2011-2012 Executive Committee

Co-Presidents:
The Very Reverend Jim Richardson, Rector, St. Paul Memorial Episcopal Church
Minister Dorothy Jordan, Zion Baptist Church-North Garden

Vice President:
Denise Zito, Holy Comforter Catholic Church

Secretary:
Kim Wilkens, Peace Lutheran Church

Treasurer:
Reynell Stokes, University Baptist Church

At Large Members:
Rev. John Herman, Pastor, Peace Lutheran Church
Kristen Schenk, Church of the Incarnation

Please send general inquiries to impact@thedartcenter.org

The March 10th IMPACT Nehemiah Action meeting was a great success! Nearly 2,000 people (1,950 people signed in) from 28 member congregations attended. All of our elected officials from Charlottesville and Albemarle County, and key healthcare providers attended and participated. Significant progress was made to address critical needs in our community.

Dental need:
The lack of access to dental care, both emergency and restorative, for low-income uninsured adults has reached crisis proportions in our community. There are over 1,000 people on local waiting lists for dental care in volunteer based programs. One program sees 60 people per month, another saw 20 people in the last year. UVa Hospital had over 1,700 people come to their emergency room with dental needs last year, most of whom were sent away just with antibiotics and pain medication.

Dental commitments received:
We received commitments from the Charlottesville Free Clinic to develop a plan and hire a dentist with the goal of beginning service by March ’09. The health department and CADA (Charlottesville Area Dental Access) agreed to support this plan with in-kind resources, such as space. Martha Jefferson Hospital, UVa Medical Center, and the Charlottesville/Albemarle Dental Society committed to bring appropriate resources to implement this plan.

Affordable Housing need:
IMPACT has focused on the tremendous need for affordable housing for families earning 0-30% AMI (Area Median Income), or under $20,000 per year. There is a deficit of 3,917 affordable rental units for families in our region earning under 30% AMI (Source: TJPDC “State of Housing Report”, Jan. 2007). There are over 900 people on the waiting list for public housing in Charlottesville and the Housing Choice Voucher program (section 8 rental assistance) waiting list in Charlottesville is closed. Seven hundred people applied for the Albemarle County Housing Choice Voucher program when they opened their waiting list between Nov 07 and Jan 08.

Affordable Housing commitments received:
Last year IMPACT sought and won the creation of a Charlottesville, Albemarle, UVa Task Force with the first priority to address the need for affordable housing for families earning 0-30%AMI.

This year IMPACT sought funds to enact the proposals coming out of this task force. We asked Charlottesville City councilors to budget $500,000 in FY09 to support proposals that come out of the Task Force for rental housing for the working poor in the 0-30% AMI category. We received commitments from Councilors Holly Edwards, Satyendra Huja, Julian Taliaferro and Mayor David Norris. Councilor David Brown did not commit.

IMPACT also asked Albemarle County Supervisors to budget $500,000 in FY09 to support proposals that come out of the Task Force for rental housing for the working poor in the 0-30% AMI category. We received commitments from Supervisors David Slutzky and Lindsay Dorrier. We did not get commitments from Supervisors Ken Boyd, Sally Thomas, Dennis Rooker and Ann Mallek.

These monies could be used to create more rental housing units, for rent assistance, or to preserve existing units of affordable housing. With this investment of local funds, non profit developers can leverage 4-7 times as much money in matching funds from state, federal and other sources to build or preserve affordable housing units.

Through the work of IMPACT we are excited to have so many people from all walks of life and faiths coming together to create a more just community!

Charlottesville Tomorrow recording of IMPACT Assembly

http://www.changingthepresent.org/flash/banners/drives/horizontal_banner.swf?env=production&drive_id=1431

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IMPACT had a very successful Annual Assembly on October 15, 2007. Over 635 people attended and we welcomed 4 new congregations into membership: St. Thomas Aquinas Catholic Church, P’nai Yisrael Chavurah, Living Water Christian Center and St. Paul’s Episcopal, Ivy. This brings our total to 27 congregations. We also adopted a new Executive Committee, led by Fr. Dennis McAuliffe, Holy Comforter Catholic Church and Pastor Stanley Woodfolk, Evergreen Ministries.

The Assembly followed our fall listening process in which 790 people participated in 80 house meetings. The top community problems raised were affordable housing, healthcare, youth, and education concerns.

At our Assembly we voted to continue our efforts on affordable housing and begin efforts to address gaps in healthcare. We will continue to monitor our work on public transportation, but affordable housing and healthcare will be the 2 focuses of the 2007-2008 cycle.

Supervisor Slutzky attended the Annual Assembly. He committed to continue his efforts to ensure that the Charlottesville/Albemarle/UVa Task Force has concrete outcomes and has a focus on families that earn 30%AMI, under $20,000 a year. He praised IMPACT for our ongoing efforts and presence.

Next Steps:
We are in the research process and over the next several months, the research committees will be meeting with local experts, decision makers, and people affected by the problem.

Congregations will be focused on deepening and solidifying their justice ministry networks.

IMPACT’s first Nehemiah Action was held March 15, 2007. It was a great event on many levels: the amount of participation exceeded the capacity of the MLK Performing Arts Center (over 1600 sign-ups), the coming together of so many different faith communities unified in addressing social justice issues in the community, and the participation by many public officials. While the concept of grassroots, interfaith organizations addressing social justice issues is not new in this country, it is certainly new to Charlottesville and Albemarle County. We were very pleased with this first annual event.

Highlights:
– Enthusiastic, capacity crowd that did a great job of expressing respect and gratitude toward our public officials (this was the largest, first Nehemiah Action meeting in the history of DART).

– IMPACT’s 25th congregation, Mt. Zion First African Baptist Church, signed the Covenant Agreement.

– The City Councilors agreed to call this a public meeting and City Councilors Norris, Taliaferro & Lynch and Mayor Brown participated and responded to IMPACT’s proposals.

– Albemarle County Board of Supervisors (BOS) did not call this a public meeting. Five BOS attended and Supervisors Slutzky and Boyd responded to IMPACT’s proposals.

Public Transportation Solutions & Results:
1. Establish Sunday daytime bus service on the two most heavily traveled CTS routes, the free trolley and route #7, with buses every 30 minutes.
* Councilors Norris & Taliaferro agreed to support this solution.
* Post Action Update: City Council has approved a budget with this service and it will start this summer.

2. Establish daytime bus service to Southwood and 5th St. Extended County Office Building.
* Supervisor Slutzky agreed to support this solution.
* Post Action update: This service has started!

3. Add 5 hours of night service to route #5, with buses every 45 minutes.
* Supervisor Slutzky agreed to support this solution.
* Post Action update: Albemarle County allocated an additional $250K to expand public transport. Our request for night service on route 5 is a strong possibility for use of these monies.

Affordable Housing Solutions & Results:
1. Support the city’s adoption of the Charlottesville Affordable Housing Investment Program (CAHIP) proposal with the original funding of $500K for Special Needs Housing and $500K for Public housing, the two categories of CAHIP serving people who make $20,000 or less.
* Councilors Norris & Taliaferro agreed to support this solution.
* Post Action update: City Council has approved a budget with CAHIP.

2. Secure an additional $420K or 1 cent set aside of the property tax dollar, allocated toward the creation of new affordable units for 0-30% AMI.
* Councilors Norris & Taliaferro agreed to support this solution.
* Post Action update: With this proposal we were asking the City to expand their housing proposal from $1 million to $1.42 million dollars per year. City Council has approved a budget that allocates $1.75 million dollars this year and a commitment to a total investment of at least $5 million over the next 5 years!

3. Creation of a Regional Affordable Housing Task Force comprised of decision makers from Charlottesville and Albemarle County to (1) develop a plan to create at least 150 additional housing units over the next 5 years for those earning less than $20,000 (0-30% AMI) and (2) keep these units affordable to this income category for at least 15 years. The Task Force will come up with an implementation schedule and funding plan. This plan will be presented to IMPACT congregations at the Oct 15 Assembly.
* Councilors Norris & Taliaferro agreed to support this solution.
* Supervisor Slutzky agreed to support this solution.
* Leonard Sandridge, Executive Vice President and Chief Operating Officer of UVA, agreed to provide a University representative to this task force.
* Post Action update: We are currently following up with public officials.

Next Steps:
– Continue to observe and participate in City and County budget work sessions and meetings.
– Continue building Justice Ministry Networks within congregations.
– Support IMPACT financially through Member Support Drive during May and June.