A $2 million federal grant is headed to Albemarle County to fix a basic problem that’s shaped life at the Southwood Mobile Home Park for years: sewage. WMRA's Anjoleigh Schindler reports.
Habitat for Humanity of Greater Charlottesville is redeveloping the Southwood mobile home community into a mixed-income neighborhood of more than a thousand homes, including duplexes, townhouses, and apartments. But the project’s newest funding will address what’s still there now: aging septic systems serving families who haven’t moved into new units yet.
DAN ROSENSWEIG: Everything south of Hickory Street is all on septic. … That septic failed long before we purchased it. So you had septic bubbling up in people’s homes … bubbling up in playgrounds where kids played.
Dan Rosensweig is president and CEO of Habitat for Humanity of Greater Charlottesville. He says those failing septic systems helped determine which parts of Southwood were redeveloped first.
ROSENSWEIG: That’s one of the reasons why our phasing plan was what it was… we really prioritized getting these folks who were in the worst part, the worst septic fields, out first.
The nonprofit broke ground on the project in 2020, and has received federal funds multiple times since then for various phases of construction. This grant will help tie parts of the community into public sewer, and replace a private sewer system north of Hickory Street.
For a small number of mobile homes that remain, Rosensweig says Habitat plans a temporary fix: pumping sewage into the new sewer line while those families are rehoused.
ROSENSWEIG: On the north side of the park is all permanent infrastructure… and then we will do some temporary lines… pump sewage from their tanks into these lines… so rather than them leaching into the ground, it will go into lines that will go into the sewer system.
Southwood’s redevelopment is happening in phases. Rosensweig laid out the progress so far: phase one includes 335 newly built units; and about 217 of them are designated affordable. He says about 90 of those units are now occupied by Southwood families who relocated from the original mobile home park.
Rosensweig says Habitat is also seeing unusually high retention; meaning residents choose to stay in the community as it changes.
ROSENSWEIG: We’ve had about an 85% stay rate, and of that, about 80% … are staying as homeowners, and 20% … as renters.
He says part of the goal is making a mixed-income neighborhood where you can’t easily tell which homes are part of Habitat’s affordable program.
ROSENSWEIG: You can drive down the street at Southwood and you can’t tell the difference between market rate homes and Habitat homes.
Rosensweig also says the redevelopment is expanding what’s available inside the neighborhood; not just housing. Habitat is now planning a large community center and central park that would include a shared commercial kitchen for food entrepreneurs, a gym, and an early childhood education space. He says the timeline is tied to rehousing. Habitat can’t build new amenities on land where people still live.
ROSENSWEIG: We can’t build anything anywhere until we’ve built homes for people to move into.
Looking ahead, Rosensweig says Habitat expects the full Southwood village buildout to take into the mid-2030s.
ROSENSWEIG: We’re projecting … 2036 or 2037.
Rosensweig says so far, no Southwood families have become delinquent on their Habitat mortgages, and other cities are already asking how to replicate the model.
Albemarle County officials did not respond to WMRA’s requests for comment.
