Charlottesville City Council holds first reading of allocations for affordable housing projects

Charlottesville received six applications in the latest cycle of grants from the Charlottesville Affordable Housing Fund (CAHF) and City Council on March 17 held the first of two readings to fund five of them.

“The CAHF is a key funding tool for advancing city housing goals, ensuring organizations working to preserve, rehabilitate and build affordable housing receive the resources needed to make a tangible impact in our community,” said Antoine Williams, the city’s housing program manager.

This time around there is $823,000 in the fund and the CAHF Committee recommended allocating a total of $788,000 leaving a balance of $35,000. Here are the funded requests:

• $240,000 to Albemarle Home Improvement Program (AHIP) for repairs to a dozen houses. This fully funds AHIP’s request.
• $88,000 for Community Services Housing for repairs in 20 units they manage. This fully funds their request.
• Habitat for Humanity of Greater Charlottesville requested $160,000 to support home ownership for four households below 60 percent of the area median income (AMI). The memo also hints that this is being done as a pilot project on a site that now allows higher residential density than previously under the new Development Code.
• The Piedmont Housing Alliance asked for and is recommended to receive $200,000 for a project at 905 Rives Street to be built under their Piedmont Community Land Trust. Piedmont Housing Alliance purchased the 0.434 acre property last June for $300,000. So far, there are no applications in the city’s development portal for this address.
• The Piedmont Housing Alliance asked for and is recommended to receive $100,000 for the Piedmont Community Land Trust to build two homes at 356 11th Street NW. The land trust acquired the property in September 2024 for $73,150.

The application that was not recommended for funding by the CAHF Committee was a request from the group Preservation of Affordable Housing for their project to build 180 units in a six story building at 1000 Wertland Street. They had asked for $823,000.

“While the committee recognized the value of the 180 unit project in that it purports to offer a benefit to our housing market and that it will relieve the pressures on units that will be occurring naturally, affordable units and potentially rented out by college students, they felt at this time and for the level of funding their request was $823,000, which is the entire CAHF, that this wasn’t necessarily the right vehicle funding mechanism for a project like this for consideration,” Williams said.

The 1000 Wertland project is one of three that will be built on land contributed by the University of Virginia or its real estate foundation.

City Councilor Michael Payne said the 1000 Wertland project also came with a $3 million request in capital improvement funds, similar to what has been provided for both the Charlottesville Redevelopment and Housing Authority and the Piedmont Housing Alliance.

“Whether you agree on principle UVA should contribute nothing to this project, that’s money the city, you know, very possibly just doesn’t have,” Payne said.

City Councilor Brian Pinkston, a UVA employee, said he felt the institution has been clear that land would be their contribution.

“That’s of significant value,” Pinkston said. “And they also feel like they’ve been very vocal from the very beginning that that would be their contribution. And if other people read into it, you know, they’re going to spend the money, they’re going to actually pay for all the housing itself. That wasn’t the intention.”

Payne said he had talked to many people who felt that UVA would be paying for the land.

A press release from December 2021 when the three sites were selected was clear.

“No UVA funds will be spent on building construction,” reads that article.

Payne said regardless of what UVA said, UVA is a much larger organization.

“It’s a challenging situation for the city, that amount of money,” Payne said. “When you compare, you know, our budget of around $250 million versus an annual operating budget of, you know, close to 3 billion with an endowment of over 15 billion.”

However, Preservation of Affordable Housing included some of that funding in the financial material required for their application for Low-Income Housing Tax Credits from Virginia Housing. A request for additional information from the organization has not yet been returned. You can download that application here.

There will be a second reading of this item at Council’s next regular meeting on April 7.

Top photo: A rendering of 501 Cherry Avenue (Credit: Piedmont Housing Alliance)

Before you go: This is a story that originally went out in the March 24, 2025 edition of Charlottesville Community Engagement.