Why does it cost so much to live in Charlottesville? How much money is spent to subsidize rental prices and by whom? What should the role of local government be?
Nothing in this particular article, originally posted on Charlottesville Community Engagement, will answer any of those questions directly, but one of the reasons Town Crier Productions exists is to try to document the many interventions that are made in order to bring down costs for those who do not make as much money or do not rely on family wealth.
The following is a snapshot and not a complete picture by any means but hopefully provides a sense of the complexity involved. Links should go to individual stories. Many of these stories are soon to have more information added as the gravity of 2026 takes hold.
Advocacy for more funding in Albemarle
The Albemarle County website has this to say about why the cost of housing is an obstacle to the quality of life of many in the area.
“Due to the high cost of housing in our area, more than 10,000 households are cost-burdened, meaning they are paying more than the standard 30 percent of income on housing costs,” reads a FAQ on the topic. “Approximately 5,000 of those households are paying more than 50% of their income for housing and are considered to be severely cost-burdened.”
Albemarle spent nearly $17.75 million on housing projects between FY20 and FY24 according to the May 2025 housing report.
A coalition of groups stepped up pressure on Albemarle County to spend more money a year on affordable housing. They sent a letter to the Board of Supervisors in late January calling for more resources.
“Establish a ‘Housing Trust Fund’ with at least $10 million in dedicated annual funding that would go specifically toward affordable housing needs such as new construction and preservation,” reads one of the requests made in the letter signed by entities ranging from the Albemarle Education Association to Virginia Organizing.
Ten million a year would match the moral commitment Charlottesville City Council made in its March 2021 Affordable Housing Plan.
Albemarle Supervisors discussed the idea at a budget work session on April 7 and learned how a portion of the real property tax increase would provide a dedicated funding source for housing projects. They learned finance staff strongly discouraged the usage of borrowed proceeds to pay housing developers for a portion of direct costs.
Chief Financial Officer Jacob Sumner said if Albemarle were to borrow money for housing, they could use the proceeds to make grants, pay for infrastructure such as roads or water lines, or purchase land.
“If the Board wanted to borrow funds to help invest infrastructure related to development for affordable housing projects, as long as in the end what we expend those funds on is related back to a public facility, that would be an eligible expense for borrowing,” Sumner said.
What will the two new members of the Albemarle Board of Supervisors bring to the table? We will soon find out!
Measuring $10 million a year in Charlottesville
“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 former housing programs manager Antoine Williams. “With that, we’re targeting about 1,100 new supported affordable units.”
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.
In mid-October, Sanders revealed that one item that might be included in the FY27 budget is additional funding for Kindlewood to assist some families who are having a hard time paying rent on newly built units.
The Piedmont Housing Alliance has completed one phase of redevelopment of a community that began life as Garrett Square and then was named Friendship Court. Former Charlottesville Mayor Nikuyah Walker has raised concerns that some of the people who have moved back cannot afford to live there.
“It is complicated and that is a multi-tiered income spectrum for who lives there and the subsidies that are associated with it,” Sanders said in October. “Some individuals who’ve gone back to the property are not going back at the income level that they currently exist in. They’re taking units that are at a higher income level because the income units that they’re looking for are not available. So what it’s causing is an inability to pay. We have found that there is significant delinquency on that project.”
In December, City Manager Sam Sanders briefed Council on potential new areas of spending. The details are in this story but there is a work session on January 5.
Since adopting the Affordable Housing Plan, Charlottesville has divided the amount of funding available into different pools of funding. One of them is the Housing Project Development Investment fund for developers who seek major capital outlays from the city. A recent window closed in September and Sanders shared information on three applications at the work session.
- Community Services Housing seeks $900,000 to serve as a match for an application for Low Income Housing Tax Credits to preserve affordability for 40 existing units. Half would be for residents making between 40 and 50 percent of the area median income (AMI) and the other would be for households at 60 percent.
- Brick Lane Better Communities is seeking $1.75 million to assist with conversion of the Holiday Inn on Emmet Street North to a multifamily apartment building. This would include subsidizing 19 units at 60 percent of AMI, 108 at 80 percent of AMI, 19 at 120 percent of AMI and 46 at market rate. I wrote about this in the November 5, 2025 C-Ville Weekly.
- Preservation of Affordable Housing have requested $3 million to help finance their project to build 170 units at 1000 Wertland Street. This is one of several projects the University of Virginia has committed to donating land in the form of a long-term ground lease. This project has yet to obtain a Certificate of Appropriateness from the Board of Architectural Review.
CRHA and Charlottesville relations
The Charlottesville Redevelopment and Housing Authority and the City of Charlottesville at times did not see eye-to-eye despite a growing relationship between the two governmental entities. In March, Council twice had to renew agreements with CRHA governing millions in capital funds because the latter failed to communicate with the former.
Council had previously agreed to contribute a total of $6 million for the redevelopment of a portion of properties at both South First Street and Sixth Street. The terms required CRHA to begin construction by December 1, 2024 but that did not happen in either case. Additionally, CRHA did not even ask for an extension, nullifying the agreement.
The CRHA Board of Commissioners adopted a five-year capital plan required by the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development. It is important to note that as CRHA adds more units, many of these are subsidized through tax credit financing, housing vouchers, and other forms of revenue that don’t come from the federal government.
In April, City Manager Sam Sanders said he was concerned that CRHA applied for additional funding through the Vibrant Community Fund process despite also receiving money automatically as a “fundamental” agency.
“We have to have a conversation with them about their pursuits of funding going forward to your point they could be here and in the competitive rounds,” Sanders said. “I don’t particularly care for that. I think that makes it double dipping.”
In the summer, City Council approved the creation of two new limited liability corporations that are part of the financing structure for the next two phases of CRHA redevelopment. That’s a key step to becoming eligible for low-income housing tax credits.
“As part of these efforts, CRHA must establish single purpose entities to serve as ownership and or management entities in order to comply with [Internal Revenue Service], [United States Department of Housing and Urban Development] and Virginia Housing requirements,” said Antoine Brown, the city’s housing program manager at the time.
The CRHA Board of Commissioners and City Council had a work session on August 7. The current five-year capital improvement program has over $38 million in funds to help finance CRHA projects.
“It’s also well recognized that there have been stumbling points in our relationship, really, on both sides,” said Deputy City Manager James Freas. “We need to have systems of communication, of effective communication in place so that we are responding in a timely manner to the needs of both parties as we go through the project.”
At the end of the meeting, CRHA Director John Sales asked Council to cover $500 a year per public housing unit to cover the cost of resident services and wants the city to pay $260,000 a year toward redevelopment “soft costs.” He reminded Council that the Affordable Housing Plan adopted in March 2021 calls for the protection of public housing units.
In 2025, plans were filed for a redeveloped Westhaven that would increase the number of units to 266. Council has committed $15 million to the project. A second submission was made in December as I reported.
Progress toward a low-barrier shelter after an ordinance fails
In May, Governor Youngkin vetoed several pieces of legislation including a budget allocation of $1.5 million that would have gone to Charlottesville to help pay for land for a low-barrier shelter.
In September, Council ended consideration of an ordinance that would have made it a misdemeanor to camp overnight on public property.
The ordinance and accompanying protocol were developed after private talks this spring and summer between City Councilors and Charlottesville Police Chief Michael Kochis. The public first learned about the idea when the agenda for the September 2 meeting was published.
Charlottesville Police Chief Michael Kochis began his presentation by stating that the idea for the ordinance came out of closed-door discussions with Councilors held on April 3.
So-called “two two one” meetings are when Councilors are briefed on potential items without a quorum being formed, meaning the public has no way of knowing what was discussed. No minutes are required.
“When we spoke during those two two ones, we talked about that ordinance being specific to their business district and the consensus was that if we were going to do such an ordinance and it should probably be more citywide and not just focused on one specific area,” Kochis said.
Kochis said he was presenting a legal framework to take action when necessary. He said further two two one meetings were held on July 31 and August 1 when the elected officials were briefed on the ordinance’s progress. He said the proposed rules were to complement the city’s Affordable Housing Plan which called for $10 million a year to be spent.
“This ordinance does not replace our housing goals,” Kochis said. “This Council has been very clear on that. It exists alongside our housing initiatives and ultimately housing is the solution. The ordinance simply is about safety and health measures that we consistently see around large, specifically large encampments.”
Councilor Natalie Oschrin said the topic came up at Council’s recent retreat held on August 15 and August 16.
“At the council retreat, we all kind of said we’re ready to do something,” Oschrin said. “I’m not quite certain that this ordinance was the something because it is still putting that cart before the horse.”
Oschrin recommended tabling the ordinance until there was more progress toward establishment of a low-barrier shelter.
City Councilor Lloyd Snook said he also thought the ordinance was premature and he had said so in those two two one meetings.
“I thought that for us to move forward with an ordinance like this would require that we have a plan for where the people would go, where we want them to be,” Snook said. “And I don’t mean in the Donald Trump sense of jail or whatever, but in terms of the housing first attitude that the city has adopted and has tried to adopt and work on over the last few years.”
Two places have been identified but have not yet moved forward.
In early 2024, Council agreed to purchase 405 Levy Street from the Charlottesville Redevelopment and Housing Authority for just over $4 million. The original idea was for this to be considered as a location for a low-barrier shelter.
“This acquisition supports the City Manager’s commitment to homelessness intervention as it could become the site of a facility that serves to meet that need among others,” reads the staff report for the January 22, 2024 meeting.
In October 2024, Sanders told Council that one option would be to open a low-barrier shelter at the Salvation Army’s thrift store on Cherry Avenue. The budget for FY2026 includes a $250,000 payment to that organization for potential loss of revenue as well as a $500,000 in funds toward operations of such a facility.
However, the city moved forward with a third option in October. Before then, Sanders provided an update to Council on what the city had been doing since he became City Manager.
“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.”
At this time, Sanders said the city was looking to acquire a property, but he had no details to offer. In October, he asked Council to authorize the purchase of 2000 Holiday Drive as a low-barrier shelter for the unhoused.
“There is a lot of work that has to be done to determine how to activate the space,” Sanders said. “Because it is an office building today, it is not meant for people to sleep in it overnight and to do all the many things that we need to do to serve their needs.
Sanders said the city has not discarded the idea of using the Salvation Army’s thrift store on Cherry Avenue in some capacity, but the focus is now on 2000 Holiday Drive which could accommodate many more people.
As of January 4, 2026, Charlottesville’s GIS indicates the owner is still MIS Property LLC.
Developers of 1000 Wertland Street face challenges
The final cost of building any apartment complex includes the salaries of all of the people who worked on the project. That includes architects and designers who work to satisfy decision-makers who need to grant various types of approvals.
One such project is at 1000 Wertland Street, the first of three affordable housing projects where the University of Virginia is involved due an initiative created by former President Jim Ryan. In this case, the University of Virginia Foundation will enter into a long-term lease with a consortium of groups who will agree to provide all of the units for rent at a range to households between 30 percent and 80 percent of the area median income.
Prior to the year beginning, the Board of Architectural Review saw the project twice and in December 2024 they once again declined to grant a certificate of appropriateness.
In March, City Council voted to declare the property eligible as a revitalization area in order to help the developer, Preservation of Affordable Housing, secure tax credits. Council was unwilling to provide any funding of its own to the project.
“My understanding is UVA has made a decision to not contribute any money towards the affordable housing that they pledged to build,” said City Councilor Michael Payne at the time. “So if they submit a low income housing tax credit application, they’re going to need the city to spend that money for their application to be competitive.”
Preservation of Affordable Housing has made the request again for 2026. As will be reported this week, the city does not consider this a high priority for funding.
The entity had also asked for $823,000 from the Charlottesville Affordable Housing Fund but a committee did not recommend the item for funding but did fund five smaller projects.
Before you go: Paid subscribers cover the cost of conducting research for all articles on this website. This edition was originally published on January 3, 2026 on 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.
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