Charlottesville Redevelopment and Housing Authority asked City Council to contribute $3 million to the purchase of 11 structures from Silk Purse Properties, including this house at 701 Anderson St.
The Charlottesville Redevelopment and Housing Authority is moving forward with the purchase of nearly a dozen single-family homes across the city, as well as a large residential development off River Road that was built in 1990.
“This is a 48-unit garden-style walk-up apartment complex,” said Kathleen Glenn-Matthews, CRHA’s deputy director. “These are two bedroom, one-bath units. They currently rent for about $1,500 a month.”
Glenn-Matthews briefed City Council on the opportunities at the September 9 annual joint work session, which offered the opportunity for CRHA to also ask for $5 million to help cover the cost of purchasing Rivanna Terraces. The rest would come from a loan from the Federation of Appalachian Housing Enterprises.
In addition, CRHA has asked Council to contribute $3 million to purchase 11 structures from Silk Purse Properties, an entity run by Jeremy Caplin, to keep several dozen homes in the center of Charlottesville affordable to people who currently live there.
Besides providing some financing for construction of new units, Council also contributed half of the funding for the $10 million acquisition of dozens of affordable houses, known as the Dogwood portfolio, from Woodard Properties. That company had bought them from the late Eugene Williams, a civil rights pioneer who fought to preserve affordability.
“The housing market has a lot of pressure right now as well,” Glenn-Matthews said. “That’s why we need the city as a partner. It’s due to this partnership that … we’ve been able to keep these rents very low.”
To illustrate the matter, Silk Purse Properties has put at least one of its holdings on the private market. The property at 714 West St. sold for $671,650 in October 2025. The company had purchased the three-bedroom house in March 2016 for $110,000. The transaction before that was in October 1957 with a $6,000 sale price.
City Council will need to formally approve allocations to CRHA before the deals can close. Resolutions to authorize CRHA officials to go ahead were approved by the its board on September 28.
There was also a resolution to sell one unit from the Dogwood portfolio at 414 10th St. NW back to Woodard Properties at the 2026 assessment of $327,900. Glenn-Matthews said the company has a right of first refusal to buy it. City records indicate KOW Development LLC also owns two other properties in the same block.
CRHA plans to sell another Dogwood unit at 801 Harris St., reducing its city housing portfolio to a total of 76 units if these deals close.
All of this plus the redevelopment of Westhaven comes as CRHA is searching for a new executive director to replace John Sales, who will leave in early December. The agency is also looking to restructure operations to make it more efficient and more successful in raising funds.
“One thing I think John has done well and that we’ll need to look for in the next executive director is someone that is creative in figuring out sustainable financing,” said Brigid O’Rourke, the chair of the CRHA board.
