SupportWorks Housing will receive $377,970 for its Vista 29 project, which will have 80 units for people experiencing chronic homelessness.
By April 22, the Albemarle Board of Supervisors will decide whether to increase the personal property tax rate by 15 cents to devote more money toward the county’s fledgling affordable housing investment fund.
Earlier this month, supervisors approved the use of just over $4 million from the fund on five projects to support a variety of initiatives intended to lower costs for residents of specific locations.
Though the fund was created in 2019, criteria had not been adopted until 2025. The window for nonprofits to apply opened in January.
“We received seven applications totaling $7,343,652 of requests,” said Kaki Dimock, Albemarle’s chief human services officer. “Applications were scored in four sections: readiness to proceed, capacity and experience of the applicant, project budget, and consistency with county priorities.”
One of those priorities is to build homes reserved for households making less than 80 percent of area median income.
Supervisors were expected to vote on the recommended projects on March 4 but had questions about the scoring process. Staff went back and altered their criteria after confirming there was a math error that had been pointed out by Habitat for Humanity of Greater Charlottesville. That group had sought $1.45 million for a homeownership project at Southwood Village, but did not initially score high enough to be eligible.
Once the new calculations were made, the Habitat homeownership project cleared a scoring threshold of 75 percent and was eligible for funding, but four other projects scored higher.
SupportWorks Housing received $377,970 for its Vista 29 project, which will have 80 units for individuals experiencing chronic homelessness. Habitat received $1,211,464 in grants for $450,000 in loans for a “deeply” affordable rental housing project.
The Local Energy Alliance Project received $679,124 to increase energy efficiency in 70 homes; and Piedmont Housing Alliance received nearly $1.25 million to keep 194 units of existing housing in Albemarle affordable. Both amounts are slightly lower after the new calculations.
“LEAP is proposing housing preservation that’s based on energy audits and making houses more energy efficient so that people can stay in their houses longer,” Dimock said. “Whereas Piedmont Housing Alliance is proposing a more significant renovation of all of their currently affordable units that are in significant states of disrepair.”
Staff also recommended $110,000 to support seven units at the Salvation Army’s family shelter.
Additional disbursements from the housing fund will be recommended in the next five to six months. Dimock said supervisors can expect a program to help cover the cost of security deposits as well as a pilot program to help families preserve their homes.
Another project not funded was one from the group Woda Cooper, which filed a rezoning for 92 affordable units on U.S. 29 close to Vista 29. It had asked for $900,000 to help with financing.
Supervisor Michael Pruitt said the only reason the Woda Cooper and Habitat homeownership programs were not being funded was a lack of funds. Later in the meeting, he tried to convince his colleagues to support a 1-cent increase on the real estate tax rate to add more funding for housing, but failed to get a majority.
Supervisor Sally Duncan supported both tax rate increases.
“I’m happy to see that more money was put towards this, but we clearly need a lot more housing and a lot more money for it,” said Duncan.
If supervisors approve the personal property rate increase, the fund will get an additional $1.7 million each year on top of $1.2 million from a real property tax increase approved in 2025. The draft budget also proposed a one-time infusion of $3.7 million.
The public hearing for Albemarle’s budget is on April 15.
