Grant boosts city’s plan for new homeless facility

By The Daily Progress Staff

Published: December 2, 2008

Charlottesville is on its way to getting its first apartment building specifically meant to house and support the city’s homeless.

The Charlottesville Area Community Foundation is announcing today that its $75,000 Catalyst Grant is being awarded to Virginia Supportive Housing, a Richmond-based nonprofit that has overseen single-room occupancy projects in several Virginia localities, to complete a similar project in the city.

Single-room occupancy facilities provide individual private rooms, a setup akin to a studio apartment.

“There are several leaders in the community that have been working for three years to bring this kind of development,” said Holly Hatcher, the community foundation’s director of programs.

The $75,000 grant is the second to be awarded by the community foundation for an affordable housing endeavor. Since its inception in 1967, the local foundation has awarded roughly $27 million in grants to hundreds of area nonprofits.

“Their support means the world for this project,” Charlottesville Mayor Dave Norris said Monday.

Norris, one of the city’s strongest backers of providing more affordable housing, said the project would have about 60 single-room apartment units. Depending on the demand from the homeless, extra rooms could be rented to low-income residents who qualify for affordable housing.

The facility will also have on-site security and services to help those who were homeless to become fully functioning members of society.

Norris said the project got a kickstart once Virginia Supportive Housing came into the picture.

“Before that we didn’t have a real focus,” he said.