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Dan Rosensweig, CEO of Habitat for Humanity of Greater Charlottesville, stands in front of the Southwood model duplex.
The new model duplex home rests on ground that was once part of the aging Southwood trailer park in Albemarle County. Fresh paint and green grass signal a kind of phoenix. An era of modern construction rises to replace tightly packed mobile homes with fading paint, random additions and septic systems failing so badly that some must be emptied weekly.
The duplex serves as an example of what affordable housing will look like for Southwood’s mostly Hispanic residents. They will make up the first home owners and renters of a massive mixed income residential project that Habitat for Humanity of Greater Charlottesville hopes will set a standard for a community that transcends race, ethnicity and class.
Many current Southwood mobile home residents helped plan the layout of Village 1 of the freshly developing Southwood residential project on Hickory Road off Old Lynchburg Road. Dozens of families were involved in the process. They agreed to a central park as a focal point. Then they built a model, placing small color-coded blocks of wood representing different types of housing on a topographical map made from layered sheets of thick cardboard that reflect the actual grade of the land.
Other types of homes – single family, condos and townhouses – will eventually surround the duplex. A soccer field is currently under construction in the central park, compliments of a grant. The bustle of site development and construction give an aura of constant motion. But for now, the duplex forms the first jewel in what developers and the county think can be a crowning achievement that marries a rich suburban setting with diversity of housing stock it needs to be more inclusive. Each side of the duplex offers an open living, dining and kitchen area, four small bedrooms and two full bathrooms. Just as important, Habitat believes its 11 pricing plans and 4 rental plans will be within the reach of middle and low income people.
The search for affordable housing in Albemarle and the adjacent city of Charlottesville has become something of a crusade complicated by poverty and a shortage of inventory. Charlottesville’s dearth of open space bedevils city planners. Local residents push back against a strategy to increase building density in certain areas to bring down costs by going vertical or by drawing University of Virginia students away from residential neighborhoods where the working class might live.
Albemarle sprawls from its urban core to its far rural nooks. Its poor population is a fraction of Charlottesville’s.
But neither the county nor the city offer many housing options for middle income earners or below. So what happens at Southwood matters. Habitat’s model of resident involvement gives everyone living in the project skin in the game. Ideally, that brings with it pride of ownership. Habitat guaranteed trailer park residents relocation into the new Southwood. No one will be asked to spend more than 30% of their income on newly constructed housing. Habitat chief executive Dan Rosensweig said the plan is to keep it from 21-27%.
Southwood residents won’t be singled out or segregated. One recommendation that trailer park residents brought to the process was a request that every block mix Habitat homes with market-rate homes. Making people neighbors rather than charity cases may make folks see beyond skin color or tax bracket.
Cultures may clash a bit at Southwood. Right now, it is not unusual to hear a rooster crow at Southwood. Rosensweig says the new development will limit residents to five chickens. Roosters will require a special permit.
Wherever they come from, we hope that residents of the new Southwood arrive with the goal of getting along.
The model Habitat duplex is a little smaller than some of the market-rate homes that will eventually be built nearby, but not enough to notice. Certainly not enough if everybody take care of their property, which we’re betting they will.
The public is invited to a grand opening of the model home at Southwood today from 2-6 p.m. The address of the duplex is 3133 Horizon Road, Charlottesville, VA 22902. Turn right off of Hickory on to Horizon.
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Dan Rosensweig, CEO of Habitat for Humanity of Greater Charlottesville, stands in front of the Southwood model duplex.
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