The planned mixed-income neighborhood will have affordable homeownership and small business opportunities for current mobile home park residents Housing-focused nonprofit Habitat for Humanity has a bold plan for a mobile home park in Charlottesville, Virginia, one the organization hopes will serve as a nationwide blueprint for redevelopment without displacing current residents.
Southwood Mobile Home Park, currently home to about 1,500 people in 341 trailers spread over 120 acres, was purchased by Habitat for Humanity of Greater Charlottesville in 2007. Now, it?s on track to be turned into a mixed-income neighborhood that will give low-income mobile home park residents affordable homeownership options and small business opportunities.
The planned redevelopment will have 800 residential units?more than half of which will be affordable?and as much as 200,000 square feet of commercial space. The affordable units will be built by Habitat directly or provided by private developers through the Low Income Housing Tax Credit program. Habitat is close to finalizing the first two contracts with private developers with the hope of breaking ground sometime in 2020.
?It?s really exciting,? said Dan Rosensweig, president and CEO at Habitat for Humanity of Greater Charlottesville. ?We at Habitat are going to be building the vast majority of low-income housing. In order to help fund it, and in order to create a more diverse community ...we?ll sell land to private builders to build ...