December 2, 2024: Charlottesville Redevelopment and Housing Authority officials describe the eviction process after being asked to halt them for the holidays
Plus: There’s a name for Charlottesville’s Holiday Tree
This time next month we’ll be in a new year. For now, it’s December 2, 2024 and many are likely still getting in the flow of one of the few intact work weeks of this calendar period. This is Charlottesville Community Engagement, a newsletter not to be confused with Engagement Community Charlottesville which I do not believe exists. I’m Sean Tubbs and my hope is to engage readers with a great number of stories.
In today’s installment:
A quick look at the written report City Manager Sam Sanders made for today’s City Council meeting
Over 750 people have voted for the name of Charlottesville’s Holiday Tree
The audit of Albemarle’s accounting for FY2024 is nearing completion
The Charlottesville Redevelopment Housing Authority has a conversation on preventing evictions
First shout-out: Alliance Française de Charlottesville
The Alliance Française de Charlottesville promotes the French language and francophone culture through educational and cultural programs. Visit the Alliance Française website to learn more about group classes, private lessons, cultural events, and social activities for both kids and adults.
City manager report: Meetings continue to better understand local gun violence
The packet for today’s meeting of the City Council includes a written report on all sorts of items happening within local government. This is a good way to keep up with some of the details, and almost every one of these is worth a potential story. (read the report)
Since the last Council meeting on November 18, City Manager Sam Sanders has held a series of meetings including those of the Rivanna Solid Waste Authority and the Rivanna Water and Sewer Authority. Sanders noted that one of the conversations was about a dwindling amount of landfill space and that the group is “looking at alternate resources that are needed and all ideas are on the table.” Here’s a story from that discussion.
Sanders also met with the UVA Equity Center on their efforts to reduce gun violence in the community. This work is informed by the report from the Community Safety Group released earlier this year. (read previous coverage)
“The UVA Gun Violence Solutions Project (GVSP) is a university-wide effort to develop, implement, and assess actionable solutions to reduce gun violence,” reads the website for the initiative.
One aspect of that work is a one-credit course offered by the Frank Batten School of Leadership and Public Policy called Understanding Gun Violence.
Sanders also attended the fall meeting of the Virginia First Cities initiative where several speakers discussed what to expect in the 2025 General Assembly and the 119th Congress. So far the website for Virginia First Cities does not list a legislative agenda for next year.
Some other items in the report:
There are still two days to vote in the Rivanna Water and Sewer Authority’s Day Without Water Art Contest. The theme this year is “What’s Your Drop In the Bucket?” The online voting can be done at this link.
Albemarle and Charlottesville will begin operating out of a the new joint General District Court next year and mediation is underway to ensure the Sheriff's Department in both localities are on the same page regarding security protocols.
The city is partnering with the nonprofit Community Climate Collaborative on a series of Climate Cafes and the December 13 event will focus on electric vehicles and will include the group Generation 180. The event is at the Bradbury at 9:30 a.m. and you can register here.
The Office of Human Rights has opened eleven discrimination cases this year. The office is also seeking to become certified to handle additional cases by being certified by the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development to handle fair housing complaints. HUD wants additional changes which will be presented to Council in January.
Charlottesville uses ranked-choice voting to select name for holiday tree
This year is the 27th annual Grand Illumination and the holiday event takes place at the Ting Pavilion on Friday. And now there’s a name for the tree that’s been placed in front of Charlottesville City Hall.
“More than 750 people participated in naming the tree this year via ranked choice voting and Spruce Lee won with 59 percent of the final round votes,” reads a message posted to Charlottesville’s Facebook stream.
There were three rounds of voting among four choices. Spruce Lee received 37 percent of the vote with Boots with Fir getting 23 percent. Oatmeal III received 22 percent and Treelor Swift came last with 18 percent.
When it came time to count the second round, Treelor Swift was eliminated and votes were transferred to the remaining three choices. Spruce Lee’s majority increased to 47 percent and the share for Boots with Fir went up to 28 percent. Oatmeal III was three with 24 percent and was eliminated. One percent of the ballots were discarded because the voter did not rank any other candidates.
In the third round of voting, Spruce Lee’s cleared the threshold for majority with 59 percent of the vote to 38 percent for Boots with the Fir. Three percent of the ballots were inactive due to not enough choices ranked.
“When Charlottesville uses ranked choice for the first time next June, voters will be nominating two candidates for City Council,” the Facebook post continues. “In a two-winner race, the ballot would look the same, and Spruce Lee and Boots with the Fir would both be elected.”
For more details on the scoring, take a look at the results on Ranked Choice Virginia, a non-profit headed by former Delegate Sally Hudson.
Audit of Albemarle’s FY24 books on track for completion
As preparation continues for Albemarle next fiscal year, the accounting firm Brown Edwards continues work on an audio of the county’s books for the last one.
“We do know we can say with a good amount of confidence that we're going to be issuing a clean opinion, an unmodified opinion, and on the financials, and that that is the opinion that you want,” said Megan Argenbright, a partner with the firm.
Argenbright spoke last week at the meeting of the Albemarle Audit Committee, a body made up of two members of the Board of Supervisors, two members of the School Board, and the county’s chief financial officer.
One of the topics brought up at the meeting was how capital expenditures are reported. The accounting team has suggested ways that process might be improved.
Supervisors will get the final version of their audit at their meeting on December 11. That’s after a joint meeting with the School Board scheduled for this Wednesday at 1 p.m.
If you want to take a look at what these documents look like, check out the 2023 Annual Comprehensive Financial Report that’s posted on the website of the Commonwealth of Virginia’s Auditor of Public Account.
Take a look at this meeting on YouTube:
Second shout-out: JMRL Friends of the Library reports another record Book Sale
I suspect many readers of Charlottesville Community Engagement are avid readers and are preparing for a haul of books this holiday season. If you want to make room, consider donating some of your older material to the Friends of the Jefferson Madison Regional Library for their Spring Book Sale!
The recent fall sale at Albemarle Square Shopping Center was a success as community members came out and spent $166,367! That set a new record!
By donating books, games, CDs and other items to Friend of JMRL, you’ll help them raise funds for all sorts of ways to support the Jefferson-Madison Regional Library
Children and adults at all branches may enjoy programs to enrich their learning
The various collections of the library system may be enhanced
Library branches may receive donations and funding assistance in emergencies
Book donations will be accepted at the Gordon Avenue branch, lower level lobby entrance during Gordon Avenue branch operating hours!
For more information, visit the Friends of JMRL website!
CRHA seeking ways to collect over $232,000 in unpaid rent
An organizer with the Legal Aid Justice Center wants the CRHA to halt pending evictions of tenants who are behind on rent.
“There are 37 people being brought to court for unlawful detainers and most of them are for back rent,” said Emily Dreyfus at the November 18 meeting of the CRHA’s Board of Commissioners. “And I have heard some stories of communication problems from residents where they have tried to call their property manager or they don't know their property manager because there's been turnover and are having difficulty navigating the process.”
Dreyfus said many of the tenants may have the ability to enter into payment plans and she wanted everything to be done to prevent evictions.
TerAna Banks, the CRHA’s compliance manager, said the agency is doing what it can to mitigate evictions and the agency’s asset collection manager has been trying to find assistance on behalf of residents.
“However, if you look at the numbers, the number of outstanding rents in the dollar amount, it is tremendous right now,” Banks said. “Currently, I know in the last week alone, we've had a lot of people get help, so these numbers that were given for the report will be lower.”
According to the November 2024 housing report, the CRHA was owed a total of $232,530 in back rent as of November 15.
Banks said tenants are informed they can get on a payment plan, and the courts are given that information as well. Efforts are also made to continue cases as long as possible.
“We have to try to collect the money,” Banks said. “We have, you know, we have bills to pay, but we also are not just pushing money in dollar amount. Myself and the entire staff are assisting people daily to get assistance as well. So we are working on both sides.”
Banks said the CRHA waits three days to move forward after a judgement is made that allows for an eviction. This is called a writ of possession. The timing then depends on the workload of the Sheriff’s Department. She said work continues to find assistance to cover the arrears.
Dephine Carnes, the outside legal counsel for CRHA, said evictions happen after a long process.
“It’s a situation where it’s an eviction for failure to pay rent, they have first received a letter giving them 30 days notice,” Carnes said. “ So this is not just a few days and you have to move out. There is notice and communications with CRHA staff long before the court date.”
Banks said in the current batch of court cases, the CRHA waited as long as they could to avoid.
Executive Director John Sales said most of the evictions come in cases where a tenant has not paid for five months or more.
“Unfortunately, filing evictions is the only time a lot of the families respond, and that's normally when most of the money gets paid,” Sales said. “Like, we had a family walk in [with] $9,000 two months ago after an eviction was filed.”
Sales also reported a small portion of the evictions are related to shootings and other acts of violence but he could not provide any information.
Sales also reported that there is a shortfall of $300,000 in the current fiscal year for funding expected to cover the housing choice voucher program. Part of the reason is due to the increasing cost of rent which means the same amount of funding does not stretch as far. When he took over as executive director in 2020, the average pay-out to a landlord was $700 a month. Now it’s more like $1,100 a month.
“Our per unit cost has just skyrocketed. Everyone is seeing that same issue this year,” Sales said. “HUD had its largest amount of agencies run into shortfall because of that exact issue.”
Sales said this is one reason why the CRHA seeks to continue to purchase additional units across the city. That allows more control to the agency to rent to low-income households. He said the purchase of 212 Fifth Street and 217 Fifth Street should soon be closing. For more information, take a look at the story I wrote earlier this year.
Sales also said the CRHA will likely dispose of 801 Harris Road, a property acquired with the purchase of the Dogwood Portfolio. For more information, read an article I wrote earlier this year for C-Ville Weekly.
One member of the CRHA Board had a question about the immediate future with a presidential transition in Washington D.C.
“I realize there's going to be losses and I just don’t know how much you're thinking about it,” said Laura Goldblatt. “As we think about things like a strategic plan, about how best we can protect our residents. It's unclear what's going to happen, but it doesn't seem like it's going to be very good.”
Sales said the CRHA has been working to improve the relationship with HUD and has been working to become more self-sufficient. He said the agency is preparing for a reduction in funds but the details are far from known.
“We've moved to other programs,” Sales said. “ We've added some additional non-subsidized housing units and so we've diversified and so we're not just dependent on federal funding.”
Sales said there have been conversation with the city government about how to cover the costs of services HUD won’t pay for, such as translation services for residents who are not native speakers of English.
Commissioner Wes Bellamy said the Legislative Black Caucus has been discussing ways to protect housing in the upcoming General Assembly.
“I guess we have to wait and see how they unveil their agenda as session opens up in about a month and a half from now,” Bellamy said.
The meeting concluded with a longer discussion of the CRHA’s eviction policy.
You can take a look at the full meeting at this link:
Reading material for #771
Virginia county outside DC joins push to make some office-to-residential conversions easier, Jonathan Lehfeld, CoStar, November 26, 2024
Investigation opened into Waynesboro United Way CEO after nonprofit closes, Bob Stuart, The News Virginia (via the Charlottesville Daily Progress (paywall)), November 29, 2024
Appalachian Power plans small nuclear reactor in Campbell, Beth JoJack, Virginia Business, November 29, 2024
An announcement is in the end notes for #771
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Charlottesville Community Engagement is intentionally wonky, nuanced, and complex. The work is intended to provide access to source materials so that the reader engages and thinks. A civilization needs a mechanism where communication can lead to solutions, solutions that benefit as many people as possible.
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