Last night, the Charlottesville Redevelopment and Housing Authority (CRHA) Board of Directors approved a $6.4 million budget for Fiscal Year 2012—up $400,000 compared to last year. However, CRHA also has seen its expenses increase, which leaves the agency with a tentative $73,665 deficit and, potentially, a few frustrated residents.
In his report to the board, CRHA Executive Director Randy Bickers said that the redevelopment budget was increased to accomodate two major components of the city’s public housing redevelopment plan: a new Levy Avenue site, and the renovation of Crescent Hall, a 105-unit housing site constructed in 1976. Bickers told the board that the proposed budget assumed "that grant funding will be received to match expenses." Charlottesville applied for a federal "Choice Neighborhoods" grant through the Department of Housing and Urban Development to help fund the redevelopment.
Residents also shared their own report with CRHA. Prior to the meeting, the Public Housing Association of Residents (PHAR) submitted a "Resident Satisfaction Survey," which polled 137 residents from the city’s total 376 units. More than 20 percent of surveyed residents said they called CRHA for maintenance more than six times per year. Ten percent of respondents said they have waited more than one week for emergency repairs; at the South First Street site, the number jumps to 23 percent.
And while 80 percent of surveyed residents said they felt safe in their neighborhood, one-third of residents in Westhaven—the city’s oldest and largest housing project, and the site of a fatal shooting in February—claimed they felt unsafe.
"On the whole, there were both positive and negative responses from public housing residents," concluded the PHAR report. "However, the degree of negative responses shows significant areas needing attention."