The rate of homelessness in Charlottesville has nearly doubled in the past five years, and community groups have taken up the task of providing support for those who are left most vulnerable by local housing challenges.
In its central downtown location, The Haven serves as a low-barrier day shelter and starting point for those seeking a path to a sustainable housing arrangement. In the winter months — from October through the end of March — the local People And Congregations Engaged in Ministry organization transforms local churches into places of respite, providing evening meals and sleeping arrangements.
These services are physically distanced from the concentration of students on and around central Grounds — where many live comfortably either in residence halls, or in off-Grounds apartments that have been marketed toward students. Despite living this disparate reality, some students at the University have become aware of and involved in the greater Charlottesville community’s initiative for local affordable housing solutions.
Student initiatives
Contracted Independent Organizations, such as Habitat for Humanity at U.Va. and the Madison House volunteer center, assist local organizations to make services more available and accessible to the city’s homeless population.
The University’s Habitat for Humanity chapter operates under the local Habitat for Humanity of Greater Charlottesville affiliate to fulfill the organization’s mission for “safe, decent affordable housing.”
Taylor Thompson, a second-year Architecture student and chapter president, said the CIO assists through volunteering, fundraising and advocacy. Thompson recently attended the Habitat on the Hill event in Washington, D.C., where he met with Congressman Denver Riggleman and legislative assistants of Senators Mark Warner and Tim Kaine and engaged in discussion about affordable housing advocacy.
Students also volunteer weekly and build alongside families to provide them with an affordable housing solution. Habitat for Humanity of Greater Charlottesville’s strategic plan calls for at least 20 homes to be built each year. With community support through volunteers and donations, combined with the family’s own “sweat equity,” these homes can be purchased with a zero-percent interest loan and low-rate monthly mortgage payments. According to the 2018 Impact Report, over 3,000 volunteers provided over 40,000 hours of service, and Charlottesville Habitat received over $2 million in private donations.
Thompson said the volunteering aspect of Habitat presents a unique opportunity for students to interact with the Habitat families. In order for a family to qualify for Habitat homeownership, they must show need for better housing, which may be due to threats such as environmental or crime hazards or unsafe, damaged or inadequate infrastructure. Homelessness, housing instability, rent that is over 50 percent of the family’s income and overcrowdedness are also qualifying conditions.
“They have to complete 300 to 400 hundred hours of sweat equity, and so that normally translates to being on the build site,” Thompson said. “So when we as a club are volunteering, we get to be on-site with them and building with them and hearing their stories — and not just hearing their stories of how they got there, but them teaching different lessons that you wouldn’t necessarily see or get.”
Madison House also organizes a number of services that address homelessness and housing throughout the community, such as its Hoos Assisting with Life Obstacles and Housing Improvement programs. Volunteers with HALO partner directly with The Haven.
Matt Wajsgras, a fourth-year Engineering student and Madison House HALO program director, said his experience volunteering helped him better understand the Charlottesville community surrounding the University.
As a volunteer at The Haven, Wajsgras worked in the kitchen to serve hot meals to guests and at the front service desk, where volunteers address any of the other needs of those who arrive at the shelter. Wajsgras said that this may range from providing amenities such as socks and toiletries, to directing guests to case workers who give specialized support on the path to stable housing arrangements.
“When you get a new guest that hasn’t been there before one of the first things they do is they’ll come up and ask about case managers and what options they have for affordable housing and stuff,” Wajsgras said. “So you do hear a lot about it, and you can tell it’s something that’s one of the primary issues.”
Wajsgras said his volunteering experiences at The Haven gave him more insight to the effects of Charlottesville’s housing problem and added that it’s important for students to find a way to become more informed outside of the University.
“I think people get very caught up in the U.Va. community but don’t realize that the poverty rate’s twice the Virginia state average within Charlottesville — it’s like right around 25 percent — and homelessness is a huge problem in Charlottesville,” Wajsgras said. “And a lot of U.Va. students wouldn’t realize that.”
According to Wajsgras, about half of students are involved in Madison House at some point throughout their time at the University, and Wajsgras said many report that volunteering has helped them escape the “bubble” of University life. The Haven’s Executive Director Stephen Hitchcock said student volunteering has been the University’s largest contribution to the shelter.
Jayson Whitehead, executive director of PACEM said the Alpha Phi Omega service fraternity provides significant help preparing sites. Volunteers will also come to serve meals to guests, and Whitehead noted that this participation is integral in running the sites, which have been reaching maximum capacity in recent years.
“It’s hard for me to imagine us functioning in quite the same way without that help,” Whitehead said. “There’s always room [for help].”
Institutional impact
Hitchcock added that besides student-organized volunteering, curricular programs at the University have benefitted the shelter. Of specific note were nursing cohorts that perform stints at the shelter throughout a semester and a philanthropy class offered through the Batten school, which gives students the opportunity to learn about public policy and nonprofits firsthand through grant making and fundraising. The class donated $10,000 in grants to The Haven in 2016 and $35,000 in 2017.
“That’s been a really creative, mutually beneficial way in which the University engaged with — definitely with the homeless system of care — but more largely with the affordable housing crisis,” Hitchcock said.
Whitehead noted that the University’s “geographic reach” is growing within Charlottesville. The new upperclassmen residence hall Bond House is currently under construction on Brandon Avenue, and the Board of Visitors approved two hotel construction projects — the new University Hotel and Conference Center along the Ivy Corridor and a renovated Darden Inn on North Grounds.
Whitehead said this expanding presence is an opportunity to initiate an active and outward discussion about its impact on the community. Similarly, Hitchcock said the University, as an institution, has a significant role to play in addressing Charlottesville’s housing challenge.
“The trick is how we’re going to in the longterm address this affordable housing issue, and it will definitely require collaboration and partnership with the University, because the University is obviously the biggest employer, the biggest presence in the community,” Hitchcock said.
As a student at the University, Thompson echoed these sentiments, saying the University should play an active role in local issues — especially concerns as pressing as affordable housing. Thompson said the expansion of on-Grounds student housing is just one step in alleviating the issue, but he added, “We can’t build out of it — a lot of it lies within other places as well.” Thompson expressed hope for President Jim Ryan’s initiative to “build bridges” through contributions to the community.
“I’d really love to see the University as a whole step up — and not step up in the negative connotation of we aren’t doing enough already — but continue to do what we’re doing in reaching out to the community and getting to know the community and making opportunities for housing more available,” Thompson said. “And [asking] how do we utilize our academic track record as a way to potentially find some of those solutions.”
Bursting the ‘bubble’
Within the University’s student population, there is a varying degree of attention directed to Charlottesville’s struggle with housing and homelessness. Weighing options for housing presents a serious financial decision for students and their families.
First-year College student Jennifer Bobowski said she’s noticed homelessness throughout Charlottesville in her daily life as a University student. Bobowski noted the prevalence of homelessness off-Grounds — both on the Corner and on the Downtown Mall.
Bobowski said she wasn’t aware of members of the University taking specific action to address homelessness in the greater Charlottesville community.
“I know we’re involved in the community in other ways, but homelessness isn’t something that any of the students face,” Bobowski said. “So I think there’s just a clear separation in that sense.”
According to Bobowski’s observations, affordable housing is a problem that many students don’t typically have to face. Bobowski said she noticed more people opt for off-Grounds student housing than on-Grounds, and she noted that the cost of living in University housing “isn’t modest” — around $7,000.
“With students, most people don’t complain too much about prices and don’t have a problem with paying for housing,” Bobowski said. “And I think there’s a sufficient amount of off-Grounds housing that is at more affordable housing — at least for students and their families.”
However, students and their families are by no means immune to the effects of the City’s affordable housing challenge. Second-year College student Lauren Harter said the housing market in Charlottesville influenced her decision to live on-Grounds this year, given the high cost of rent and utilities necessary to live in an off-Grounds apartment.
Harter noted that although living on-Grounds is more affordable, it can make its residents feel feel disconnected from their peers who live in the off-Grounds housing accomodations. This led Harter to turn to off-Grounds housing after this year, though the decision will still present a financial burden.
“It's very apparent to me that the cost of living off Grounds seems to be tailored toward students from higher socioeconomic backgrounds, which makes searching for housing difficult for students who want to live in more of a community, but are limited because of their financial situation,” Harter said in an email statement to The Cavalier Daily.
Harter also said that the issue of homelessness that persists outside of the University community is not as widely recognized as it should be by students.
“I think homelessness in Charlottesville is something that a lot of students don't think about unless they actually come into contact with people who are homeless, and even then, I don't think people are nearly as aware as they should be that it is an issue, and that it's an issue that should concern them, too,” Harter said.
Ryan announced March 7 that the University will be addressing demands to pay a living wage by increasing full-time workers’ pay to $15 per hour, starting Jan. 1 of next year. In the email sent to the University, Ryan mentioned that the affordable housing crisis is another local issue at the forefront of his community working group’s agenda.
“In the meantime, we’ll keep working on ways to make a difference on our own, including on the equally pressing topic of affordable housing,” Ryan said.
Affordable workforce housing was ranked along with wages and jobs as a top priority issue for the task force, which was commissioned in October of 2018 to stimulate a more positive relationship between the University and the greater Charlottesville community. Other priorities set for the task force included public and equitable healthcare and youth and education.
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