(RECAP: The Charlottesville City Council unanimously ruled in favor of the implementation of the Strategic Investment Area Plot Monday night that hopes to redevelop a 330-acre area south and east of the Downtown Mall. The goal of the Strategic Investment Area is to redevelop “existing housing sites, provide the vision for private development and investment, and improve the connections without and within the study area,” according to documents on the City of Charlottesville website. With 340 units of public and helped housing existing currently, the plot could possibly make 750 new residential units over a 10-15 year period. Galvin said this new housing would not be public housing but rather a mix of workforce housing — affordable housing for teachers, law enforcement, etc. — and market price housing.)

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(RECAP: Arlington’s homeless population is down 27 percent over the past year and 64 percent since 2013. That’s according to figures released today by Arlington County, which conducted a count of homeless individuals on the streets and in shelters in January. The county credited two of its initiatives — 100 Homes and Zero: 2016 — with playing “key roles” in reducing homelessness by helping the homeless to secure stable housing. (The opening of Arlington’s new Homeless Services Center last year likely also helped.) Arlington is launching two new initiatives intended to curb homelessness. One is the establishment of a Youth Task Force “to examine the nature and scope of youth homelessness.” The other is a “Risk Reduction Fund” that will allow landlords to loosen their rental eligibility requirements and thus take in formerly homeless tenants. The fund will reimburse landlords for “vacancy and hurt costs” associated with such tenants.)

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(RECAP: The National Real Estate Investors Association (NREIA) said today that new guidelines issued Monday by HUD go too far and will have a chilling effect on criminal background checks used to screen potential tenants. According to HUD, because a disproportionate number of African Americans & Hispanics have criminal records, they face potential discrimination in housing options based on race, in violation of the Honest Housing Act. National REIA believes this would severely restrict a landlord’s ability to protect residents from predictable harm & violence. “Today’s guidance does small more than try to make the criminal class a protected class – beyond the scope of congressional authority granted by the Honest Housing Act.”)

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