“The inherent problem is the dirt, and the dirt is too expensive. Unless the government owns the dirt we have a problem.” The comment from local developer Dan Walters sparked some chuckles and quite a few nods of agreement from the 100 or so people crammed into the upstairs chamber at Baja Bean for Left of Center’s monthly meeting. On Tuesday, May 9, the new youth-centric Democratic group took on the topic of affordable housing—one of the most severe issues facing the City of Charlottesville as it deals with continued growth and inflated real estate costs.
The phrase “affordable housing” has emerged as Charlottesville’s latest political buzzword. It’s easy to throw around, but utterly meaningless. Think about it—is anyone actually against affordable housing?
What no one, including Tuesday’s panel of local housing experts, could identify is just how to attack the problem. Current ideas range from a fund to provide interest-free loans to public servants, to the development of multiple structures on single pieces of property, to simply acquiring more money for public housing. Newly elected Councilman Dave Norris rose from his booth (and multiple plates of nachos) to propose that the City enact a Housing Trust Fund.
“Housing is a right,” said Joy Johnson, a panelist and herself a beneficiary of public housing. As she explains it, she relies on her publicly funded residence to keep her from having “to depend on a man or the system to take care of my family. It allows me to be independent.”
So what, exactly, is affordable housing? “Before you start talking about affordable housing you have to define it,” said local realtor Bob Hughes. Yet, as the night unfolded, little progress was made in that area, as discussion shifted between outrage over the high prices of homes and the concerns of those who struggle to find a place to reside at all. Johnson, representing the latter group, enumerated more effects of the expense of living in Charlottesville. “Gentrification is an elephant no one wants to talk about,” she says. “If I grew up in that community, I should be able to live there.”
As the powwow wound down, Hughes and Walters offered words to an aspiring but frustrated home-buyer, urging her to stop complaining and just do something. But what, exactly? the woman wanted to know. The answer that came back was both simple and, in this overheated market, frustratingly difficult: “Get in the game.”—Jayson Whitehead
The phrase “affordable housing” has emerged as Charlottesville’s latest political buzzword. It’s easy to throw around, but utterly meaningless. Think about it—is anyone actually against affordable housing?
What no one, including Tuesday’s panel of local housing experts, could identify is just how to attack the problem. Current ideas range from a fund to provide interest-free loans to public servants, to the development of multiple structures on single pieces of property, to simply acquiring more money for public housing. Newly elected Councilman Dave Norris rose from his booth (and multiple plates of nachos) to propose that the City enact a Housing Trust Fund.
“Housing is a right,” said Joy Johnson, a panelist and herself a beneficiary of public housing. As she explains it, she relies on her publicly funded residence to keep her from having “to depend on a man or the system to take care of my family. It allows me to be independent.”
So what, exactly, is affordable housing? “Before you start talking about affordable housing you have to define it,” said local realtor Bob Hughes. Yet, as the night unfolded, little progress was made in that area, as discussion shifted between outrage over the high prices of homes and the concerns of those who struggle to find a place to reside at all. Johnson, representing the latter group, enumerated more effects of the expense of living in Charlottesville. “Gentrification is an elephant no one wants to talk about,” she says. “If I grew up in that community, I should be able to live there.”
As the powwow wound down, Hughes and Walters offered words to an aspiring but frustrated home-buyer, urging her to stop complaining and just do something. But what, exactly? the woman wanted to know. The answer that came back was both simple and, in this overheated market, frustratingly difficult: “Get in the game.”—Jayson Whitehead
