CHARLOTTESVILLE, VA (CVILLE RIGHT NOW) – The Albemarle County Board of Supervisors will determine the process by which it will allocate as much as $7 million from its Affordable Housing Investment Fund as part of its Wednesday meeting, setting forward criteria for anyone applying for funding.

“I know that some people are ready to dive in and say, ‘Okay, here are the projects’,” County Communications Director Abbey Stumpf said. “But this is the work to be (done) so we can set the criteria and know how that process is going to look for this upcoming fiscal year.”

Stumpf said there are “bucket areas” county staff would like to see the funds support, including emerging housing needs and grant funding for non-profit housing providers. The money is for projects to increase affordable housing inventory, Stumpf said.

This past year, applications were submitted last January for more than $7 million in affordable housing projects with just under $5 million in the fund.

Supervisors in March approved just under $4 million in projects for Habitat for Humanity’s Southwood redevelopment, Piedmont Housing Alliance renovations of affordable units in the county, LEAP, and SupportWorks toward Vista29 at Premiere Circle.

They also approved just over $110,000 for seven family shelter units at the Salvation Army’s family shelter.

“Everyone has solutions and ideas on how to address affordable housing. There’s no bad idea right now. Everybody’s trying to solve this solution of affordability and getting people to homes they need to be in.”

County Chief Services Officer Kaki Dimock will present the proposed process to the board, including what the county’s priorities are. Some aspects were discussed by supervisors during a March meeting when they approved the 2026 projects.

Dimock in that meeting, for example, noted the application acceptance period from Jan. 9-31 was a bit more compressed than the four weeks staff would prefer.

Also, she said applicants had an abbreviated period to learn the criteria and process for 2026 and prepare their applications.

She said this year, all the information should be ready to go by late summer or early fall.

The funding split approved this year, according to the agenda item, is “40% for grants, 40% for loans, and 20% for staff-initiated projects addressing emerging needs or meeting goals of Housing Albemarle.”

This year has $875,000 for the “staff-initiated projects addressing emerging needs” after the $4 million earmarked.

In 2027, the approved AHIF funding available is $7.033 million with the distribution percentages expected to be similar.

“One thing I’m going to say really quick is that we’ve heard it on your show, we’ve heard it on the news, we’ve heard it on chat rooms, online, everybody has solutions and ideas on how to address affordable housing,” Stumpf said. “It’s one of those things, I think, is that there’s no bad idea right now. Everybody’s trying to solve this issue of affordability and getting people the homes they need to be in, and this is setting some really good criteria of what does the really mean?”

Stumpf said some of the project priorities Supervisors have set is rental options for households with less than 60% AMI, homeownership options for those with less than 80% AMI, and they’re looking for shovel-ready projects that will meet the needs of the most vulnerable.

Projects with on-site resident services, such as the just-funded Vista29, are also a priority.

Another piece of the criteria are projects that need leverage with federal, state, and private funding to be able to generate more money through various matching programs.

Other eligible uses are predevelopment activities, land acquisition and assembly, land development, buydown of construction loan interest, and water and sewer fees.

Staff will also recommend this coming year that the funding split of 80-20 for grants/loans and support staff initiated projects be changed to a 90-10 split.

Because the agenda is lighter than most months, the afternoon Board of Supervisors session begins at 2:30 p.m. instead of the customary 1 p.m.