Council considers homeless solution

By Barney Breen-Portnoy

Published: May 27, 2008

Charlottesville’s City Council is considering allocating funds to Virginia Supportive Housing to establish efficiency apartments that could help the city fight homelessness.

The facility would include around 60 single-room apartments that would be available to single homeless people at a low cost.

Charlottesville Mayor Dave Norris, the executive director of the PACEM shelter, said that a single-room occupancy facility — commonly referred to as an SRO — is one of several long-term housing initiatives on the city’s radar.

“A SRO would make a big difference in our community,” Norris said. “It would not solve the problem of homelessness, but it would be a huge step forward.”

There are about 300 homeless people in Charlottesville at any given time, several dozen of who are considered chronically homeless.

The council set aside $1.4 million for housing projects in fiscal 2009. Councilors have yet to determine how those funds will be spent. The cost of an SRO would depend on the site and the facility’s size.

If the city were to allocate start-up funds and determine a building site this summer, the SRO facility could be operational by the fall of 2010, according to Candice Street, a representative of Virginia Supportive Housing.

Norris said that city staff is already assessing potential locations for the facility. An ideal location would be in a semi-industrial or semi-commercial area near a bus line, he added.

Street made a presentation Tuesday

afternoon to councilors and community

members in which she talked about Virginia Supportive Housing and detailed what an SRO in Charlottesville would look like.

Virginia Supportive Housing is a nonprofit community-development organization founded in 1988. It operates SRO facilities in Richmond and the Hampton Roads area.

At the SROs, residents sign leases and are expected to pay 30 percent of their income for rent. If a resident has no income, he or she is expected to pay $50 a month.

Social workers are on hand to provide residents with support services for mental health, substance abuse, disability and employment issues.

Residents must sign in guests at the front desk, and guests are not allowed to stay overnight.

To be eligible to live in the SRO, applicants must be motivated towards self-reliance and able to live independently. Applicants cannot have committed a felony within the past five years or have committed a violent crime. They also cannot owe money to a housing authority.

Approximately 60 percent of the development costs of the facility would be covered by federal low-income housing tax credits. Other sources of funding would include state and local government as well as private foundations.

The operating budget would be covered by Section 8 Housing Choice vouchers, and the support services budget would be covered by local support and/or Medicaid funding.