Charlottesville City Council voted in May 2013 to create a Human Right Commission to help investigate claims of discrimination in the community. In late January, another Council agreed to amend the ordinance to allow some of those investigations to be done on behalf of the federal government.
This afternoon, the Commission announced the opening of a public survey to determine what the body should focus on this year.
“For the past few years, the Human Rights Commission has selected housing affordability and homelessness as primary focus areas,” reads the announcement sent out at 12:20 p.m. this afternoon. “Commissioners conducted several initiatives centered around preserving and increasing affordability and accessibility of housing.”
Surveys are available in English and Spanish.
In both, participants are asked to choose between four options for the most important area for them to focus on. Respondents also have 400 characters to suggest another idea, and another 400 characters to provide a general comment.
The Human Rights Commission is a prolific body and the website lists several previous actions including recommendations in 2019 on the naming of public spaces and recommendations in 2023 for the city’s Development Code. This page also contains annual reports including 2014 to 2023.
The budget for the department increased from an actual of $197,436 in 2022 to a budgeted $465,171 for the current fiscal year. That includes the hiring of two additional staff members during that time.
Top image: An image from the 2023 annual report from the Human Rights Commission. (Credit: City of Charlottesville)
Before you go: This is the fifth segment from the next edition of Charlottesville Community Engagement that will likely go out today. It made sense to post it to Information Charlottesville first.
The work is part of Town Crier Productions, a company that seeks to inform people about what’s happening in the area in and around Charlottesville. You can support the work through Patreon, sign up for a subscription to the newsletter, or send in a check. If you do the latter, drop me a note first!
