Dorothy Day said that one of the easiest ways to lose sight of poverty is to be insulated from it by one’s own comfort. While the University of Virginia does contain a student body from widely varying socioeconomic backgrounds, the University’s location — surrounded by well-maintained green space and vibrant commercial districts — often masks the fact that 26.4 percent of the Charlottesville population makes an income below the poverty line and struggles to afford basic necessities like health care, heating and housing. Because of pressure from developers seeking to accelerate the trend of gentrification, the city’s commitment to these residents is in jeopardy.
The Great Society in the 1960s initiated massive federal support for public housing to ensure a safety net for citizens in danger of homelessness. As with many other government services, however, the public housing program is being increasingly privatized with the advent of a new Department of Housing and Urban Development pilot program called Rental Assistance Demonstration. The voluntary program would allow local housing authorities to convert previously public housing into privately owned and financed housing units through the creation of “project based vouchers” and/or “project based rental assistance.” Though this program has only recently been introduced, the Charlottesville Public Housing Authority has been moving to approve the proposal rapidly to begin the gradual turnover of this public real estate to private landlords. In order to stop some of Charlottesville’s most vulnerable from being victimized, it is up to the University and surrounding Charlottesville community to step up to protect existing affordable housing in our region. We should also maintain the broader principle that our city should be a place where everyone can live despite their socioeconomic backgrounds.
The Public Housing Association of Residents, a union and advising board of sorts for people living in public housing units, is vehemently against the proposed changes in their residents’ living arrangements. The organization claims that the implementation of the program would result in the eventual elimination of up to 376 public housing units, the displacement of many residents with formerly secure housing and a changing of the income targeting formula, which could leave many low-income tenants without adequate support. In addition to these concerns, PHAR also sees the elimination of public housing rules and regulations that would occur with the conversion of these units as entailing a dangerous lack of oversight that would leave private landlords unaccountable to their economically vulnerable tenants.
Faced with these concerns from residents and the potential for abuse with the shift of these units into private ownership, why are the Charlottesville City Council and Charlottesville Public Housing Authority strongly considering implementing an untested program? With real estate scarce in downtown Charlottesville, developers hope that by accessing the public housing units they will be able to demolish them and build condominiums and apartment complexes for wealthier tenants. This will result in higher profits for landlords, but it will come at the expense of displacing of existing public housing residents no longer able to afford their rent. Such a move will likely cause an increase in homelessness at a time when a record number of homeless children are enrolled in public schools nationwide. Beyond the potential profits to be made from the sale of the public housing real estate, turning the units over into private hands will likely increase the property values of surrounding apartments and price still more people out of living in Charlottesville.
Despite the housing residents being organized under PHAR and strongly voicing their discontent with the Rental Assistance Demonstration program, there is still a strong threat of looming privatization. When people think of groups with strong political clout and potential to provide campaign contributions, the most economically vulnerable do not usually come to mind. There has been a great deal of praiseworthy solidarity with people affected by cuts to Access UVA, but there is no reason that this concern and compassion should stop with those enrolled at the University. Thomas Jefferson envisioned the University as an academical village, and this vision would be greatly tainted if the surrounding town had no home for the region’s poorest.
Gray Whisnant is a Viewpoint columnist for The Cavalier Daily.
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