Kaine, Warner announce millions for Southwood project

Millions of federal dollars are going to support an affordable housing project in Albemarle County.

On Thursday, Virginia Senators Tim Kaine and Mark Warner announced more than $29 million in funding for Habitat for Humanity of Greater Charlottesville.

According to a release, this funding will go toward preserving long-term housing affordability for residents of the Southwood Mobile Park, south of Charlottesville.

This funding is part of the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development’s Preservation and Reinvestment Initiative for Community Enhancement Grant program.

This program supports community efforts to maintain, protect and stabilize manufactured housing and manufactured housing communities.

“Every Virginian deserves access to safe, affordable housing,” the senators wrote in a statement. “We are glad that this federal funding will help support homes and communities in Charlottesville, and we will keep working to support housing accessibility throughout the Commonwealth.”

The release says more than 22 million Americans live in manufactured homes across the country. These homes are factory-built and then installed on a lot, which makes them a more affordable option for homeownership than new-construction homes.

However, while such residents often own their home, they lease the land it sits on, which can put them at risk of losing their home if there is an ownership change for the land.

The release says Habitat bought the Southwood Mobile Home Park in 2007 to help prevent such a displacement of residents and has been working on a redevelopment project ever since.

This funding will help advance the work, which aims to build a community where the residents will own the land under their homes.