Join Charlottesville Tomorrow at Gordonsville in Bloom this Saturday, April 18, and make your voice heard in this year’s elections!

Charlottesville Tomorrow will be meeting community members at the festival from 11 a.m. to 4 p.m. next to town hall, located at 112 S. Main St. in downtown Gordonsville.

Gordonsville in Bloom is free to attend and is a celebration of all things spring, with DIY flower bouquets, a growing station, vendors, community resources and live music by Andrew McKnight and Beyond Borders.

And while you’re enjoying the spring blooms and activities, you can help shape Charlottesville Tomorrow’s 2026 Central Virginia Voter Guide, where candidates answer questions about the issues that matter to you.

Come chat with us and let us know what’s on your mind — from education and healthcare to data centers and referendums — and we’ll use your questions to create this year’s Q&As for candidates.

Grab a blanket or a camping chair, and celebrate the changing of the seasons with your friends and neighbors while taking an active role in our democracy.

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It’s springtime — and in the journalism world, that means it’s awards season.So far this year, Charlottesville Tomorrow has been recognized at the state and national level for its reporting and model of community-driven news.

In March, the Pulitzer Center announced Anastasiia Carrier was one of four reporters selected as a 2026 Mental Well-being in the U.S. Reporting Fellow. Carrier has reported on gaps in mental health care for youth in our region and across the state, plus challenges to funding for mental health and addiction recovery services for Medicaid patients. 

Her Pulitzer fellowship project is focused on the community impact of the Farmville labor and delivery unit’s closure. She has hit the ground running, and last week she reported on how families in the area have already started to change their minds about having children.

“It’s an opportunity to take an in-depth look at how Centra’s closure of obstetric and gynecological services is affecting families in Farmville and the surrounding area. I’ve been speaking with families and there’s no doubt the loss is already having ripple effects,” said Carrier. (Contact Charlottesville Tomorrow if you or your family have been affected.)

Also in March, the Education Writers Association awarded education reporter La Shawn Pagán with a scholarship to attend the 79th Education Writers Association seminar in June 2026. 

Since joining Charlottesville Tomorrow in 2025, Pagán has been carefully reporting on issues facing local educators, students and parents. She has tracked the evolving conversations around school resource officers in Charlottesville City Schools and investigated how Fluvanna, Louisa and Albemarle counties and CCS found solutions to tackle chronic absenteeism since the COVID-19 pandemic. 

“I am so happy to have been granted a scholarship to attend the national seminar, where I’ll learn about helping communities understand how changes at the federal level will affect local schools,” said Pagán. “This is a fantastic opportunity at such a critical time, and I’m so honored to be one of the journalists selected.”

The Virginia Press Association (VPA) announced the 2025 VPA News & Advertising Contest awardees over the weekend at the annual VPA Awards Banquet on Saturday, April 11 in Lynchburg, Virginia. Anastasiia Carrier, Allie Pitchon and Erin O’Hare were recognized for their coverage of health, public institutions and housing in the online news outlets category.

While we’re always glad to cheer on our reporters and celebrate the accolades they receive from our news colleagues, what is most impressive is their dedication to the communities we serve. Our team works hard to bring their skills and talents to central Virginia, so we’re grateful for this opportunity to celebrate and support them.

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In early 2026, life was going well for Nicholas Lohr. He had a job he loved, working in his hometown with people he had known his whole life. With the financial stability from his work, he and his wife of six years were starting to build their life together, with a home of their own, a young daughter, and another baby on the way.

That all changed on Monday, March 2, when Orange-based molding manufacturer Zamma Corporation closed without warning, leaving Lohr and approximately 130 of his fellow coworkers suddenly jobless.

Zamma Corporation was originally founded in 1970, manufacturing pre-finished molding for home construction and renovation. In the decades that followed, the company became known for its “Cap-A-Tread” products, a patented vinyl “stair renewal system” that could be installed with less time and expense than traditional hardwood or carpet stair replacements.

In the years leading up to the closure, Zamma’s plant on Litchfield Drive was one of the county’s largest overall employers, according to data from Orange County’s yearly comprehensive financial reports. At the time of Orange County Department of Economic Development’s most recent annual report for 2024, Zamma Corporation was one of just a dozen businesses and organizations in the county that employed more than 100 people, and a Virginia Works Local Area Profile report based on data from the second quarter of 2025 lists Zamma Corporation as Orange County’s 12th largest employer.

Several former employees told Charlottesville Tomorrow that they were instructed to attend a companywide meeting in Zamma’s warehouse at 8:30 a.m. on March 2. Most employees only learned of the meeting via a mass email at approximately 8 a.m. the same day; a few, like Lohr, who weren’t normally at work in the early morning, were told several days in advance to attend the meeting, but not what it would be about.

By Monday, Lohr, who worked as a systems administrator in the IT department, suspected that something was amiss, as he had noticed employees’ access to several systems being revoked, including his own. 

At the warehouse, CEO Mike Shelton informed employees that the company was shutting down, effective immediately, and instructed employees to see Zamma’s human resources director for unemployment information.

It was a difficult blow for Lohr, who had grown up in Orange and said he felt at home with his colleagues. At lunchtime, he would often stop by his parents’ house just a few minutes down the road from Zamma. 

“I loved my job. I loved my coworkers. A lot of people that worked there are people that I’ve been around for a good portion of my life,” Lohr said, adding that he had initially met some of his coworkers as a teenager working at the former Dairy Korner Restaurant at the intersection of routes 15 and 20, which was owned by his family. 

Lohr spent the minutes immediately following the announcement hugging and saying goodbye to his coworkers. Others’ reactions to the news differed.

“There was definitely a variety of responses,” Lohr said. “There were a few people who were angry, you know. One of them mentioned out loud, like, why weren’t we given any notice about this so that we could have prepared?”

Zamma’s employees weren’t the only ones who were taken by surprise. In an email written on behalf of the county in cooperation with Board of Supervisors Chair J. Bryan Nicol, Orange County Economic Development Director Julie Perry said that county officials were not previously aware of any business issues with the company, and “did not receive the normal and required WARN (Worker Adjustment and Retraining Notification) from Zamma.”

The WARN Act is a federal regulation that protects workers by requiring employers to provide a 60-day notice to public officials and employees in the event of a closure or mass layoffs. The notifications also help state and local employment organizations like Virginia’s Rapid Response program assist displaced workers efficiently in order to minimize the impact of job losses on employees, their families and communities. 

The act applies to companies with 100 or more full-time employees or those whose employees, both full-time and part-time, collectively complete at least 4,000 hours of work per week. Zamma appears to fall within this category, although the WARN Act strongly encourages even businesses who don’t meet the criteria to provide employees and local governing boards with as much notice as possible.

Under the act, “Employees, their representatives and units of local government may initiate civil actions against employers believed to be in violation” by failing to give advance notice. A few exemptions exist, including those for natural disasters, and for “faltering businesses” and “unforeseeable business circumstances,” although the latter two must fall within the extremely narrow guidelines included in the act.

According to the U.S. Department of Labor, “An employer that violates the WARN Act notice requirement is liable to each affected employee for an amount equal to back pay and benefits for the period of violation up to 60 days,” which must be litigated by employees or a union through the federal court system. Additional repercussions include a civil penalty of up to $500 per day for failing to notify local government.

According to Perry, county officials learned of the closure on the same day that employees were let go, finding out from Virginia Career Works, a workforce development agency that provides resources to connect job seekers and employers. 

Sarah Morton, Virginia Career Works Piedmont Region Executive Director, and Malissa Short, Virginia Rapid Response Program Manager, confirmed that Rapid Response did not receive a WARN Act notice from Zamma Corporation, and that they also had learned of the closure on March 2 after a former employee visited Virginia Career Works’ Culpeper Center seeking assistance.

In an email, Short wrote that approximately 130 total employees were impacted by the shutdown.

Perry said that according to current labor force data, that number accounts for about 10% of Orange County’s total manufacturing workforce.

Despite the significant upset to the local economy, Zamma’s corporate leadership has been silent since the closure. As of Monday, April 13 — more than a month after employees were sent home — Zamma had not made any public announcement, and Charlotteville Tomorrow’s repeated attempts to reach CEO Michael Shelton and CFO Becca Feild by phone and email went unanswered. Feild also declined to meet with a reporter during an in-person visit to Zamma Corporation in early March.

Several employees named Jeff Juzaitis as the company’s president at the time of the closure. Although his name does not appear on the company’s most recent annual report filed with the State Corporation Commission, Juzaitis is listed as president on a prior report from January 2025. Charlottesville Tomorrow reached out to Juzaitis for comment but did not receive a response.

The silence from Zamma leadership stands in contrast to how Orange County’s last major manufacturing job loss was handled. In 2025, when cabinet manufacturer American Woodmark closed its Orange location, the company notified local officials in January for the late March closure in compliance with the WARN Act. American Woodmark HR Director Eric Miller also publicly provided details in advance of the plant’s closure, including in a Jan. 28, 2025, report by The Rapidan Register.

The lack of communication from the company has left employees struggling to piece together what actually happened to Zamma, how long those in leadership knew the company was at risk of closing, or how they could have handled the shutdown differently.

In the years since former owners Peter and Liz Spielman sold the company in 2017, public information about Zamma’s ownership and leadership structure has become increasingly sparse. The company’s profile on the Virginia State Corporation Commission website lists Shelton and Feild along with two individuals affiliated with Prudential’s asset management arm PGIM Investments, Stephen F. Szejner and Mark A Hoffmeister. 

A fifth individual listed on the State Corporation Commission website is Brad Davis, a managing partner at Ridge Capital Partners, a Middleburg, Va.-based private equity firm that specializes in buyouts and debt restructuring for manufacturing and distribution companies. Zamma Corporation is listed in Ridge Capital Partners’ portfolio on their website.

Sjezner and Hoffmeister did not respond to requests for comment. During a brief phone call on Thursday, April 9, Davis initially said he was “not very much involved” with Zamma Corporation. Upon further inquiry, Davis only confirmed he was a director for Zamma and said of Ridge Capital Partners, “We were an investor. We closed the company down,” but declined to comment further. Davis originally offered to connect Charlottesville Tomorrow with Shelton, but neither Davis nor Shelton responded to a follow-up request.

Several sources who asked to remain anonymous due to potential professional and financial repercussions suggested that Zamma had been in significant financial trouble for years. Two of those sources, including one familiar with the company’s finances, said that Zamma had been forced to close after failing to come to an agreement with Fifth Third Bank over its debt. 

Fifth Third Bank Senior Public Relations Manager Adrienne Gutbier confirmed that Zamma Corporation was a client, but could not provide further details due to privacy restrictions. 

Those anonymous sources also noted a number of unforeseen events that had put an additional strain on the company in recent months. They said that tariffs on raw materials and rising fuel costs had lowered profit margins and made some of Zamma’s contracts with big-box stores such as Lowe’s unsustainable. They also reported that a major piece of machinery broke down last fall, costing the company hundreds of thousands of dollars in repairs and creating a backlog of orders.

While Zamma’s shutdown has certainly been impactful, its story is unfortunately not a unique one, as manufacturing has been on the decline in recent years in Virginia and across the country. According to Virginia Works, manufacturing experienced the second largest decline in jobs out of all industries in the state from June 2024 to June 2025. U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics data shows a further decline in Virginia manufacturing jobs in the second half of 2025, from 239,000 in July to 235,500 in December.

Despite those statistics and the shuttering of two major manufacturing businesses in the county in less than a year, Perry said that county officials see Zamma’s shutdown as “an isolated event pertaining to that particular company and not a broader trend in Orange County.”

She noted gains such as defense technology company L3Harris investing more than $41 million in 2024 to expand its Orange County operations, and strong performances from indoor agriculture businesses like Battlefield Farms and American Color, as positive developments in Orange County’s overall economic outlook.

Regardless of why Zamma ultimately closed, what is known is that the abrupt shutdown has left Lohr and many of his colleagues struggling to find new work in a challenging job market.

For Lohr, losing his position at Zamma presented some particular difficulties, as his wife, Elizabeth, was approximately three months pregnant at the time of the closure. The health insurance and income provided by Nicholas’ job at Zamma had given Elizabeth the flexibility to take on a less lucrative but meaningful job working at the local free clinic. 

With Nicholas suddenly jobless, Elizabeth had to make the difficult decision to leave her job for another position that offered health benefits, working the night shift at a nursing facility. 

That’s given the Lohr family some leeway, but they’re still working out other important details, like figuring out a new childcare schedule and how to pay for healthcare until Elizabeth’s new insurance plan kicks in. Right now, the couple is keeping their fingers crossed that they won’t have any unexpected doctor’s visits before then, and that Nicholas will be able to secure a job soon.

“It’s definitely been a struggle,” Nicholas said during a follow-up interview in late March. “I think I’ve gotten over the initial hurt of being laid off, but then it’s kind of turned into, ‘How are we going to do XYZ? How are we going to make the house payment?’ That sort of thing. I’m okay for the house payment that comes out in April, but I don’t know about May.”

Other former Zamma employees reported their own difficulties caused by the abrupt shutdown. Sam Green worked for the company for nearly two decades, performing a wide range of duties from sales to setting up Cap-A-Tread products at new store locations. Green said that he was approaching retirement before the closure, but will now have to change his plans and look for work since he “can’t afford to do that.”

“They just shut us off — no salary, no severance, no nothing,” said Green.

Green was one of several employees who said they were surprised to find out Zamma was closing after what had seemed like a positive trend in sales in early 2026.

“At the end, I felt like we were kind of coming out of a hole,” he said. “We were in probably 500 Lowe’s stores, and the rumor was that we were supposed to get back into 300 or 400 of Home Depot, so you’re really pumped for that.”

Green isn’t the only one who is planning to put off retirement due to the shutdown. One employee who asked not to be named said that she had recently bought a house with the expectation that her income from Zamma Corporation would cover renovation expenses. Now, she’s spending her days submitting applications through Indeed, a website that helps users search and apply for jobs, without any luck thus far.

“I never thought I’d have to do another resumé, you know?” she said. 

She added that while she’s more worried about some of her colleagues who were in worse financial predicaments, the job loss has put a significant strain on her emergency savings.

“Everybody talks about having a six-month rock. Well, I’m not at a six-month rock anymore,” she said.

Both Perry and Morton said that county officials and Virginia Career Works are currently working to connect displaced employees with opportunities in the region. Perry encouraged those who have lost their jobs due to the Zamma Corporation closure to reach out to Orange County Workforce Services, a partnership between the Virginia Career Works – Piedmont Region and the county’s economic development department and public library system.

Morton added that displaced workers are also welcome to utilize Virginia Career Works’ other locations, including the Culpeper Center at 210 E. Stevens St., Suite 200, or the Albemarle Center, located at 1600 5th St. Ext., Charlottesville. Specialists at any of the locations can provide those in need of work with resources including interview preparation, career switching and job match services for those with an existing skill set such as manufacturing.

“As a regional workforce board, we have relationships with many other businesses and organizations, so oftentimes, when one company shuts down, another company will find skills in those employees very translatable,” Morton said.

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The discussion about the return of school resource officers, or SROs, in Charlottesville City Schools will continue later this week.

On Thursday, April 16, the School Board will hold a work session focusing on the topic of SROs. Some Board members are encouraging the community to attend. “I hope that everybody understands that April 16 is a working session, that it is open to the community,” said Board member Nicole Richardson, adding that “we still have more work to do.”

The decision to devote a work session to SROs came in response to an online petition organized by local advocacy groups, including the Legal Aid Justice Center, Commonwealth Justice Coalition and Indivisible Charlottesville. The petition, asking the School Board to reconsider its decision to bring police officers back to city schools, circulated ahead of a March 31 School Board meeting.

In March 2025, the School Board voted 4-2 to return SROs to City Schools. Following the vote, several parents and teachers pushed back, saying the decision was rushed and made without enough opportunity for community input. 

The same advocacy groups that organized the petition have joined some of the parents opposing the return of SROs and plan to hold a rally just before the work session is scheduled to begin.  

While we can’t cover every story that’s important to you, we do our best to be responsive to your needs. We use tips from readers to choose which stories to cover, to incorporate information into broader reports or to help us decide how to grow Charlottesville Tomorrow. Here’s where you can tell us what you think we should be covering.

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Before I was inmate number 1414048, I was Candace Williams.

And long before the system knew my name, I was a little girl whose mother was in and out of prison. I was raised by my grandparents. I told myself over and over again, “I’m not going to end up like my mom.” But cycles don’t just break because we want them to.

In 2008, at 22 years old, I was arrested in Charlottesville. I was already a mother of two beautiful girls and pregnant with my third child. I pleaded guilty for my role in felony murder, two robberies and abduction. It’s a story I’ve told many times over the last few years. Now I want to tell the next part of my story.

Eight months into my incarceration, I gave birth to my son. I was allowed to hold him for four hours. Four hours to memorize his face. Four hours to kiss his forehead. Four hours to be his mother. Then he was taken from me. I was strip-searched and placed back in a cell — alone — with milk still in my body and emptiness in my arms.

What should have been one of the most sacred moments of my life became one of the most traumatic. But even that didn’t wake me up. Not fully. It wasn’t until sentencing day in 2011 that I started to process our generational curse. The judge looked at me and said, “Ms. Williams, I sentenced your mother. Now I’m sentencing you. And most likely, I will sentence your children.”

The time he gave me — 65 years, 47 suspended and 18 active — didn’t shake me to my core. That statement did. Because in that moment, I heard generational trauma being predicted like it was inevitable. When I was first sentenced, I thought the judge was being unfair. But then I realized what he was implying: If I didn’t change the narrative, the narrative would change my children.

When I arrived at the Fluvanna Correctional Center for Women, I met individuals who changed my life. Women who were serving long sentences, women who had lost custody, women who had made mistakes. But they were still mothers. And they showed me something I had forgotten: Incarceration does not erase motherhood.

Last year, the Virginia Department of Corrections held almost 23,000 inmates on average per day. Fewer than 2,000 of those inmates are women, or as many as 3,000 in the last decade according to the VADOC. We are lost in the numbers. From our clothing to prison programming to re-entry, the system is designed for men.

At the time of their incarceration, 58% of women according to national U.S. Department of Justice statistics have custody of their children. Yet when we walk through those gates, we lose that. We feel deflated, disconnected, powerless. But we still have rights. We can write to our children’s schools, we can contact pediatricians, we can stay involved — if we’re willing to learn how.

I took the parenting class at Fluvanna Correctional Center twice in 2013. The third time I took it in 2014, I came back able to give my insights to other mothers who felt that there was no light at the end of the tunnel. I told them that I was able to build healthy relationships with my kids after taking the class.

Later, I created the Mending Hearts Parenting Support Group in the Cognitive Community, what we called the “re-entry hall” where individuals were moved before being released. It wasn’t just a class, it was a space where mothers could say, “I’m scared my child won’t know me,” “I don’t know how to talk to the caregiver,” or “I don’t know how to fix what I broke.”

We learned parenting styles. We practiced difficult conversations. We talked about accountability and healing. Over 200 mothers came through Mending Hearts before I came home. And I watched something beautiful happen. Mothers began to pour into other mothers. Women who once felt shame began to find purpose. Certificates from the program — I kept copies of all of them because I was so proud — helped some women regain visitation and even begin custody processes. And I realized something powerful: When you support a mother, you support a child. When you support a child, you shift a generation.

But there’s another group we don’t talk about enough: The grandmothers raising babies again and the sisters stepping in. We don’t talk about the fathers trying to figure it out and the caregivers carrying financial, emotional and mental weight without recognition.

When we are sentenced, our children are sentenced too. They walk into classrooms with a cloud over them. They hear whispers. They Google our names. And the narrative gets written without us.

So I began advocating for something bold: A “Hidden Victims Impact Statement.” Since my release, I’ve been speaking with lawmakers and advocacy groups in Virginia about the people who are taking care of the children of incarcerated loved ones. Just like victims have a voice in court, why shouldn’t our children and caregivers have one too? Why shouldn’t the court hear how incarceration impacts families mentally, emotionally and financially? Because if we don’t humanize the impact, we normalize the cycle.

In 2020, I was transferred to the Virginia Correctional Center for Women in Goochland to complete a 72-hour Peer Recovery Specialist training, to use my lived experience to mentor other people who’ve been through trauma from incarceration. I worked one-on-one with women preparing to re-enter society. Then COVID-19 hit and many programs shut down. The Peer Recovery training shut down, the parenting and educational programs shut down. And once again, incarcerated mothers were left without structured support.

That silence felt familiar, but I wasn’t the same woman anymore. The day that judge made that statement, I became a mother on a mission. I decided that my incarceration would not define my legacy — my transformation would. Every time I saw the warden come down the hall during the pandemic, I asked him when the programs would start again because people were getting released without the information and tools they needed for re-entry. When the lockdown ended, I started Mending Hearts in Goochland too.

On December 26, 2023, I went home. And freedom didn’t slow me down. It sharpened my purpose. Today, I advocate for incarcerated women by speaking and standing in my truth and sharing my lived experiences. I carry the voices of the women I left behind. I carry the lessons I learned inside the walls of the Fluvanna Correctional Center and Goochland.

I want to keep talking to the woman inside who feels like she’s already been written off. I want to talk to the mother who thinks she’s ruined everything, to the woman who hears that voice saying, “You’re just like your mama,” “Your kids are next.” I need you to hear me clearly. Cycles are real but so is change. Accountability is painful, but it is powerful. Motherhood does not stop because of a sentence and your story does not end here.

If you are willing to heal, to learn, to take responsibility, to lean into programs, to pour into each other — you can change the trajectory of your family. I am not inmate 1414048. I am Candace Williams. I am a mother. I am an advocate. I am proof that transformation is possible. When mothers are supported, families heal. When families heal, communities change. And when women inside prisons believe they still matter, the cycle breaks.

This First Person Charlottesville piece is adapted from a talk Candace Williams gave as part of a March 11, 2026 Tedx program Fluvanna Correctional Center for Women, hosted by the nonprofit organization Proximity for Justice and the Virginia Department of Corrections.

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Leigh Erin Engle always wanted four children. Both of her parents came from families with three siblings, and they always said that one of the kids was left out.

“Four always felt right,” said Engle, 33. She just had her third child in October and was planning the fourth one sometime next year to keep the children’s ages evenly spaced apart.

But when the Centra Southside Community Hospital in Farmville closed its labor and delivery unit and its obstetrics and gynecology services in December, the closest place to deliver moved to an hour away, making Engle and her husband make a difficult decision — no more kids.

Now three has to be enough because the risk of not having a qualified hospital nearby in case of complications, as well as the financial and time burdens of going for regular check-ups prior to a birth, are too much. They are considering a vasectomy for her husband, she said.

“I traveled an hour to deliver my first child and I never want to do that again,” said Engle. “If I wanted prenatal care I would use up too much PTO going to appointments an hour away and wouldn’t have close local support to feel safe continuing to grow my family. This is part of many cuts and a gross lack of resources in the area to support families.”

Engle is not alone. Several families near Farmville told Charlottesville Tomorrow that now that Southside cut its services they are concerned about having kids without obstetric care nearby and are either deciding not to have more children or delaying it.

The concerns are the same — long drives and time commitments, especially for those who already have kids to make arrangements for. The increased cost that comes with the drives, possible hotel stays and, in a worst-case scenario, ambulance or helicopter rides to a qualified hospital if there is an emergency. And, of course, there is also a risk to mothers and children’s health.

Katy Kozhimannil, a co-director of University of Minnesota Rural Health Research Center and one of the leading authorities on maternal healthcare in rural areas, said she didn’t know of any studies that measured how the lack of resources affects family planning and whether or not women want to have kids. Still, she wasn’t surprised to hear about women in Virginia who have reservations in response to disappearing care.

“Women are very smart,” said Kozhimannil. “I can imagine for mothers, when the level of risk changes, that changes their decisions about whether or not they are willing and feeling supported enough in their community, in their environment, in their health care system, to have the number of children they want to have.”

There is a lot of data to prove that there are reasons for concern.

Multiple studies, including Kozhimannil’s own, have found that when rural areas lose access to obstetric care they experience higher rates of premature births, which is the leading cause of infant mortality, she said. It also means more out of hospital births, whether planned or unplanned, as well as a higher number of births in the emergency departments, and not every emergency clinician is comfortable handling obstetric emergencies.

On its web page about the closure, Centra said that its Southside Emergency Department staff was prepared to handle active labor and obstetrical emergencies, and that it had transport protocols.

Charlottesville Tomorrow repeatedly tried to get more details from Centra but received no response.

There are still some obstetric services left in Farmville — Central Virginia Health Services (CVHS), a non-profit classified as a Federally Qualified Health Center, offers a variety of medical services regardless of patients’ ability to pay. There, nurse midwives see patients for prenatal care three days a week. They don’t deal with emergencies or deliver. Historically, it’s something they transferred patients to Centra for. Now they are working with other hospitals to make such arrangements, said Paula Tomko, CVHS chief executive officer.

But its services can’t be a full substitute. Midwives cannot be there when someone has an emergency in the middle of the night.

“Infant mortality is higher the more rural you are, so that is definitely a key health risk that is important to moms and to babies,” said Kozhimannil.

A 2022 study published in the American Journal of Public Health found that women in rural areas are at higher risk of maternal mortality or intensive care unit admission in comparison to urban areas.

The absence of obstetric services also means that women don’t have easy access to postpartum care to address any mental or physical concerns, which is a problem because more than half of maternal deaths happen in a year after giving birth, Kozhimannil said.

“There are many different scenarios, all those are challenges that rural families could encounter,” said Kozhimannil.

Why Centra cut its labor and delivery services

Centra gave three reasons for its decision to close its obstetric services, all reflecting national trends for rural healthcare. There were too few births to justify the service — fewer than 275 babies last year, according to Stephanie McBride, Centra’s director of communications.

Then there was difficulty recruiting and retaining physicians for full on-call coverage. There is a national shortage of obstetricians that’s only projected to worsen.

Lastly, there were federal funding changes to healthcare.

“We are facing significant financial headwinds, especially from recently enacted cuts in federal healthcare funding. These realities mean we must reassess and reallocate services for our community,” McBride wrote in an email in November.

Though she didn’t name Medicaid specifically, national experts have warned about its potential cuts’ harms to mothers and children. Medicaid covers 40% of U.S. births, as well as children’s healthcare and up to a year of postpartum care in states that expanded coverage beyond the original 60 days.

All of these reasons echo through the closures of other labor and delivery units across the country. Since the end of 2020, 130 rural hospitals have either stopped delivering babies or announced plans to end those services by the end of this year, according to a report from the Center for Healthcare Quality and Payment Reform, a national health policy center.

Today, only 41% of rural hospitals in the U.S. still provide labor and delivery services — and in a dozen states, that share drops below one-third, according to the report.

In Virginia, 63% of counties don’t have an OB-GYN, and 22% of rural residents travel over 40 minutes to reach a labor and delivery unit, according to a news release from former Virginia Gov. Glenn Youngkin’s office about requesting $1 billion in federal funding to improve rural healthcare. Improving the pipeline of people into healthcare professions is among the priorities Youngkin listed as a purpose for the funds.

In Kozhimannil’s experience, rural hospitals provide obstetric care as long as they can — closing only when financial or quality-of-care risks become too high.

“However, after an obstetric unit closure, those risks do not disappear. The hospital stops holding the risks, and risk remains with the families in our communities. It remains with any local clinic or clinicians, and it remains with the EMTs, the first responders, the volunteer EMTs, the volunteer fire fighters, the county sheriff who are figuring out how pregnant women get help when they need care urgently or when something goes wrong,” she said.

It’s a change that could have rippling effects for the community.

“It’s a disincentive for folks to want to move here, and to have families here,” said Susie Thomas, a lead pastor at Farmville United Methodist Church. And it comes at the time as the community has been investing into improving the school system to make it more attractive to families. 

“It’s really a blow to try to attract people to come here and share their lives with us in Farmville.”

The ripple effects continue spreading

Just like Engle, Dana Freeman Walker feels that the risk of having more kids without obstetric care nearby is too high. 

Walker, a Charlotte County mother of three, also always wanted an even number of kids. She and her husband had planned on two, but her last pregnancy was twins. So, they decided they wanted a fourth child.

Then Centra closed its obstetric services in Farmville, putting the plan on pause.

Southside, the closest hospital to her home, is 40 minutes away. Now, if she were to get pregnant again, the drive to see a doctor and deliver would be two hours one way. They worry about what might happen if her next pregnancy turns out to be another high-risk one.

When she was pregnant with twins, she developed Twin-to-Twin Transfusion Syndrome, a dangerous complication causing uneven blood sharing between twins. To manage the risks, she was seen weekly in Farmville, getting ultrasounds and making sure everything looked good and the babies were developing appropriately.

“Now, if something like that happens, it means an almost two-hour commute once a week, every week. And it’s almost two hours one way. That’s just something that weighs heavily on us, because, as you know, gas prices are $4 a gallon now,” she said. And there is a question of who would watch the kids while she is gone — the day care is in Farmville, out of the way. So there would be an additional expense to hire a sitter.

Like many who spoke with Charlottesville Tomorrow, Walker hopes Centra will reverse course and bring back obstetric services. In the meantime, she and her husband are putting off having another child.

“It’s a pause to think, recalibrate, pray that they change their minds.”

The post In the wake of Centra’s Farmville maternity care closure, some families say the risk to have more kids might be too high appeared first on Charlottesville Tomorrow.

“Can I Talk to You Cville” is hosting a community event on April 14 to discuss healthcare accessibility and outcomes in Black communities in central Virginia. 

The event is an opportunity to learn about healthcare disparities on a state and local level; hear from experts; connect with locally available resources; and share thoughts and insights into healthcare accessibility and its impact on individual health. Organizers said community input will also help experts and state officials to better understand local situations. 

“Can I Talk to You Cville” is a conversation series organized by Charlottesville Inclusive Media partners, Vinegar Hill Magazine and In My Humble Opinion talk show, designed to amplify marginalized voices on important issues and improve connection between residents and decision-makers. 

The Black Professional Network and The GOOD Foundation are co-sponsoring the event. 

Charles Lewis, co-host of In My Humble Opinion, said the idea for the event emerged when the Blue Ridge Health District, a local part of the Virginia Department of Health, reached out to the Black Professional Network to talk about growing health disparities in the Black community and how the Blue Ridge Health District might better share information with residents. 

The April event is designed to inform attendees through panel discussions and sharing their experiences in small focus groups. The insights from the discussion could help inform officials like B. Cameron Webb, recently appointed state health commissioner for the Virginia Department of Health, who will be moderating the event, said Lewis. Webb will also give opening remarks. 

The panel will include Doreen Bonett, executive director and co-founder of Birth Sisters of Charlottesville; Gene Cash, CEO and executive director of Counseling Alliance of Virginia, LLC; and Rovenia “Dr. Ro” Brock, nutritionist and health journalist. 

The event will also bring together various vendors and experts on a variety of health topics, ranging from therapy to maternal health, allowing attendees to make connections and plan further steps for their wellness. There will be on-site health screening, food and childcare available. 

“It’s a welcoming and safe space for the community to have an open discussion on how to better our health and safety. It’s an opportunity to have a private dialogue and to meet folks who make connections that will better help ourselves and our families and our community,” said Lewis.

While we can’t cover every story that’s important to you, we do our best to be responsive to your needs. We use tips from readers to choose which stories to cover, to incorporate information into broader reports or to help us decide how to grow Charlottesville Tomorrow. Here’s where you can tell us what you think we should be covering.

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How do you get your news? 

A core part of our mission as Charlottesville Inclusive Media is to strengthen our information “ecosystem,” including all the people and groups across our region who amplify and share local news and vital resources. They might work for traditional outlets, like newspapers, or write blogs or Substack newsletters, or even share information on a bulletin board at a community center.

In order to better understand how central Virginians access and share news, we started with Fluvanna, Louisa, Madison and Nelson counties. We partnered with the Charlottesville Area Community Foundation to work with the Listening Post Collective, a group that specializes in this sort of research, to create an information ecosystem assessment.

Listening Post Collective conducts these assessments across the nation, hiring local researchers to do surveys, interviews and information mapping. 

“Our mission is to partner with communities on building responsive and resilient information ecosystems that reflect local news needs and pathways,” said Jesse Hardman, founder of Listening Post Collective. 

“Some of that work is lifting up traditional news organizations, but it also means partnering with trusted information sharers who aren’t journalists. By listening to communities, we see how critical information actually moves, and can better lean into local needs.”

The Central Virginia Information Ecosystem Assessment launched Wednesday, April 8, the day before Local News Day, for those celebrating!

Local researchers Oliver Hale, Sue Frankel-Streit, Sharon Harris, Luna Cortes and Kristina (Ti) Stelling surveyed 316 community members, mapped 75 community information hubs and interviewed 13 local communications experts, including representatives from the NAACP, a the founder of a popular newsletter and the chair of a county Republican committee. 

According to the report, people said the top barrier to accessing information was the lack of local news outlets, although residents are trying to fill these gaps with hyperlocal newsletters and Facebook groups. The primary ways respondents reported getting local news was by word-of-mouth through friends and family (55%), then Facebook (48%).

“I asked if there are any sources of news in the community that you don’t trust and they say Facebook. So I asked them where they get their news? Facebook. What do you not trust? Facebook. Maybe there’s a little bit of a problem here,” said Nelson County researcher Oliver Hale, who is quoted in the report.

“Almost every single person I talked to, regardless of age, except for maybe people who are under 20, they all said they get their news from Nelson Knows [Facebook Group].”

“It is interesting that a local newspaper like The Central Virginian has survived, and I think it survived because the Louisa community has a strong investment in their local newspaper,” said Mitch Sasser, editor of the paper, according to the report. He also emphasized the role of a rural editor as all-encompassing. 

“I think the idea of an editor conjures up someone who leads their team of reporters and a little bit behind the scenes. But that’s not the reality, I think, as a rural editor. It’s like, ‘Oh, no, I’m kind of responsible for the content each week and responsible for delegating and making sure that there’s something that I can’t do that other people are doing it.”

And although outlets based in Charlottesville and Richmond sometimes cover the four counties, respondents said this coverage can be spotty and lack local context. County governments, despite being close to the issues, were found to be inconsistent about communication. Researchers found that there are hot-button issues that increase demand for local news, such as the construction of data centers.

“Partnering with amazing local researchers in Fluvanna, Louisa, Nelson and Madison counties, we’ve listened on porches, in churches, at libraries, in coffee shops, and local folks have shared what’s missing and ideas they have for reconnecting their neighbors to the news they need,” said Hardman.

The study is only the beginning. Over the spring and summer of 2026, The Local News Listening Tour will have “tour stops” in Fluvanna, Louisa, Madison and Nelson counties. The event series will bring people together to discuss local news needs in central Virginia. You can submit your email to sign up for updates.

“We see local news as essential community infrastructure that keeps central Virginians informed, connected and engaged. It impacts the many important issues that affect our region — from housing to education to economic opportunity — and helps us all make decisions about our daily lives and the future of our communities,” said Eboni Bugg, director of community investment at the Charlottesville Area Community Foundation.

Charlottesville Inclusive Media partners Charlottesville Tomorrow, Vinegar Hill Magazine and In My Humble Opinion radio show will keep helping build local news and information for everyone in central Virginia, while acknowledging the innovative and nimble ways community members have filled the gaps. We’ll see you on the listening tour!

The post From Substack and Facebook to cafés and libraries, residents get information from many places — but rarely local news outlets, says new report appeared first on Charlottesville Tomorrow.

Just a few months after the City of Charlottesville purchased a building to convert into a low-barrier shelter for people experiencing homelessness, three local service providers have a plan for how it could work — if they’re able to pay for it.

During a March 25 work session, the Blue Ridge Area Coalition for the Homeless, The Haven day shelter, and People and Congregations Engaged in Ministry (PACEM), which runs a seasonal overnight low-barrier shelter, presented their proposal for City Council to consider.

They’ve proposed an overnight shelter with 80 beds as well as a day shelter that would offer laundry, showers, computers, mail service and places for guests to store their belongings, among other things. There would be a commercial kitchen, a dining room and supportive services for guests that includes case management and help finding housing. There could be a health clinic and a designated public transit shuttle, too.

The building, located at 2000 Holiday Dr., off of Rt. 29 N, would also have offices for all three service providers — meaning they’d be operating under one roof. 

“We want to turn Holiday Drive, to the best degree possible, into a housing machine,” Cameron Moore, executive director of PACEM, said during the work session. The goal, therefore, would be to get people into the shelter, set them up with any services they need to help get them ready for housing, whether it’s proper identification, income from a job or Social Security benefits or medical and mental health care, and then move them into safe, secure, permanent housing.

As proposed, retrofitting the building into an 80-bed shelter would cost about $8.6 million, not including the additional money all three nonprofits would need to expand their operations to meet the needs of shelter guests. If the groups get the money they need, either from donations, grants, support from local governments or some combination of the three, the shelter could open in two to two-and-a-half years, at the earliest.

Throughout the meeting, the organizations, along with City Manager Sam Sanders, emphasized that the City of Charlottesville is not expected to use taxpayer dollars to foot the entire bill. The city has taken the lead on the project by purchasing the building for $6.2 million, and by working with service providers on the shelter plans. However, Sanders and the service providers are asking for help from surrounding counties as well because, as they reminded the community throughout the meeting, homelessness is a regional issue.

Homelessness service providers want to make ‘a housing machine’

The service providers created their shelter proposal with input from their clients and shelter guests, as well as staff, board members and volunteers.

They envision a sort of one-stop shop for 2000 Holiday Drive, in which The Haven runs a day shelter, PACEM runs an overnight shelter, and case management and other services are available on-site to minimize guests’ need to travel.

The Haven’s day shelter on the first floor would have bathrooms, showers, laundry, hygiene product storage and distribution and a lounge area. Shelter guests would be able to receive mail there (like they do at The Haven) and would have access to computers, internet connectivity and phones, which help with applying for jobs and benefits and staying in touch with their case managers, healthcare providers, family and friends. 

PACEM’s overnight shelter, on the second floor, would have separate sleeping quarters for men, women and nonbinary guests. Most of the rooms — with the exception of a few isolation rooms for people who are sick or who need some space — have between four and eight beds.

There would be a commercial kitchen and a dining room, plus classrooms for life skills classes, recreational activities, Alcoholics Anonymous and Narcotics Anonymous meetings, staff and volunteer trainings and more. 

BRACH, PACEM and The Haven all would have administrative and staff offices throughout the building. They would operate independently, but collaboratively.

Service providers are hoping to include a clinic as well, to help better serve their clients. While the discussions are in early stages, project partners could work with the University of Virginia Health system or Sentara Martha Jefferson to fund and run the clinic component.

People who experience homelessness die nearly 30 years earlier than the average American, often from preventable and treatable illnesses, according to the United States Interagency Council on Homelessness.

This is for a variety of reasons, according to peer-reviewed studies collected by Community Solutions, a nonprofit organization working to end homelessness nationally. Homelessness puts people at greater risk for contracting infectious disease, suffering traumatic head injury and being the victim of a violent crime, just to name a few. 

Since 2010, the experience of homelessness has contributed to the death of at least 137 community members in the Charlottesville area, including at least 14 of them in 2025, according to The Haven’s records.

There are still things to figure out, like policies, procedures and how to help couples and folks with pets, said Shayla Washington, BRACH’s executive director. All of that will be fleshed out in the next phase of the planning process.

Some Councilors ask if more shelter beds are possible, but they would come at an increased cost

All told, the shelter would have at least 80 beds, which would add to the 50-60 beds in PACEM’s seasonal shelters. 

That’s more than the number of existing low-barrier shelter beds in the area, but significantly fewer than the 200 beds that city officials initially talked about when deciding whether or not to purchase the building. 

It is also smaller than the number — 108 to 113 — service providers and the project architect proposed to Sanders in November 2025. That initial proposal, which was not presented in a public forum, included two different scenarios, both of which involved utilizing the current building and adding on to it via new construction. Those options were priced at roughly $9.7 million.

The current proposal instead involves renovating and retrofitting the existing building, at a cost of about $8.6 million — $1.1 million less than the previous plan. It also doesn’t have enough space for all of the programs the service providers want to have. The plan presented in November 2025, however, included that space.

“We were asked if we could reduce the size of the project, try to get everything into the existing building and still keep all the programmatic functions that we were initially providing,” Erin Hannegan with Mitchell-Matthews Architects told Council during the most recent meeting.

Later in the meeting, Sanders said he’d asked the group to focus on the building’s existing 27,000 square feet. Charlottesville Tomorrow reached out to a city spokesperson to ask why, but at the time of publication had not received a reply.

Some councilors questioned whether 80 beds would be enough.

In the month of February, at least 369 people experienced homelessness in the Charlottesville area, according to BRACH’s website. That number comes from the “by-name list,” a running, collaborative list that service providers keep with the names of every individual they know is experiencing homelessness at that time. The list is updated regularly, and it’s likely an undercount. February’s number was up from 362 in January and 280 in December 2025. When this report was published, March data was not yet available.

With such numbers in mind, councilors wondered aloud whether it would be worth it to spend the additional money to, as Mayor Juandiego Wade put it, get the most bang for their buck.

“I’m looking at the big picture,” Wade said. “If we as a community are going to lean into this, we need to get as many beds as we can out of it, within the right environment.”

Councilor Lloyd Snook said something similar. If it’s going to cost $8.6 million for 80 beds, but $9.7 million for 108, he said, “it would seem to me that it might be worthwhile to shoot for the larger number.”

Those numbers do not include operating costs for all three of the partner organizations, costs that go up depending on the number of shelter beds and services offered. That’s mostly because more clients require more staff in order to maintain an effective client-to-staff ratio, said Moore. If a case manager has too many clients, they’re not able to sufficiently help each one.

The Haven, PACEM and BRACH all said that opening an 80-bed shelter would increase their annual operating costs. 

BRACH’s would increase from about $398,000 to about $573,000, Washington said. The bump would come mostly from hiring two additional outreach workers. Outreach workers locate and get to know unhoused community members with the hope of connecting them with services and resources. Currently, there is just one outreach worker employed by BRACH for the entire region — the city of Charlottesville as well as the counties of Albemarle, Fluvanna, Greene, Louisa and Nelson, an area that stretches over 2,100 square miles according to U.S. Census data.

The Haven’s annual operating budget would increase from about $2.42 million to a little over $3 million, mostly tied to its rental assistance program that helps more people out of the shelter and into stable housing. They’d need more money for that, as well as additional staff to grow that program to accommodate more people, said Owen Brennan, The Haven’s executive director. 

PACEM’s budget would increase the most, more than tripling from $942,000 to $3.7 million. The organization would go from operating a 50-60 bed shelter for a few months out of the year and providing case management throughout the year, to operating a larger shelter full-time. 

Altogether, the groups estimate that the total annual operating cost for the proposed 80-bed shelter at Holiday Drive would cost $7.3 million, and that number would increase with additional beds.

Brennan seemed hopeful that between a regional partnership among local governments and growing community support for a low-barrier shelter project, the fundraising could go well.

During the ice storm in late January, The Haven and BRACH partnered to put people who were not already in shelters into hotel rooms to get them out of the dangerous cold. 

“The public support for that was overwhelming,” Brennan said. “We raised 400% of what we asked for. So there’s great appetite for a strong plan that’s really well-communicated to the public.” It could open up opportunities for large philanthropic gifts, but also smaller, ongoing gifts from community members. The majority of the donations for the emergency hotel stay project were around $75, Brennan said, and they raised $150,000 that way in just a few days.

Councilor Michael Payne agreed that it could be successful. 

“We are a community with a lot of millionaires,” he said. “I think this would be a very compelling capital campaign and a lot of people would want to donate.”

Still, getting buy-in from surrounding counties would be crucial to maintaining shelter operations long-term. 

“This is a regional investment,” said Washington. BRACH helps coordinate efforts among other homeless services providers, including The Haven and PACEM. Her organization is mandated by the U.S. Office of Housing and Urban Development to serve not just Charlottesville, but Albemarle, Fluvanna, Greene, Louisa and Nelson counties.

People experiencing homelessness in those counties often come to Charlottesville because it has become a hub for accessible homeless services, Brennan said. 

“The city is taking point on this because the city purchased the building,” he added. “But 100%, we envision this to be a regional partnership.”

During a May 2025 presentation on the state of homelessness in the area, local service providers shared data on their guests and clients. Most of them were from Charlottesville and Albemarle County, but some were from Fluvanna, Greene, Louisa and Nelson counties as well. That year, at least 29 people — approximately 10% of PACEM’s guests — came from those counties.

So far, the service providers have not given their presentation to any of the surrounding counties, and therefore none of the other counties have made formal commitments to the project. 

“The city’s efforts regarding a low-barrier shelter are still in preliminary stages, and formal partnership discussions with the county have not yet occurred,” Jeff Richardson, Albemarle County Executive, wrote in an email to Charlottesville Tomorrow.

“Homelessness is a regional challenge, and the county is engaged with the city, local service providers and other organizations on the broad range of solutions being developed. We will continue working alongside our regional partners to support effective approaches as they develop,” Richardson added.

“No decisions have been made to date, but we have been in conversations regarding the effort at a high level,” Cindy King, Louisa County’s community engagement manager, said.

Cathy Schafrick, Greene County Administrator, told Charlottesville Tomorrow that she and Sanders have discussed the project, but that so far, their conversations have been more informational and brainstorm-based, than anything else. 

“I don’t see Greene County participating in it any time soon,” Schafrick said, citing money as a possible obstacle. “But I’m always curious about what other people are doing.”

“We don’t have the same issues that the city has with the homeless population,” she added.

Schafrick would like to see more data on how many people are experiencing homelessness in Greene County, or who might be going to Charlottesville from Greene County to the city seeking services. 

“More information is better,” she said.

Charlottesville Tomorrow reached out to Eric Dahl, Fluvanna County Administrator, but did not hear back in time for publication.

Candy McGarry, Nelson County Administrator, was out of the office when Charlottesville Tomorrow reached out and had not returned by the time this report was published.

Holiday Drive shelter could become a new ‘center of gravity,’ but homelessness services still needed in downtown Charlottesville

Councilors also asked questions about a possible dedicated transportation service. The project partners suggested a route running every hour for 10 hours each day from Holiday Drive and stopping at places shelter guests frequent, like the U.S. Social Security Administration office on Pantops, the Downtown Transit Center, UVA Medical Center and Free Bridge, where there is currently an encampment of unhoused community members.

That transportation would be crucial to the shelter’s success, Brennan said. When the organization talked with shelter guests, staff and volunteers, none of them were confident that the shelter could fulfill its mission without “dedicated, reliable, and frequent shuttle service,” according to the presentation. People need to get to their jobs, to job interviews, doctor’s appointments and more. Currently, the Holiday Drive site is not served by a southbound bus line, which would be crucial for shelter guests to get to the aforementioned locations.

The groups talked with JAUNT, a mostly publicly funded on-demand transit service for people whose disabilities prevent them from using the Charlottesville Area Transit service, about creating that line. It would cost about $411,000 annually to run that service. 

Councilor Natalie Oschrin suggested that if those locations are already along established CAT bus routes, adding a southbound stop closer to Holiday Drive could be helpful. 

One thing that came up multiple times throughout the meeting was how the proposed shelter would shift in the “center of gravity” for homeless services. 

“It’s really complex to analyze the potential costs and benefits of a move, of the homeless response system, moving the hub from downtown where it is currently, which exists not just because of The Haven but all of the support networks” that existed before The Haven opened in 2010, Brennan said. Those services include the city’s department of social services, the public library and various soup kitchens. 

“That was the web 16 years ago, and it’s only deepened and become more complex,” Brennan said. “A move to Holiday Drive is not going to eliminate the visible presence of unhoused community members downtown. So, one of our questions is, how do we continue to service the folks who are downtown, once Holiday Drive is the center of gravity?”

Snook asked whether The Haven would continue serving folks from its 112 W. Market St. location in addition to Holiday Drive. 

That wouldn’t be a feasible operating model for the organization, Brennan said. Plus, having the opportunity to design a shelter space nearly from the ground-up, with so much input from shelter guests and service providers with years of experience, is hard to pass up. 

“Staff are excited about the opportunity to design a space for our culture and our needs, and using what we’ve learned in our space over the last 16 years, how to improve the guest experience,” he said. 

Snook also suggested that the organization could sell the building to help offset operating costs at Holiday Drive, but Brennan reminded him that The Haven does not own 112 W. Market St. Hollywood film director and UVA alumnus Tom Shadyac bought the building for an organization to turn into a shelter, according to this C-VILLE article from 2009.

What’s more, there will still be a shelter near the downtown area: The Salvation Army.

The Salvation Army will not be moving to the proposed Holiday Drive shelter, but Charlottesville Corps Officer Maj. Donny Wilson has been part of the low-barrier shelter working group and was in the room on March 25 to show his support for the project.

The Salvation Army is currently fundraising for its own shelter project, an expansion of its current shelter at 207 Ridge St., which has 55 emergency shelter beds for men and women, plus 10 extra beds for cold weather sheltering and 28 beds in a separate area for families. Its dining room seats 60.

The new shelter, to be called the Center of Hope, would have 114 emergency beds for men and women as well as 28 beds in a separate area for families. It will also have 120 seats in the dining room. All told, that project is expected to cost $28 million. The city has given $3 million toward it, and The Salvation Army is in the middle of a fundraising campaign for the rest.

Throughout the meeting, councilors, city staff and a few community members praised the service providers and the low-barrier shelter working group for their efforts and expressed hope that the shelter project, in conjunction with the Center of Hope and the Vista 29 permanent supportive housing project, would be an important step toward expanding the area’s homeless response network.

Vista 29 is 80 units of permanent supportive housing, which is meant to get community members experiencing chronic homelessness who are also seniors or have disabilities, off the streets and into housing. It’s expected to be done in late 2026 or early 2027. Virginia SupportWorks housing is constructing the building and will manage it when it opens. The same organization runs The Crossings at Fourth and Preston near downtown Charlottesville. When The Crossings opened, it cut the number of people experiencing chronic homelessness in the Charlottesville area by more than half. 

About half of those units have been earmarked for the Albemarle County Housing Office. The office will work with local service providers on placing clients in those units, Washington said.

The remaining units will be available for whoever meets the criteria and wants to apply, said Sunshine Mathon, executive director of Piedmont Housing Alliance, a local housing nonprofit that plans to build low-cost housing for individuals and families next to Vista 29.

“I’m so stoked that we are tackling this now. We’re so ready to do this, and I’m so glad you guys are, too,” Councilor Jen Fleisher said about the low-barrier shelter proposal. “It’s great timing, and thank you for the work you’ve done.”

Sanders also thanked the group, multiple times, for their work and mentioned next steps. While the working group has done a lot of preliminary work, there’s still more to be done.

“I’m sure you’ll begin to hear from folks who want to give you advice on how to consider our next steps,” he added, addressing Council directly. “I know I’ll be hearing more. I don’t think there’s a reason for us to do anything but to thank this group for their efforts, give you time to think about this, and then hopefully start to circle back up and move forward on the timeline.”

Sanders also reminded community members who might be upset to learn that the shelter project is not only expensive, it won’t solve homelessness, that he never promised otherwise.

“Some may be disappointed in hearing that Holiday Drive is not the solution to homelessness,” he said. “I said that clearly to everyone, that I didn’t think it could be that. I think what you have seen is a very good opportunity to model a best practice in a single service center. I think that’s what this is really meant to be, a way to address needs for those that we can serve at this location. It is very expensive. We knew that it was going to be expensive. I reminded everyone that I thought it would be expensive, and that has proven to be the case.”

Sunshine Mathon applauded the working group for its hard work and dedication to the community.

“From the outside, it’s difficult to understand why this kind of process seems to take a long time,” Mathon said. “And to be clear, in the best of times, this work is H-A-R-D, hard. But we are not in the best of times. This work has blossomed during the most hostile federal environment that this work has ever seen, particularly to the unhoused services sector.”

In 2024, a Supreme Court ruling made it easier for local governments to fine, ticket and arrest people living outside, even when there is no adequate shelter available to them. Then, in July 2025, President Donald Trump linked crime and homelessness and the following month ordered law enforcement to start clearing encampments around Washington, D.C. The administration has also attempted to cut funding for homelessness programs, potentially shifting the financial burden for crucial, lifesaving programs to communities themselves, including in the Charlottesville area.

That’s not the only challenge the group has faced, Mathon said.

“It has also taken root during one of the most difficult winters in recent memory, that has stretched the day-to-day operations to their limits,” he said, “let alone being able to maintain the capacity to plan long-term for transformational change that their respective organizations and the system as a whole desperately needs.”

Editor’s note: This article was updated on Wednesday, April 8, 2026, to correctly attribute a quote to Cameron Moore, executive director of PACEM, and to correct the purchase price of the building at 2000 Holiday Dr.

The post A new low-barrier shelter in Charlottesville is beginning to take shape. Here’s what it could mean for the community appeared first on Charlottesville Tomorrow.

Come learn about local elections and voting with the 2026 Central Virginia Voter Guide team at Benjamin Tonsler Park this Saturday, April 4!

Charlottesville Tomorrow’s Central Virginia Voter Guide team will be at the First Easter Bash event from 2 to 4 p.m. — along with a very special, furry four-legged friend.

The First Easter Bash, organized by April Brown, owner of Blooming Diamond Decor and Arches, and local realtor KeKira Anderson-Brown, will have egg hunts, bounce houses, relay races, an egg decorating contest and, of course, free food.

Charlottesville Tomorrow’s Voter Guide team is joining the festivities with a kids-themed election for “Mayor of the Hop.” Candidates include: Buttons the Dog, the Easter Bunny, Lulu the Lamb and Chirpy the Chick. Kids will consider the candidates’ policy platforms and submit their vote. While Buttons the Dog has been campaigning to distribute cookies to all constituents under 18, Lulu the Lamb has a literacy-focused campaign promoting “bedtime stories, anytime.” Come cast your ballot!

And we’ll have some questions for parents too. We’re putting together Q&As for local candidates running for election this year, and we want your input on the questions we should ask them. This will help us create the 2026 Central Virginia Voter Guide, where candidates’ answer your questions. It’s a guide made to help you decide who you want to represent you in our local democracy.

The post Help shape the Central Virginia Voter Guide while your kids vote for ‘Mayor of the Hop’ this Saturday appeared first on Charlottesville Tomorrow.