The Albemarle County Board of Supervisors will wait to approve millions for affordable housing projects until it receives more information from staff. Supplied photo.
The Albemarle county board of Supervisors had been expected to approve $3.5 million in funding for affordable housing projects at its meeting on March 4, but held off due to concerns over how staff generated recommendations of what to fund.
“I think it would be prudent to hold these materials and do a little bit more of a deep dive,” said Samuel Miller District Supervisor Fred Missel.
The Albemarle Housing Investment Fund was created in 2019 to provide support for the first phase of Habitat for Humanity’s redevelopment of Southwood, according to Stacy Pethia, Albemarle’s director of housing.
Last April, supervisors approved a $5.2 million transfer to the fund in the current fiscal year.
“It’s really designed to support affordable housing projects that are one-time cost, so no ongoing support throughout this fund,” Pethia said at the March 4 meeting.
Last July, the Board of Supervisors approved a new set of rules to introduce a competitive process where candidate projects are ranked according to a series of metrics and reviewed by staff. Projects must score at least 75 percent and four of seven applications crossed that level in the first cycle.
“There’s a maximum number of scores you can get for rental housing project applications, homeownership applications, and so forth,” Pethia said.
An application from SupportWorks Housing for its Vista 29 project resulted in a recommendation that it receive $317,495 to cover the costs of a federal energy efficiency grant that was rescinded.
Piedmont Housing Alliance sought funding and will receive nearly $1.2 million to renovate 194 rental properties it operates within Albemarle.
The Local Energy Alliance Program will get $605,500 for its work with low-income households. Habitat for Humanity got a $918,000 grant as well as a $450,000 loan for rental units at Southwood.
The new rules also give staff the opportunity to designate a portion of the funding to fill pressing needs. Staff recommended contributing $110,000 to the Salvation Army’s new family shelter.
“There’s a lack of family shelter beds for homeless families within the county, so it’s really important to get those up and running,” Pethia said.
The approval was on the supervisors’ consent agenda, which means it would not have been discussed unless a request was made by one of the Board’s six members. Details on each application were not in the packet and several elected officials had questions.
“The document that we received … looks rushed,” said Supervisor Michael Pruitt of the Scottsville District. “There looks to be some working calculations, numbers at the bottom of the Excel spreadsheet that I don’t understand.”
Pruitt suggested waiting on a vote until the numbers could be reviewed. He also took issue with staff holding on to some of the county’s money for projects to be brought forward to the Board later.
Jack Jouett Supervisor Sally Duncan agreed with a pause but said county investment in housing is one of her priorities.
“Spending this $3.5 million on housing is a good decision that I think should be publicly recognized and obviously we need to spend much, much more on it,” Duncan said.
Supervisor Ned Gallaway said it is time for the county to finally appoint a committee to work on housing issues. It has been almost five years since the Board adopted an affordable housing policy that had several dozen strategies. One of them called for such a group to be formed.
