Month: May 2013

When Amanda Reads moved to Friendship Court in 2003, she figured she’d only be there for a few years, tops. Nearly 10 years later, she and her two daughters are still living in a three-bedroom unit in the subsidized housing neighborhood that used to be Garrett Square, with little hope of moving on.

“I’ll be here until I’m able to get back on my feet,” she said. “I hope that I’m eventually gone, and not because they said I have to.”

Like the majority of Friendship Court residents, 32-year-old Reads is a single mother whose only source of income is child support. Unemployed since February, she stays at home with her 4-year-old daughter because it’s easier than spending an entire paycheck on childcare, and she relies on project-based Section 8 vouchers from the Virginia Housing and Development Authority (VHDA), approved by the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD), to cover the cost of her monthly rent. The contract between VHDA and the owners of Friendship Court, which regulated the monthly subsidies, expires at the end of 2017. If the neighborhood transitions away from affordable housing, Reads said she’d probably be forced to move back in with her mother. A lot of tenants, though, might not be so lucky.

Experts agree that subsidized neighborhoods like Friendship Court are intended to be stepping stones for residents to move out of poverty and into self-sufficiency, but many residents end up relying on the subsidies for decades. Its future as a low-income development is up in the air, and while some think a transition to a mixed-income community could be the answer, others worry that a drastic change could do more harm than good —especially in a city that already has a shortage of affordable housing.

Friendship Court, the four-block apartment complex between Garrett Street and Monticello Avenue, a block away from the Downtown Mall, is jointly owned by the local nonprofit Piedmont Housing Alliance and the National Housing Trust, which partners with local entities to preserve affordable housing. The owners entered a Housing Assistance Payments (HAP) contract with VHDA, which requires them to rent all 150 units of Friendship Court to low-income families. The agreement guarantees federal subsidy vouchers for all residents, who pay no more than 30 percent of their income for rent. For qualifying non-working families like the Reads, the subsidy covers rent in its entirety.

The contract ends in December 2017, and according to PHA Executive Director Stu Armstrong, the owners signed on for an extended affordability period of 15 years. Friendship Court isn’t going anywhere, he said, but with the tax credits gone and no guarantee that HUD will continue providing funding, it could begin to serve a different demographic. The 15-year agreement says the neighborhood must serve families making less than 60 percent of the area median income.

For a family of four in Charlottesville, that’s about $40,000. The average Friendship Court tenant earns roughly $10,000 per year.

“It would still be defined the exact same legally,” Armstrong said of the term ‘affordable.’ “Just the people living there wouldn’t be given $700 a month in rent.”

NHT President Michael Bodaken emphasized the fact that, regardless of what the future holds for Friendship Court, any changes won’t come up for several more years. The property has a lot of possibilities, he said, but residents shouldn’t panic or move out preemptively.

“The worst possible thing is to get rumors started,” he said.

Bodaken and Armstrong said there’s no reason to alarm anybody by talking about the redevelopment of Friendship Court right now, but collaborating with residents will be essential when the time comes.

“A year from that date, we’ll start having a conversation with the City of Charlottesville and the residents,” Bodaken said. “It’s going to be a long, difficult discussion if we’re going to convert it, and we want to make sure the residents don’t get hurt.”

Democratic City Council candidate Wes Bellamy, who founded the youth achievement program Helping Young People Evolve, spends time nearly every afternoon reaching out to Charlottesville’s low-income neighborhoods. As someone who interacts regularly with parents and children in affordable housing, he thinks the conversation about Friendship Court should start now.

“I definitely disagree with putting it off,” Bellamy said. “We have to make sure they’re able to prepare. It’s not that you’re scaring people—just making them aware of what could potentially happen.”

Bellamy said he understands the fear of displacement, which would be the worst case scenario for Friendship Court. But if tenants are involved with the process and the owners could guarantee a one-to-one ratio of affordable and market-rate homes, a mixed income community “may be beneficial to all.”

“There’s a lot of worry, because nobody here has seen it yet,” he said. “So we have to be able to show the residents that this model will work, and also assure them that it will not be another Vinegar Hill.”

As someone who lived in public housing as a kid and moved into a mixed-income neighborhood with his family at age 9, Bellamy said putting low-income and market-rate homes side-by-side can have a tremendous effect on families.

“I got a chance to see people who had different professions, and it had a good impact on me,” he said. “The things I saw around me motivated me to be the best individual that I can be.”

Habitat for Humanity Executive Director Dan Rosensweig has led the local effort to transform the area’s poverty-stricken trailer parks into mixed-income neighborhoods, and is a vocal proponent for the model. As far as Friendship Court goes, he said the property, with its open space and proximity to the Downtown Mall, is incredibly valuable. He described the parcel as unlike any other in the city and “ripe with possibilities,” and he expects planners would love to transform it in a way that would connect the corridor with the Downtown Mall and surrounding neighborhood. But regardless of its development potential, he said, eliminating its affordability would be a disaster.

“There’s a limited stock of affordable housing in this town,” Rosensweig said. “There’s already simply no place for people to go. We’d be talking about exacerbating what’s already a crisis.”

Armstrong said PHA has no intention of causing any such disaster.

“We committed to these people when we did this deal,” he said. “Our mission is to not ever displace anybody. We could not guarantee that piece of real estate 100 percent, but we’re not in the business of making people homeless.”

If PHA buys it out from NHT and becomes the sole owner, Armstrong said Friendship Court’s rules and overall scope could change for the better. Money from the city’s housing fund, for example, could give PHA more flexibility and more power to be selective, like a “governor’s school of housing.”

“If it was general funds from the city, we might have different rules about subsidizing,” Armstrong said. “If the voucher comes from HUD, there are certain things I can’t demand from you, like getting a job or going through a financial literacy class.”

City Councilor Kathy Galvin, an urban planner who’s been actively involved with the Strategic Investment Area planning, said city funding for Friendship Court might be an option if it came down to it. City Council has allocated housing money to Habitat for Humanity projects in the past, she said, and partnerships with local housing providers is something the city values.

“I don’t see why that wouldn’t be possible,” she said.

Galvin said she often hears from housing residents that they don’t want to be “diluted,” and would rather maintain the identity of a minority community.

“Well, that’s illegal,” Galvin said. “We don’t do racial segregation anymore. But I can tell you, I am committed to keeping that neighborhood diverse.”

Politicians and developers agree that the residents need to be involved in the conversation about Friendship Court’s future. But Galvin said engaging a population that already feels alienated from the rest of the community can be a challenge.

“When people of a whole group feel that way, I think their tendency is to not trust anybody outside of that group,” she said. “I’m not asking you to trust me yet. I’m just telling you that I’m working for you.”

Rhiannon Williams, a 32-year-old mother of three who’s lived in Friendship Court for 17 years, said she doesn’t feel like anybody is working for her.  A 2005 GED  recipient who’s been working toward a psychology degree at Piedmont Virginia Com-
munity College, Williams works part-time as a housekeeper and wants to be a child psychologist so she can move her family into a “nicer neighborhood.” A lifelong Charlottesville resident, she said she has always felt disconnected from the rest of the city, and hates being perceived as a “ghetto woman” because she lives in subsidized housing.

Williams is in the middle of a lengthy custody battle over her daughter, and said she’s been charged by the Department of Social Services with abuse and neglect. She said she can’t help but wonder how the court proceedings would go if court documents didn’t reveal her address.

“I get stereotyped because I’m a black single mother who lives in Friendship Court,” she said.

If found guilty of abuse and neglect, Williams will lose her eligibility to work with children and become a psychologist—then she’s back at square one, looking for a way out of public housing. Uncertainty about what will happen to the neighborhood she’s called home for nearly two decades—for better or for worse—is another layer of worry.

“I guess I’d have to leave Virginia,” she said. “I can’t afford to live anywhere else.”

Most charming. Most walkable. Healthiest. Number one place to retire. Charlottesville loves its accolades. But there’s one distinction it could do without: Least affordable.

The city’s high housing costs are not a new phenomenon, and neither are efforts to correct them. In 2010, the City Council adopted the goal of increasing its proportion of supported affordable housing—rented and owned units paid for with some kind of public support, from federally subsidized housing to homes bought with down payment assistance from the Charlottesville Housing Fund—from about 10 percent to 15 percent by 2025.

A progress check in the form of a federally mandated housing affordability report arrived this month, and the outlook is far from healthy. The Department of Housing and Urban Development requires jurisdictions around the country to assemble what’s called a Consolidated Plan for housing every five years, and the city adopted the most recent version of that plan on May 6. Its 70-plus pages of data and analysis show that Charlottesville has some of the lowest affordability of any Virginia municipality—and that there are no easy ways to change that.

Priced out

How do you know when a house—or a city—is an affordable place to live?

It’s not a simple assessment, because affordability depends not just on a fluid and changing market, but also on the income of the buyer or renter. According to the standard accepted by HUD, the golden number is 30: An affordable home is one that doesn’t require you to spend more than 30 percent of your income on it.

Housing Virginia, a Richmond-based affordable housing advocacy group, uses that standard to keep close tabs on the relative affordability of buying and renting in the Commonwealth’s cities and counties at various income levels. Its analysis, compiled from census data, helped inform the Thomas Jefferson Planning District Commission’s creation of Charlottesville’s FY13-18 Consolidated Plan.

One measure of affordability is housing cost burden—that is, the percentage of the population spending more than that crucial 30 percent of their paychecks on rent or a mortgage. Another is the Housing Affordability Index (HAI), which calculates the percent of household income required to afford the typical home in a given location.

Charlottesville has the unwelcome distinction of ranking near the top in the state on both measures.

In data compiled by Housing Virginia from 2005-2009, the city had a cost burden of 47.6 percent. In other words, nearly half of Charlottesville residents were paying more than they could afford for their homes. It was the second-highest cost burden in the state after Richmond and 38 percent higher than the current state average. More recent HUD data that zooms out to the metropolitan region, which includes Albemarle, Fluvanna, Greene, Louisa, and Nelson counties in addition to the city, puts that number at 33 percent—still among the highest for metro areas in the state.

The HAI numbers are also problematic, especially when adjusted to reflect the pressures on lower-income families. Charlottesville households earning 60 percent of the city median income—those bringing in $27,005, or about the average salary of a local preschool teacher—had to fork out 48.9 percent of their income to afford a median-priced home in 2012. That figure is higher than in any other Virginia municipality, save for two: Fredericksburg and Lexington.

The Consolidated Plan looks beyond raw data, and connects local high housing costs to issues of generational poverty, racial equity, and overall economic health. The city’s poorest residents face the biggest proportional cost burdens when it comes to housing, it shows. The affordability of renting —the default housing choice for lower-income residents who can’t put up the money for down payments—is being eroded. Minorities, especially African-Americans, shoulder significantly greater costs than whites. And as high costs near the metropolitan core persist, the city’s workforce is leaving, compelled to seek cheaper options in the county—even though ultimately, their savings are likely to be negated by higher transportation expenses.

The takeaway: Market forces alone aren’t doing enough to make Charlottesville affordable for the people who live and work here. And the problem could get worse, according to the TJPDC’s analysis, as nearly 1,000 units—almost half the supported affordable housing in the city—could be lost in the next 15 years without significant improvements and outside investment.

Charlottesville has to push back, said City Councilor Dede Smith, who thinks the Consolidated Plan’s time in the Council spotlight was lamentably short. “Substandard housing is creating a multiplier economic burden, because of the health issues and education issues that come with concentrated poverty,” she said.

And when people reach the point where they can’t maintain their homes, sell off, and move on, the neighborhoods they leave behind are stripped of their cultural importance. It might not be as noticeable or as dramatic as the razing of Vinegar Hill in the 1960s, but the result is similar.

“What we’re losing is our history,” she said.

After two years of study and debate, Charlottesville has a blueprint for a Human Rights Commission. The City Council voted 3-1 last Monday to adopt an anti-discrimination ordinance and an agency to enforce it.

For months, the discussion over what to do with recommendations to form a commission—first from the Dialogue on Race, and later from a task force that spent 10 months researching need and options—centered on the issue of enforcement powers. Many of the strongest supporters of a local commission said giving the body the ability not just to educate, but also to investigate and attempt to right wrongs was crucial to its relevance and success. Opponents were wary of creating an appointed, “quasi-judicial” system, and said an enforcement element would drive costs up.

What was passed last week was touted as a compromise by Dave Norris and Kristin Szakos, its architects on Council, but the enforcement camp came away calling it a victory—or, at least, the start of one.

“I think institutional change in communities like this comes slowly and incrementally, and I’m usually a cup-is-half-empty kind of guy,” said Walt Heinecke, who has been pushing for the creation of a commission since serving on the Dialogue on Race. “I’ve got to say, right now, I’m a cup-is-two-thirds-full kind of guy.”

According to the ordinance, the nine-member Charlottesville Human Rights Commission, headed by a full-time director, will act as a human rights watchdog and education group, reviewing city policy, making legislative recommendations, and conducting anti-discrimination workshops.

And it will take complaints. Residents who feel they’ve been illegally discriminated against—whether on the basis of “race, color, religion, sex, pregnancy, childbirth or related medical conditions, national origin, age, marital status, or disability,” according to the ordinance—can come before the Commission to request an investigation. If the Commission finds probable cause, it will set up mediation for both involved parties. If that fails to bring about a resolution, it can call a public hearing, at which both parties can argue their cases, present evidence, and cross-examine each other. The Commission could then dismiss or make recommendations, including job reinstatement and payment of damages, and it could even take the case to court through the city attorney’s office.

Commissioners will only take on employment complaints concerning small businesses—those with five to 15 employees. Complaints against larger companies will be passed along to the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, but Assistant City Manager David Ellis explained the city is also developing a closer relationship with the EEOC’s state office.

Other enforcement-based human rights commissions around the state—there are four—have some kind of working relationship with the EEOC, he said, “but it’s going to be a lot different here in Charlottesville.” At the city’s request, the state agency is planning to expand its presence, and spend more time in the city.

That’s good, said Abigail Turner, but not good enough. Turner is the former litigation director at Charlottesville’s Legal Aid Justice Center and served on the task force that recommended a commission.

“Just because the EEOC is present here doesn’t mean the problems will be solved locally,” Turner said. And that’s the point of a city ordinance and city-based enforcement: No more kicking people’s complaints down the road. “I think we’ll have to wait and see if they step up to the plate,” she said.

Heinecke wants to do more than that. He plans to keep pushing the city to expand the Commission’s scope. “There’s no reason, other than financial reasons, to not have the Charlottesville Human Rights Commission do all employment cases,” he said.

But it’s those financial reasons that opponents, including Councilor Kathy Galvin and several members of the task force, have cited as the most compelling reason to limit the Commission. The initial budget for it is $197,000, $17,000 of which was added to pay for the extra costs of enforcement powers, which staff said may add up to about $1,000 per case.

That money could be better spent elsewhere, said Galvin. She and Mayor Satyendra Huja, who abstained from last week’s vote, were the only two Council members who didn’t support the new Commission. There simply wasn’t enough evidence of discrimination to warrant that kind of spending, she said.

“The one true way to get people to feel that they are succeeding in a society is to give them opportunities in that society,” she said.

Not so, according to Joy Johnson, a Public Housing Association of Residents member who has been among the vocal core of enforcement advocates. Racial discrimination in Charlottesville is real, she said, and people need to feel they can turn to someone for answers, especially when it comes to employers.

“Nobody holds them accountable for the impact of what they do to people,” she told Council last week. “It may not seem important to some folks, but it does have an impact.”

Finding meaningful work suited for individual personalities is the focus of The Women’s Initiative career development workshop on Saturday, June 1, 10 am to 2 pm at the Jefferson School City Center. “This workshop will go beyond basic skills,” said Eboni Bugg, Outreach Coordinator at The Women’s Initiative.  “While we primarily provide counseling at the Jefferson School City Center, our mission is empowerment of women in whatever form that takes.”

The workshop will feature Wendy M. Miller, a SPHR-Training and Career Development Specialist.  Lunch is provided. Nicole Royal, a local photographer, will be available to take professional pictures for online employment profiles.

Workshop topics include “Finding Work that Matches your Interests and Personality,” “How to Market Yourself when Re-entering the Workforce or Changing Careers,” and “How to Create a Path to Your Dream Job.”

The event is free; however, space is limited. For more information or to register, contact Eboni Bugg at 434-202-7692 or ebugg@thewomensinitiative.org.

“When women are in financial distress, it is difficult for them to focus on self-care,” said Eboni Bugg of The Women’s Initiative. “This is a time for them to focus on self-care and the next step in their career.”

Kids in the Kitchen

Kids will have the opportunity to see how things cook in the Jefferson School City Center’s state-of-the-art demonstration kitchen this summer. During the week of July 15 through 19, Mr. Tom Cervelloni, Director of Food and Beverage at U.Va’s Darden School will teach rising third through sixth graders how to prepare a healthy salad, make meatballs, and scoop muffins and cookies. Kids will learn basic rules of kitchen safety and food preparation and practice teamwork skills. Students will create a lunch to share with parents at the end of the week. Space is limited to 10 students. More information is available by calling 434-961-5354, and a registration form available online.

Grillin’ and Chillin’ at Vinegar Hill Café

The Vinegar Hill Café will be creating a party atmosphere at the Jefferson School City Center on Thursday, June 6, from 5 pm to 7:30 pm with backyard style food and fun for the family. The café will be showcasing BBQ Ribs, BBQ chicken and hamburgers with choice of collard greens, baked beans, cole slaw and homemade cornbread with live music, all for $10. All proceeds from food sales support JABA‘s senior meal program.

Roller Skating at Carver Recreation Center

Roller skating, a long-standing community tradition in Charlottesville, is being offered at Carver Recreation Center on the Jefferson School City Center campus. This event occurs most Fridays from 5pm–8pm and Sundays from 1pm–6pm.  Skates are provided and there is no charge for this activity.  (Skaters are also welcome to bring your own skates or rollerblades.)

Coming soon to the African American Heritage Center

The African American Heritage Center at the Jefferson School City Center will be presenting the work of Lola Flash from June 7 to August 30, 2013 in the Contemporary Gallery. Flash’s photographic imagery confronts pigmentocracy, which is a term that relates a slave’s socio-economic position to their skin color. Flash analyzes the impact of this condition on contemporary society in the exhibition, “[sur]passing.”  Flash will speak at the gallery on June 14 at 5:30 pm.

Jefferson School City Center is a voice of the nine nonprofits located at Charlottesville’s intergenerational community center, the restored Jefferson School. We are a legacy preserved . . . a soul reborn . . . in the heart of Cville!