Every year, nonprofit organizations that work with the unhoused population present City Council with an update on their efforts. The annual State of Homelessness report provides an opportunity to get a big picture look at an intractable issue that the City of Charlottesville is investing millions to solve including the recent purchase of an office building off the U.S. 250 bypass.
“This year takes on a different lens because we’ve had a lot of conversations in regards to 2000 Holiday Drive,” said City Manager Sam Sanders. “This is a chance to go beyond that one facility that we’ve been discussing and gives the providers an opportunity to provide the Council and the public an update.”
Since the last report, several groups have come together to develop an operations plan to run a permanent shelter around the clock. That would include roles for The Haven, People and Congregations Engaged in Ministry (PACEM), and the Blue Ridge Area Coalition for the Homeless (BRACH).
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BRACH leads the Continuum of Care
The executive director of the latter went first.
“Overall we’ve seen an increase in numbers across the board, stronger collaboration and partnerships between the agencies that are represented here today and just better cohesion of services,” said Shayla Washington. “So I think the overarching message is we’re all working together, but there’s still a greater need than what we can achieve as single entities.”
BRACH is the lead agency in the Continuum of Care, a framework established by the United States Department of Housing and Urban Development in 1994 to coordinate services. BRACH formed in 1998 and became a tax-exempt non-profit in 2009.
“We are the HUD-designated system, mostly handling the HUD federal application for funding,” Washington said. “Currently, our CoC only receives funding for permanent supportive housing from the Department of Housing and Urban Development. But we do oversee regional planning, data collection and data performance, and really just trying to be that main body that’s coordinating all the regional housing and homeless services for folks who are experiencing homelessness.”
Every year, BRACH also coordinates the Point in Time count which records population data for HUD. This year’s event was held on January 28 in the middle of a long cold snap exacerbated by an ice storm. There was an emphasis on getting people inside that night through emergency hotel room stays but Washington said seven people slept in the cold overnight.
“We found four people who were sleeping outside and chose to stay outside for that night from Charlottesville and Albemarle, and then three from Louisa County,” Washington said. “We did not receive numbers from the other counties in our catchment area. We had 87 people who were hotel through emergency hotel stays.”
BRACH also runs the Coordinated Entry Management System which contains the names and identities of people documented as homeless. As of May 4, there were 333 individuals on what is referred to as the By Name List.
“This is people who are either outside or sleeping in a shelter, any place not meant for human habitation,” Washington said. “So if they have a roof over their head, it’s because it’s an emergency shelter or it’s because they are sleeping in a car or a place that doesn’t have running water or electricity. If they’re couch surfing or staying with friends or family and just kind of unstably housed, that does not count towards our by name list.”
Of those 333 people, 58 identified the City of Charlottesville as their last permanent address and 21 said from Albemarle County. Around two-thirds either did not say or were not asked. Washington said that could be improved over time through better training.
“Sometimes people aren’t willing to give a lot of information at the first point of contact with them,” Washington said. “And so it’s just reminding service providers to continue just trying to collect that data anytime you can.”
At the moment there are only 54 permanent shelter beds available year-round operated by the Salvation Army at their facility on Ridge Street. That number increases to just over 100 when PACEM operates night shelters in area churches. There are 30 spots for rapid rehousing. And 30 permanent supportive housing spaces.
“With permanent supportive housing, these are folks who are mostly older,” Washington said. “One third of them don’t have income and they all have disabling conditions and were homeless for very long periods of time before they got into this housing. And it’s the most stable that they’ve ever been in some cases, many cases.”
Supportworks Housing are building another 80 permanent supportive units at their Vista 29 facility on U.S. 29.
Rapid rehousing offers up to 24 months of case management to assist a person with handling their finances to stay in a place.
Washington also presented data on some of the reasons why Charlottesville is an easy place for some to fall out of the housing system. For instance, the average monthly rent for a one-bedroom apartment is between $1,700 and $1,850
“As a reminder, affordable housing is defined as not paying more than 30% of your income towards rent,” Washington said.
The City of Charlottesville now designates BRACH as a fundamental agency so it receives $250,000 a year to provide services deemed to be vital. That has allowed them to hire a full-time grants and data manager. This year the agency will for the first time conduct a Point in Time count for unsheltered people in the summer.
PACEM began operations in 2003 and Deputy Director Cindy Chambers said the organization has traditionally relied on volunteers to operate the shelter in the cold weather months.
“One of our churches who hosted 40 men for two weeks required at least 100 volunteers and spent roughly $7,000 to do it,” Chambers said. “So we are an organization that has always thrived on the giving and the compassion of the congregations in our community.”
In recent years, staff has undergone some professionalization with additional resources from the City of Charlottesville.
Seven people work for the organization year round and there are 27 people who work during the season. In addition to the cold weather shelter, PACEM also runs a secure housing program which offers a year of case management to help a client get through to permanent housing.
“It’s similar to rapid rehousing in the sense that we give intensive case management,” Chambers said. “However, we do not get any sort of state funding. It’s all privately funded and we do this with just a bit of move-in help. And this is how we have sustained, this year, 20 folks in housing through our work.”
PACEM also offers additional case management to some clients who may have income but have difficulty going through the steps of securing a lease. She said six people this year have found a permanent home through this housing navigation street outreach.
“Unfortunately, we just don’t currently have the capacity to give everyone a case manager. So we really focus our efforts on folks who could potentially pay rent,” Chambers said.
Chambers said additional staffing and training has allowed the agency to step up some of its intake procedures to increase safety such as enhancing bag checks to stop prohibited items from coming in the doors.
“This year we also stopped holding people’s items that we used to hold based on feedback from our local police,” Chambers said. “We made 62 calls to 911 and only 10 of them were for folks that we really couldn’t handle behaviorally as opposed to last year we made 120 calls.”
PACEM is an example of a low-barrier shelter which means overnight guests are not required to participate in case management and there are no sobriety checks. Chambers said staff and volunteers are now trained in mental health first aid.
“We really are just there to ensure that you are safe tonight and that you receive a hot meal and you can use the restroom,” Chambers said. “To do that, we do still have standards. You have to be able to compose yourself in a group setting, for example, and you have to be able to take care of your basic activities of daily living.”
Chambers said PACEM helps provide places to live through shared housing and is working with property owners who want to be part of their solution while also getting paid steady rent. When Councilor Natalie Oschrin asked if they were looking for new participants, Chambers gave out her contact information. Take a look at the PACEM site.
Chambers concluded by telling Council that anything the city can do to help people stay in their homes helps the overall system.
“What’s been a challenge for us is stabilizing them in that they are all just like one step away from maybe not being able to pay rent,” Chambers said. “So we are relying on a lot of the other programs you all fund, like [Piedmont Housing Alliance] to provide arrears assistance if they do fall behind.”
That latter refers to a pilot project intended to help some residents at Kindlewood with higher-than-expected rates for newly constructed units.
The Haven provides a day shelter in downtown Charlottesville
The Haven began operations in 2010 in a church on Market Street purchased by filmmaker Tom Shadyac for the express purpose of providing additional resources for those experiencing homelessness.
“The heart of what we have done historically is providing our day shelter respite care,” said Executive Director Owen Brennan. “Over the past year, we had just under 26,000 visits to the day shelter. That averages out to about 70 people per day. And then over the course of a year, we see about 430 unique guests. Over that same time, we serve just under 26,000 meals. We serve breakfast every day of the year, and we serve lunch every Friday.”
A partnership with UVA Health brings a primary health clinic each Wednesday to the site, a service that has expanded to include a psychiatric and addiction clinic.
Brennan said The Haven also implements Continuum of Care services such as staffing a Homeless Information line for anyone in need.
“This could be someone who is about to become evicted, someone who’s going through the eviction process, or someone who is currently experiencing homelessness,” Brennan said.
If that person does become homeless, they are asked to add their name into the coordinated entry system. Brennan said over 6,000 people called the hotline between April 1, 2025 and March 30 of this year. That’s up from about 5,000 the year before.
The Haven offers three assistance programs with one of them being direct financial assistance of up to $3,500 for people close to losing their rental unit within 14 days and have no other resources.
“Oftentimes, we’re partnering with other agencies, whether it’s the Pathways Fund for the city or [Albemarle County Emergency Relief Program] for the county,” Brennan said. “Piedmont Housing Alliance has rental assistance programs. So we’re doing a lot of really good collaboration to prevent folks from entering homelessness.”
The other two programs are the Laura DeLapp Haven Housing Fund and a Rapid Re-Housing initiative. This past winter, the Haven served as an emergency shelter during the intense cold and ice snap.
“We had an intense weather event this past January, February and the continuum of care came together,” Brennan said. “The city of Charlottesville contributed $25,000. Albemarle county contributed $25,000. And then we fundraised an additional $100,000 to provide hotel, shelter, food and support for a total of 109 unsheltered community members over 18 days.”
Salvation Army preparing to launch next phase of Center of Hope campaign next week
The Salvation Army has had a presence in Charlottesville since 1912 but began to get involved with providing shelter around 1980 according to Major Donald Wilson.
“In this past year we have impacted over 9,653 individuals non duplicated counts which includes 16,304 nights of shelter, 1,367 food boxes, over 51,000 meals and also 3,186 personal care kits to help individuals in whatever situation they find themselves,” Wilson said
Major Wilson said the Salvation Army has also pushed ahead with a plan to add six units for families with funding from Albemarle, Charlottesville and private donors. He said his office receives over 50 calls a day seeking assistance.
The Salvation Army also continues fundraising for an expansion of its facility on Ridge Street to be known as the Center for Hope. He said they’re about 59 percent of the way to the goal.
“$22 million in construction, $2.2 million in furnishings, fixtures and equipment,” Wilson said. “And the Salvation Army… requires that we establish an endowment for that particular structure. Not only for the maintenance of it, but primarily for the continuation of the program so that we won’t begin a program and not be able to operate.”
The goal is to have 114 beds and to break ground on construction in 2027. More on this when the media campaign launches on May 12.
Groups ask Council for additional support for Rivanna River encampment
One of the questions at the work session is what should be done before a shelter opens at 2000 Holiday Drive.
In late March, the City of Charlottesville hired a firm to go through a section of the Rivanna River embankment near Free Bridge where dozens of people have taken to living in tents. The idea was to both clean up trash but to provide outreach.
“Outreach efforts will include distributing informational materials and providing fire safety guidance related to heaters, open flames, and carbon monoxide risks, as well as information about available community services,” read a press release from the time.
No one was displaced as part of the clean-up. In February, both Brennan and Washington have joined a Public Spaces Working Group.
“Our goal is to from each of our respective vantage points identify solutions that we all can get on board with to improve safety, improve health qualities both for the people in camp down at the river, the environmental health and the repercussions for businesses and residents who are adjacent to those encampments,” Brennan said.
This week the group sent a letter to Council with additional requests. One is for delivery of portable toilets. The second is to identify an alternate location that would be much safer.
“One of the biggest safety concerns is that all of the encampments are currently within what’s called the floodway,” Brennan said. “So when we get a heavy rain, that’s where the water is actively running. So there was a significant flood. It was 18 months ago. No one died but belongings were washed away. So we would love to find alternative, safer spots for folks.”
Washington said BRACH has one outreach coordinator who goes out to the camp once a day to check on people.
City Councilor Michael Payne brought up the issue of fire risk after seeing lots of propane tanks being used for heating and cooking.
“I observed a lot of unsafe use around open flames,” Payne said. “We’re currently in a drought. It’s not just a thing to say. I mean, there’s a house in Albemarle that burnt down from a propane tank last year.”
There were no major updates on the low barrier shelter at 2000 Holiday Drive at this meeting until an hour and 45 minutes in when Washington said Sanders had been sent an updated estimate on Phase 1 that afternoon.
“We now have two concrete numbers for phases one and two,” Washington said. “So now we need the city to decide which phase you’d like to move forward with or if you’d like a third option.”
This information was not available at the time of the meeting. A second City Council work session on this topic will be held at 4 p.m. on May 13 in CitySpace. Take a look at the information here.
Councilor Lloyd Snook said he had not seen the report but he said he had a concern.
“The broad concern that some of us looking in from the outside have had is that it seems as though the different organizations, the different nonprofits have sort of fundamentally different ways that they think they want to approach the problem and that we need to have one approach,” Snook said.
The story will continue to develop.
Before you go: 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. Paid subscribers cover the cost of conducting research for this article which was originally published in the May 5, 2026 edition of Charlottesville Community Engagement. You can either subscribe through Substack or make a charitable contribution.
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