City Council allows CRHA to form a nonprofit for fundraising purposes

In recent years, Charlottesville City Council has stepped up to provide additional funding for the Charlottesville Redevelopment and Housing Authority as the separate government entity continues to build new housing and renovate existing units.

In the fiscal year that begins on July 1, CRHA can expect to also receive $300,000 in operating funds from the city. That’s an increase of nearly 119 percent over the current year.

A nonprofit called the Public Housing Associate of Residents will receive $125,000 in FY2027, an increase of 83.82 percent over the current year.

“We are entirely governed by public housing residents and one Section 8 resident,” reads a self-description included on page 152 of the draft FY27 budget. “As the duly recognized federal mandated representative of all residents in public housing, we work closely with (but are separate from) the Charlottesville Redevelopment and Housing Authority.”

For many years, CRHA staff have been pursuing the creation of a nonprofit to help locate additional resources and that requires approval by City Council.

“The main impetus was to allow them to go for other funding sources,” said Madelyn Metzler, Housing Compliance Coordinator, at the April 20 Council meeting. “A lot of grant opportunities are only open to nonprofits.”

John Sales, executive director of CRHA since August 2020, said the nonprofit will help to find additional sources of funding that would otherwise be requested of the city.

“It also will allow us internally partnerships with like the food bank where we can provide some eviction diversion assistance without the food bank providing money and without residents having to provide income to the housing authority,” Sales said.

Sales said this might provide a mechanism for tenants who are behind on their rent to possibly pay it off by volunteering their time.

“Not real payment, but we look at that as a credit to their rent to bring down their tenant account receivables,” Sales said.

Sales said CRHA currently has a dedicated fundraiser who has brought in about $5 million in grants in the past two years.

Earlier in the meeting, one of the five remaining members of the CRHA Board explained why the nonprofit is necessary.

“This is just going to help us to do that work of kind of putting residents first, which you all have helped us to do consistently over the last several years, and to help support self sufficiency through job training, empowerment workshops, you know, for financial, you know, awareness,” said Gillet Rosenblith.

Council approved the creation of the new nonprofit.

As for PHAR, that nonprofit had revenues of $266,067 in 2023 and expenses totaling $360,365 that year according to the most recent 990 form filed with the Internal Revenue Service and made available through ProPublica’s nonprofit search.

Rosenblith also took the opportunity to ask Council again to amend the city’s 2023 Development Code to expand the Core Neighborhood Overlay District that were set up to limit development in areas designated as “Sensitive Communities” in the Comprehensive Plan. That would limit building height on West Main Street to three stories with an additional two if certain conditions were met.

PHAR has been leading a campaign that sprung up after plans were filed for an eleven story building at 843 West Main Street adjacent to Westhaven as well as a seven-story building in Fifeville called the Mark.

City Council has agreed to provide $15 million toward the $81.4 million cost for the first phase of redevelopment at Westhaven. As I reported for C-Ville Weekly on March 4, that will include construction of a 76-unit senior apartment building, a 64-unit multifamily apartment building, a health clinic, a parking garage, and a dedicated teen center.

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