Charlottesville housing authority presents five-year HUD capital fund plan; targets interior renovations for 62 homes

At a March 12, 2026 work session, staff for the Charlottesville Redevelopment and Housing Authority presented a five‑year Capital Fund (CFP) action plan to guide capital improvements across the authority’s public housing portfolio.

"I am Brandon Collins. I'm your redevelopment coordinator," Brandon Collins told commissioners when he opened the presentation and began reviewing the CFP timeline, outreach and budget assumptions. Collins said the plan bundles authority‑wide projects, West Haven (AMP 1) needs and parallel‑track (AMP 4) renovations and anticipates roughly $1.38 million a year — about $6.9 million over five years — while noting annual amounts depend on congressional appropriations and proration.

The plan relies in part on supplemental funds from 2024 that Collins said enabled staff to accelerate an interior renovation project for parallel‑track homes. Collins described replacing kitchens, bathrooms, floors, interior doors, fixtures and finishes across the portfolio and said those extra funds make it possible to complete the interior scope more quickly.

Collins summarized required steps under HUD rules: a five‑year action plan, a 45‑day comment period, consultation with the resident advisory board (or jurisdictionwide resident council, FAR), a public hearing and board approval before submission to HUD. "We published the draft and notice of your public hearing on February 6," he said, adding staff expected written comments from FAR by March 20 and a public hearing and approval at the board meeting on March 23.

Staff laid out implementation details for the interior renovations. Collins said residents who need to be temporarily relocated will move into a fully furnished on‑site "hotel unit" for about two weeks while their home is renovated; he and other staff said the goal is to complete all 62 parallel‑track homes by about 2027, with one duplex already finished.

Financial details discussed included recent reconciliations and savings: staff noted a Madison project that had been budgeted for $600,000 finished at under $300,000, freeing roughly $300,000 for reallocation. Collins also discussed equipment choices and operational savings: replacing Polaris combo hot water/heating tanks (about $3,000 each) with standard hot water tanks could save roughly $1,000–$1,500 per unit and lower maintenance burdens.

There was a brief discrepancy about the size of the 2024 supplemental allocation: Collins initially said the extra 2024 money was about $1.2 million; a colleague (John) shortly afterward said the 2024 supplemental was $1.4 million. Staff said they will reconcile those figures as they finalize the annual budgets and update the HUD format numbers in the packet.

Collins said the authority has been using other grant sources, Affordable Housing Group contributions and city support to stretch CFP dollars and noted that some redevelopment properties are no longer eligible for CFP because they are not public housing. He emphasized that the planned work on the parallel‑track sites will keep the same number of public housing units in service.

Next steps: staff will finish resident polling and gather FAR comments by March 20, hold the public hearing and seek board approval on March 23, then submit the plan to HUD. Staff said they anticipated beginning relocation and the first unit work in early April.

The meeting recorded no public comments and adjourned after a motion and second.