The development of housing reserved for people with low incomes can take a long time, given shifting timelines of residents’ availability.
That has twice been the case for SupportWorks Housing (formerly Virginia Supportive Housing), a Richmond-based nonprofit that steered the 60-unit Crossings at Fourth & Preston in Charlottesville through a complex process that involved a rezoning, a land purchase, and the security of funding to keep rent deeply affordable. The “single-room occupancy” complex opened in 2012 and has been credited with giving many who would otherwise be on the streets a place to stay.
There has been talk about a second such facility for many years, something that took root when SupportWorks Housing, the Piedmont Housing Alliance, and the Blue Ridge Area Coalition for the Homeless announced a partnership in 2020 to redevelop the Red Carpet Inn off of Premier Circle in three phases. After nearly five years of planning, work is finally underway.
“Demolition has begun,” said Julie Anderson, director of real estate development for SupportWorks Housing.
SupportWorks Housing will build 80 apartments, 62 of which will be reserved for unhoused individuals, with the rest made available to those with incomes less than 60 percent of the area median income. Ongoing rental subsidies will come from a mixture of project-based vouchers and federal funding.
All but three will be studio units.
“These units are identified as permanent supportive housing, which is a best practice solution, support, and tool for individuals who have experienced extended periods of homelessness and manage a disability of some kind,” says Kaki Dimock, Albemarle County’s chief human services officer and a member of the SupportWorks board of directors.
The Albemarle County Board of Supervisors approved a rezoning for the property in February 2021, and the existing hotel continued to be used as an emergency shelter through the spring of 2023. The project hit a financial obstacle when construction inflation created a $1.5 million shortfall.
Albemarle and Charlottesville split the cost of filling the void and broke ground on what’s now known as Vista29 in late October 2024. A press release at the time stated construction would begin in November, but the project has so far not gone to construction. On April 7, Albemarle County issued a demolition permit allowing the two structures on the property to be razed.
The project has a cost estimate of $26.3 million, and construction was slated to begin in February, according to materials shown to the closed-door Land Use and Environmental Planning Committee in January.
“The delay was caused by filling the funding gap and securing additional rental subsidies,” Anderson said.
Albemarle has committed a total of $3.4 million to the project, and the Charlottesville Area Community Foundation contributed $4.25 million in the spring of 2021.
In the second phase, the Piedmont Housing Alliance seeks to construct 60 units. Pre-development of that project is expected to be in 2027. At the time of rezoning, the third phase was envisioned as a commercial building.
