Charlottesville is turning over several city-owned parcels to the local chapter of Habitat for Humanity. While that’s nothing particularly new for the city, in addition, the city is acting as the primary sponsor for the construction of two new houses—which is, as far as local officials can tell, the first time nationally that a city and Habitat have partnered on such a project.
“Usually, the nonprofits go to the city with ideas about affordable housing and the city decides whether it wants to help support those,” says Overton McGehee, Habitat’s executive director. “But this was an idea that came from the city, and they came to us. The city does so much for affordable housing, it will be great for their employees to build a couple of affordable houses.”
 Overton McGehee, executive director of the local Habitat for Humanity chapter, lauds the city for a creative approach to providing affordable housing. |
The idea is the brainchild of Khadija Abdur-Rahman, an engineer with city Neighborhood Development Services (NDS) who has been working on fixing a drainage problem in a neighborhood off 29N. A house on North Berkshire Road was constantly getting flooded. The bank foreclosed on the house’s owners and sold the half-acre property to the city for $7,000. The city demolished the house and fixed the drainage issue.
“We didn’t want that land to go vacant,” says Abdur-Rahman. “It was just natural that we talked about doing a home there.” She contacted Bruce Hogshead, Habitat’s construction manager. If the plan goes through, Habitat plans to subdivide the lot so that it can build two units.
“Four or five years ago, we were able to get city lots for $15,000,” says Hogshead. “Now they’re up to $90,000.”
Because it is the primary sponsor, the city will grant its employees a couple days of administrative leave in order to volunteer on the project. Jim Tolbert, director of NDS, says that it can be a team-building exercise as well as a way of giving back. “It’s something that corporations are doing all over the country.”
The exact deal is a little hard to follow. The city is donating the Berkshire lot to Habitat for Humanity and will be the primary sponsor. But because the city is the primary sponsor, it also has to cough up money to pay for materials. Instead of money, the city will donate another lot, which it got from buying a drug dealer’s house for $170,000. The city will subdivide that Ridge Street lot, giving the vacant parcel to Habitat to cover the materials cost. The Ridge Street house will go to the Charlottesville Police Foundation. The Police Foundation will sell that house for $170,000 to a city cop and will give the money back to the city.
Still with me? To summarize: Habitat gets three new units, the city staff gets a team building exercise, a cop gets a house, and the city taxpayer gets to feel good about where her money is going.
City Council had nothing but good things to say when presented with the idea April 21 (though councilors may have been sapped of protest from the three-hour public hearing on the interchange for the Meadowcreek Parkway). Council is expected to give final approval at its May 5 meeting.
For her part, Abdur-Rahman is excited about incorporating low-impact design into housing. “Habitat has already started to incorporate green building, but I’m happy that we are looking at a project like that, looking at sustainability as well as affordablility.”
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