On September 2, 2025, Charlottesville City Council opted not to proceed at this time with an ordinance that would make it a misdemeanor to camp or store personal items on public property.
“The conversation went where I imagined it would go,” said City Manager Sam Sanders. “And I think ultimately, I think what’s important for me to make sure that I do in this moment is let’s make sure the facts are on the table about the work that the city is doing.”
Sanders took about 25 minutes on September 15 to lay out what the city has been doing since he took over the city’s top executive position in August 2023. Soon afterward, one of his first actions was to allow overnight camping in Market Street Park.
That’s the fourth bullet on a timeline included as part of a position paper on homelessness. (read the document here)
“What’s happened in the past two years is, number one, we’ve identified a position that the city is taking as it relates to homelessness in this city,” Sanders said. “And for that we have decided that we’re going to prioritize comprehensive delivery of services to ensure that any member in this community that’s experiencing homelessness has a chance to access basic human needs and services.”
The document also lists a number of priorities with the first being establishment of a low-barrier shelter that would be open every day of the year. A second would be creation of a shelter for entire families and a third would be for older individuals experiencing homelessness.
A fourth priority is to make sure people are being counted.
“We need to make sure that we are conducting an annual point in time count in the winter and the summer so that we can accurately measure what is happening in our community because we know it is changing,” Sanders said.
A fifth priority is to strengthen what is known as the “continuum of care” that is managed by the Blue Ridge Coalition for the Homeless. Sanders said the FY26 budget provided additional funding for that agency as well as the creation of two city positions to conduct outreach.
“And there is a critical need for 24-7 detox and other emergency mental health beds in the city,” Sanders said.
Sanders said all of these priorities have advanced over the past two years with several initiatives moving forward. One of those was the placement of a storage unit at the Salvation Army’s operations on Ridge Street where people could keep their belongings during the day.
In December of 2023, Sanders tasked the Office of Economic Development with identifying potential locations for that low barrier shelter and in January 2024 he expanded the geographic scope to outlying counties. One possibility came out of a presentation to a Rotary club that February.
“And it just so happened that the Major at the Salvation Army was in the audience,” Sanders said. “And shortly thereafter, he reached out and said, hey, I’d like to have a conversation with you about a low barrier shelter. And that is where the Cherry Avenue thrift store concept came from.”
City Council has agreed to cover the costs of operating a low-barrier shelter and to pay the Salvation Army for lost revenue from the thrift store if that site is selected. There has been opposition from some in the Fifeville neighborhood.
Council also agreed with a proposal from Sanders to contribute $3 million to the Salvation Army’s Center for Hope campaign. That funding came from the city’s share of the COVID-era American Rescue Plan Act as I reported at the time.
“That was in recognition of increasing the number of beds from 55 units to 114 overnight shelter bed units, expanding the dining room and additional enhancements to that facility,” Sanders said.
However, Sanders said the capital campaign is at less than 50 percent.
In addition, Sanders said the city purchased 405 Levy Avenue from the Charlottesville Redevelopment and Housing Authority in early 2024 as a potential site.
This past June, Sanders met with Deputy City Manager James Freas and CRHA Executive Director John Sales about using vacant property to build a village of tiny homes or other small shelters. The 405 Levy site had also been considered at one point for a “single room occupancy” facility similar to the Crossings at Fourth and Preston and the Vista29 project under construction on U.S. 29 in Albemarle County.
Since September 2, Sanders and other top officials have been looking for other potential sites to acquire and toured one location of interest.
“There is no active negotiation at this time, but the city will continue to look at what options exist and we will continue to look for property,” Sanders said. “We’re not going to stop.”
On September 12, Sanders and Freas visited a Richmond facility called Caritas which bills itself as offering “recovery residences” for those in need. He’s hoping to send another delegation to visit in the near future.
City Councilor Natalie Oschrin thanked Sanders for his presentation and the timeline but said she was skeptical about one of the potential interventions.
“I’m still hesitant to be enthusiastic about a kind of tiny village situation because I still don’t know if the evidence doesn’t seem like the [return on investment] is as good as if we put those dollars somewhere else,” Oschrin said.
City Councilor Lloyd Snook said he was also glad to see the timeline but said announcing plans before they are complete can lead to public relations issues.
“We’ve had a lot of half made plans over the last year, year and a half in some cases the reason why the plans are only half made and not fully executed or even executable comes down to difficulties in working things out with some of our nonprofit partners,” Snook said.
City Councilor Michael Payne said city government will play a role in coming up with solutions, but cannot do so alone.
“We’re going to need foundations, we’re going to need private philanthropy, we’re going to need rich individuals in our community to help build out a permanent year round homeless shelter,” Payne said. “And we’re going to need all our nonprofits to be able to coordinate and work together. And historically there’s a lot of competition and ill will among the nonprofit space and that’s also going to have to change.”
Before you go: The time to write and conduct research for this article is covered by paid subscribers to Charlottesville Community Engagement. In fact, this particular installment comes from the September 17, 2025 edition of the program. To ensure this research can be sustained, please consider becoming a paid subscriber or contributing monthly through Patreon.
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Every time I walk by The Haven, I wonder what the upper floors of the building are used for. It looks pretty large. The mission of feeding, offering facilities for personal services, etc. seems closely aligned with housing.
I assume someone from the City and/or sheltering community has evaluated this location. I think a number of members of our community would like to understand the answer. Would someone please address this?
Thank you.