Comments on: Guest editorial: Housing authority’s explosive expansion may explode

By: Kenneth A. Martin

Kenneth A. Martin — Thu, 16 Sep 2010 16:38:21 +0000

@Cville Eye, I would like to add the city has been using HOME funds and CDBG funds for years to help first-time home buyers with downpayment and closing costs and supports the Homebuyer’s Club. It’s purpose is to educate families on the ins and outs of buying and keeping a home. PHA also has the Stepping Stones program that allow potential homebuyers to save a portion of their rent over a period of years to help pay downpayment and closing costs. It also has a program that will “buy down” a mortgage to make the mortgage more affodable.
I have heard several people say that these programs are wonderful but they do not wish to buy a house in the city.

By: Cville Eye

Cville Eye — Thu, 16 Sep 2010 16:27:08 +0000

A lot of the pictures of Vinegar Hill showed why so many people welcomed the central heating and indoor plumbing of Hardy Drive.
Yes,Chaz, the city has a Housing Advisory ommittee with several members from private industry.
Although it is generally agreed that families with less than 30% of the Area Median Income can never maintain a home and thus should not be homeowners, there are many opportunities, mainly through Habitat and PHA, that aid moderate income people to become home owners. Unfortunately, a lot of them can not afford to keep up their homes either and must rely upon AHIP, Christmas in July, and volunteersing students to provide the essentials of home repair. With the tightening up on mortgages, many moderate income people do not have the income or the credit rating to qualify for a market loan, but PHA has several million dollars to help with that family’s loan. And of course there are many families who do not want to be bothered with toils of home ownership, so everyone is not going to become a hoeowner, especially for those who wish to be free of government subsidies.

By: Chaz

Chaz — Sat, 04 Sep 2010 19:49:20 +0000

I really can’t conjure up any fast solutions to this dilemma. Making it larger, denser, and without help from surrounding jurisdictions seems wrong. I am just throwing this idea out. What about the redevelopment that Habitat is doing in the Moores Creek, Southwood trailer parks, is all of that work through the planning phase? Could a transitional social structure work to promote home ownership? Has private industry been asked for possible ideas?

The pictures of Vinegar Hill caused plenty of emotions even for a transplant like myself.

By: Kenneth A. Martin

Kenneth A. Martin — Thu, 26 Aug 2010 21:45:20 +0000

Blair,
It would be easier for me to explain the immaculate conception. I am also wondering why there is no material readily available concerning the demolition of the buildings on the south side of of Water Street and the area in the Garrett – Sixth – S. First Street area. I do have these links however to some of the pictures for portions of Vingar hill on flickr:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/vinegarhill/sets/72157623368132994/ and
http://www.flickr.com/photos/vinegarhill/sets/72157623368132994/

By: blair

blair — Wed, 25 Aug 2010 16:29:43 +0000

Thank you, Kenneth, for talking about the third rail of local politics (eminent domain abuse). Of course my blog has more information and history of Charlottesville's Housing Authority than any other online source. And they (CRHA and City Council) are still blocking public access to CRHA archives (6,000+ documents and 1,000+ photos). Any idea why?

By: Kenneth A. Martin

Kenneth A. Martin — Tue, 24 Aug 2010 23:06:09 +0000

Yes, Gary, those are my recollections of the Toscano days on Council. Since then the Council has gone in the opposite direction. Not only has the moratorium on providing more Housing Choice Vouchers (Section 8) to the public, the City has agreed to take on the federal government’s role in the program and locally fund around twenty of them vouchers. As for regional cooperation on providing actual physical housing for the low income, you can check with the link I provided to the document Consolidated Plan for the City of Charlottesville and the HOME Consortium, 2008, p. 2. The Consortium consists of the area counties of FLANG (Fluvanna, Louisa, Albemarle, Nelson and Greene). Each locality has a five-year plan that has to be approved by HUD; however, the City is the only locality whose plan deals in any manner with regional cooperation on housing. On page CP – 14 of the Consolidated Plan (p.19 of the PDF) in the City’s strategy “Encourage a regional approach in the provision of housing for low-income persons and families” It says the city will “Increase communication between members of the Consortium to address the needs of the region as a whole .” That’s what the Consortium’s job is anyway. The item is a holdover from the Toscano days. On page CP – 8 (p. 14 of the PDF) there is also a section that deals with regional cooperation that brings something called the Housing Directors Council. It is connected to HUD’s HOME funds. It is addressed as follows:
“Regional Strategies: The Housing Directors Council recognizes that affordable housing is a regional issue. The Council developed the following strategies for the HOME program at their October 25, 2005 meeting, and ratified in 2006, 2007 and 2008:

“HOME Strategy I: Plan and Act Regionally
“Actions:
a) Use Housing Directors Council meeting to focus on regional issues and solutions,
inviting other stakeholders to be part of the discussion.
b) Work with other regional organizations and agencies to implement regional solutions, such as securing pro bono real estate work through CAAR and securing down payment assistance and low-income mortgages through PHA’s Regional Home Ownership Center.
c) Work together on region-wide grants and loan funds
d) Continue to work with the Blue Ridge Home Builders Association
e) Meet occasionally with the Regional Planning Roundtable to discuss affordable housing issue with Planning Staff from the Counties
f) Link Housing Directors Council to locality Housing Committees or Task Forces to track progress and share information “

It seems to me that the City, together with countless organizations housed primarily in the city that deal with different aspects of housing in general, have decided that those efforts are not effective and have decided to shoulder the burden alone. The Consolidated Plan details major initiatives to deal with a variety of housing; however, I’m not sure that there will be much participation by area counties in providing any housing that will be built anywhere but in the city. A good example is the new SRO project for low income singles and the homeless to be built on the corner of Fourth Street NW and Preston Avenue in the city. The city provided over $1.5M and 20 Housing Choice Vouchers for the purchase of the property and Albemarle County has agreed to provide ten Housing Choice Vouchers of the thirty that is needed. To date, I not aware of any contributions by any of the area counties.

By: Gary

Gary — Tue, 24 Aug 2010 16:36:31 +0000

Dear Mr. Martin and Rob, Whatever happened to the idea
of Charlottesville not being the site of future government
housing? I even recall David Toscano saying to the effect
that Charlottesville has done its share of absorbing low-
income housing. Rob, did you ever hear that empty rhetoric
on City Council? It is interesting to note that I have not
read or heard of any of the surrounding counties to Char-
lottesville wishing to take the burden from the City of
Charlottesville. Couldn’t the City “just say no”?