The project at the MACAA site, as well as another on Park Street, will comprise just over 100 affordable housing units.
When Sunshine Mathon took the helm as executive director of the Piedmont Housing Alliance in August 2017, the entity managed about 350 affordable units.
Since then, PHA has doubled that number through projects such as the redevelopment of Friendship Court into Kindlewood and construction of affordable rental units at the redeveloped Southwood Village.
And there’s more to come.
“We have another 800 or so in the pipeline over the next five to six years,” Mathon said in an email.
Just over a hundred of those new units will be built at two projects on Park Street, north of the U.S. 250 Bypass. On February 9, a PHA entity paid the Monticello Area Community Action Agency nearly $4 million for its Park Street property, which will be developed for a range of incomes.
Charlottesville City Council rezoned the property in January 2022 to allow for the development. It also agreed to provide $3.77 million in cash to help finance the project. Other sources include funds from the Virginia Department of Housing & Community Development and the National Housing Trust Fund. Work will begin in the fall.
“Although we will get final construction pricing closer to the start of construction, we expect to be able to start construction with the existing funding,” Mathon said.
Mathon said there will be 66 rental units funded through low-income housing tax credits that will be reserved for households making between 30 and 60 percent of area median income. Habitat for Humanity of Greater Charlottesville will build 20 affordable homes to sell to participants of their program. Greenwood Homes will construct eight units to be sold at market rate.
“Every development we are working on is a function of partnership—with the residents at Kindlewood, with private developers, with neighborhood associations, with churches, and others,” Mathon said.
The MACAA project is a few blocks south of another PHA project that would see units built on the property of the Park Street Christian Church. City Council has also contributed to that project.
In addition, planning is underway for PHA’s portion of a project at Premier Circle off of Seminole Trail in Albemarle County. Construction is ongoing for 80 units of SupportWorks Housing, but PHA has applied for tax credits for another 60 units at an adjacent development that does not currently have a name.
“Our hope is to share some resident services resources between the two projects,” Mathon said.
PHA is also partnering with Habitat on the eventual redevelopment of the Carlton Mobile Home Park. City Council agreed in August 2024 to provide an $8.7 million forgivable loan for the two nonprofits to purchase the land and prevent displacement of existing residents.
Other projects include a partnership with Woodard Properties for a mixed-use project at 501 Cherry Ave. and with the University of Virginia to build affordable units off of Fontaine Avenue.
“We have made remarkable progress during incredibly turbulent times—the pandemic, federal administration changes, massive cost escalations, and interest rate increases,” Mathon said.
