Charlottesville providers report rising homelessness, urge more housing and prevention funding

Charlottesville City Council on May 19 heard a unified briefing from the city’s homeless-service providers that underscored rising local need and gaps in shelter and housing capacity. Presenters from the Blue Ridge Area Coalition for the Homeless, the Haven, Shelter for Help in Emergency, the Salvation Army and a congregational shelter network described higher unsheltered counts, constrained prevention funds and plans to expand outreach.

The presentations put numbers behind service pressures. Shayla Washington, executive director of the Blue Ridge Area Coalition for the Homeless (the Continuum of Care lead agency the presentation identified as “Brack”), said the January 2025 point-in-time count recorded 41 unsheltered people, 116 people in emergency shelter and four units of transitional housing. Washington said the Continuum’s by-name list contains 241 people (about 68% reported Charlottesville as their last permanent address) and that the community saw an increase from 498 to 571 people over a year. She described Brack’s role applying for federal HUD planning and competitive grants, noted a planning grant cap of about $50,000 for a lead agency of their size, and said the organization is pursuing private funding for a one-year outreach coordinator and a lived-experience advisory council.

Nonprofit operators described how those needs translate into day-to-day services. Owen Brennan, executive director of the Haven day shelter, said the Haven logged roughly 21,715 visits in the nine months ending in March (about 80 visits per day), served roughly 20,000 meals and worked with 412 unique guests over that period. The Haven operates a rapid rehousing program that houses about 40 households per year and a separate Haven Housing Fund intended as a lighter-touch subsidy for households that need a short bridge to housing stability. Brennan said the rapid rehousing program has an approximate 90% success rate for stabilizing participants, but stressed that longer-term housing options and housing navigation resources remain limited.

Anna Mendes of Shelter for Help in Emergency said her agency is the regional wraparound provider for intimate-partner violence in Planning District 10. Mendes reported that in 2024 the organization provided about 6,000 shelter nights, answered roughly 1,400 hotline calls, and helped secure more than 100 protective orders; SHE recently changed policies to allow eligible survivors to bring dependents and extended permissible lengths of stay while studying the trade-offs for annual capacity.

Major Mark Van Meter of the Salvation Army described an existing 58-bed shelter and a proposed Center of Hope facility at 207 Ridge Street that would include 114 emergency shelter beds, seven two-bedroom transitional apartments for families and an initial 50-bed low-barrier year-round shelter (with space and plans to expand to 100 beds if needed). Van Meter reported roughly 1,900 cases representing 4,500 unique individuals and about 16,000 nights of lodging provided in 2024.

Cindy Chambers, deputy director of a congregational shelter network, described a rotating, congregation-hosted low-barrier shelter that typically serves 30–40 men and 15–16 women nightly during the mid-fall to mid-spring season. Chambers emphasized volunteer capacity, partnerships with medical providers and rising medical needs among shelter guests.

Council members pressed presenters on funding sources and program prioritization. Washington said roughly 60% of her organization’s funding is state (DHCD), about 4% is private donations and roughly 6% is local dollars (combined city and county). Councilors and nonprofit directors agreed that eviction prevention—stable prevention subsidies to keep people housed—was the lowest-cost way to reduce inflow into shelter, while stressing that the marketwide shortage of affordable units remains the larger barrier to long-term exits from homelessness.

Several presenters asked the city to continue investing in housing supply and year-round low-barrier shelter capacity, and to support outreach and housing navigation. The council approved the evening agenda earlier in the meeting and later recessed into a closed session to discuss appointments to boards and commissions.

What happens next: presenters said Brack will begin a strategic planning process supported by state funding and private outreach funding; the Haven continues rapid rehousing and housing navigation expansions; the Salvation Army is proceeding with design for the Center of Hope project; and city staff flagged zoning and other housing measures expected to affect supply over time.