Charlottesville City Council briefed on current state of affordable housing

Nearly fifty months have passed since Charlottesville City Council adopted a plan that set out several ways in which the city could increase the number of housing units whose monthly rent or sales price is within reach of people with incomes below the area median.

A major pillar in the Affordable Housing Plan is for Council to commit to spending more money each year toward that purpose.

“Through FY22 to FY25, what we’ve been working towards is significant and meaningful funding commitments towards the $100 million commitment over 10 years,” said housing programs manager Antoine Williams. “With that, we’re targeting about 1,100 new supported affordable units.”

Williams said the city is also seeking to maintain about 1,300 units that are currently supported and to assist another 2,200 households through tax relief, housing vouchers, and direct payments for rehabilitation.

Of that $100 million, Williams said $70 million is in direct investment in construction of housing. $20 million will come through tax relief and stability programs. Another $10 million will go to administrative efforts.

A total of $58.77 million has been tallied for FY22 through FY25. That has included about $48 million in direct investment in projects both from the Capital Improvement Program and other funds. That has resulted in 983 new units being added to the development pipeline. Williams said that breaks down as follows:

• 348 units are being built to households making less than 30 percent of the area median income. That’s about 35 percent of the total. However, the suggested target in the Affordable Housing Plan is for 50 percent of supported units to be reserved for those with very low incomes.
• Another 427 units are going toward households making between 31 percent and 60 percent of the area median income. That’s 43 percent and the target is 30 percent for this category.
• The 208 remaining units are being suggested for households between 61 percent and 80 percent of the area median income. That’s right at the target of 20 percent.

Williams said if trends continue, the city is on track to exceed the $100 million goal by about $20 million. That factors in the $15 million City Council has agreed to spend on the redevelopment of Westhaven.

City Councilor Michael Payne said Charlottesville is in the middle of a success story as a locality with one of the highest amounts of spending on affordable housing per capita on the east coast. He acknowledged it is expensive to build below-market units.

“You’re talking about a product that the market is just never going to produce because it’s losing money every month,” Payne said. “And it’s an area where it has to be stepped in from local, state and federal government to invest in it as a public good. And most localities don’t do that because it’s extremely expensive as we see in this report. There’s no avoiding that. It costs a lot of public money.”

Payne supported efforts to increase spending about $10 million a year for Charlottesville to meet its goals. He also said he does not want money paid by developers to buy out their affordability requirements to be added as part of that calculation. The developer of the Verve will contribute $6.8 million and the developer of 2119 Ivy Road is contributing $3.25 million. (read that story)

Councilor Lloyd Snook disagreed with that matter given both the financial uncertainty as well as other requests in the community such as IMPACT’s demand that the city increase the number of Charlottesville Area Transit drivers to 82.

“We are also being asked to make commitments to purchase a whole bunch more buses, to hire a bunch more people to drive those buses,” Snook said. “ We are also being asked to make a number of other commitments.”

Snook said no sitting Council has the power to bind decisions to be made by a future another Council.

The new Development Code adopted by Charlottesville in December 2023 includes a provision to require affordability in structures larger than nine residential units. Anything over ten units requires ten percent of units to be provided to households below 60 percent of the area median income. City Manager Sam Sanders said the city government will need to pay someone to track that information.

“As development happens, there will be a need for additional staff to work to maintain the compliance measures and even the tracking,” Sanders said. “We have not gone as far out in trying to anticipate any of that yet because we’re looking for the deals to come in.”

The 2021 Affordable Housing Plan is based on data from 2019 which means more information is required before the city can know how many are living outside of their means. The Thomas Jefferson Planning District Commission is currently taking the lead on conducting a new assessment of the region’s housing needs including the City of Charlottesville.

Before you go: This story originally went out in the April 23 edition of the Charlottesville Community Engagement newsletter. This is a production of a Town Crier, as opposed to Town Criers, so it takes a bit to get to everything. If you want to increase the chance of plurality, support the info!