Before you go: The time to write and research of this article is covered by paid subscribers to Charlottesville Community Engagement. In fact, this particular installment is from the September 10, 2024 edition of the newsletter. To ensure this research can be sustained, please consider becoming a paid subscriber or contributing monthly through Patreon.