Application window closing this week for Charlottesville Affordable Housing Fund

Charlottesville City Council created an affordable housing fund in 2007 that has been used for a variety of projects over the years. Fourteen years later, another generation of elected officials adopted an affordable housing plan that made a moral commitment to spend $10 million a year to maintain and create new units.

In April 2022 when he was still deputy city manager, Sam Sanders presented Council with an audit of how the Charlottesville Affordable Housing Fund (CAHF) had been used to date. Here’s that story for some perspective.

The CAHF is one of several pools of funding used for housing purposes and the city is taking applications through November 21 for the next round.

“Nonprofit and for-profit developers engaged in projects that align with the City’s housing policies, such as new construction, land acquisition, rehabilitation, and preservation of affordable housing units, are encouraged to apply,” reads an information release sent out by the City of Charlottesville on October 29.

This is not a pool of funding to help individuals with particular situations. Only nonprofits and developers can apply.

“Applicants must engage in activities that align with the City’s goals for affordable housing and serve households earning up to 80% of the Area Median Income (AMI),” reads the city’s website.

The adopted budget for 2025 lists $1.5 million for CAHF. Of that amount, $832,000 is for the CAHF fund. The rest is for another pool of funding that goes by the acronym HOPS. That stands for Housing Operation and Program Support and information on that can be found here.

For more information on the CAHF process, visit the city’s website.

In the current fiscal year, Charlottesville is spending $12,732,200 on affordable housing. That includes:

• The first of three $5 million payments to the Charlottesville Development and Housing Authority for the redevelopment of Westhaven. A major development plan was filed in October and is currently under review by the Department of Neighborhood Development Services. Here’s a story I wrote for C-Ville Weekly. Track the site plan here.
• There’s another $3 million for CRHA for “public housing redevelopment.”
• There is a $1 million payment to the Piedmont Housing Alliance for the development of 501 Cherry Avenue. A second payment of $2.15 million is programmed for FY2027 according to the five-year Capital Improvement Program.
• There is $900,000 for the Charlottesville Supplemental Rental Assistance Program.
• There’s a $1.332 million payment related to the purchase of Habitat for Humanity and PHA’s purchase of the Carlton Mobile Home Park to prevent it from being sold on the open market. Here’s some background for that.

Before you go: Paid subscribers cover the cost of conducting research for this article which was originally published in the November 17, 2025 edition of Charlottesville Community Engagement.  You can either subscribe through Substack, make a monthly contribution through Patreon, or consider becoming a sponsor. The goal of Town Crier Productions is to increase awareness about what is  happening at the local, regional, state, and federal government levels. Please share the work with others if you want people to know things.