Area Habitat director gets statewide nod

By Bryan McKenzie

Published: November 8, 2008

What’s good for Charlottesville is good for the rest of the state, at least when it comes to innovations, techniques and strategies used by the area’s Habitat for Humanity organization.

The local agency has been so effective at creating affordable housing in an area with high home and land prices that the statewide organization is tapping the local director to lead efforts across the commonwealth.

Overton McGehee, 50, who has headed the local Habitat for Humanity affiliate for 11 years, will take the reins of Habitat for Humanity Virginia on Jan. 1, while continuing to advise the local branch. His job will be to help local agencies provide affordable housing to as many people as possible.

“I’ve been trying to steal him for quite some time,” joked Sylvia Hallock, director of Habitat for Humanity Virginia. “His expertise in financing, development and building partnerships and communities is what we need at the state level.”

In choosing McGehee, the state is hoping to propagate the approach taken by the local branch, Hallock said. That approach includes buying property and developing entire communities through volunteer-built homes, lots sold to and built by developers and other lots built in cooperation with other nonprofit agencies.

Hallock noted that the local Habitat for Humanity is involved in redeveloping mobile home communities such as Southwood and Sunrise to provide more substantial housing and keep most of the residents in the community.

“It’s exciting because so many affiliates are starting to do innovative things and find new ways to develop and provide affordable housing,” McGehee said. “[Charlottesville] was the first affiliate to develop a mixed-use neighborhood and now there are five. We’re working with state and local governments and other nonprofit agencies and developers to do more than we otherwise could.”

One strategy the agency is looking toward involves federal bailout funds for distressed mortgages and now vacant properties owned by banks. By buying into foreclosed and other bank-owned properties, officials believe the agency can help prop up real estate values and repair torn communities.

“You don’t want properties sitting vacant because that will affect the other property values and the condition of the property,” Hallock said. “It’s a tragedy that people are losing their homes, but it’s better to be able to turn those properties around and put them back in the hands of new homeowners.”

Another strategy is to buy land tracts and develop a community, McGehee said. With Habitat volunteers building several homes, other agencies building some homes and then selling some lots to developers, a community of mixed incomes and residents can be built, he said.

“You wind up with a diverse community and the [Habitat for Humanity] affiliate can earn money off the land sale and development to put back into building more homes and communities,” McGehee said.

McGehee, who once served as a news reporter for The Daily Progress and Richmond Times-Dispatch, is looking forward to the challenge of bringing his strategies to the state level.

“Virginia is a tough state because of land prices being so high, so we’re encouraging affiliates to create strategies,” McGehee said. “If we’re going to solve the problems of affordable housing in our communities, it can’t be done by just one or two groups trying to tackle it.”