"A few months ago, the Charlottesville Redevelopment and Housing Authority (CRHA) (www.charlottesville.org) emerged from “troubled” status. But December 28, it found out its budget for 376 units of public housing has been slashed by $220,000, thanks to nationwide cuts at the federal level.

“It’s bad timing,” says Noah Schwartz, CRHA executive director. “We are doing much better, but it’s not like we’re a high-performing best-practices agency. It doesn’t take a whole lot to slip back.”

At least theoretically, the federal department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) (www.hud.gov) funds the difference between the public housing operating costs and operating income. But for at least the last few years, HUD hasn’t met 100 percent of that funding: At the end of last year, it was 85 percent. Now, that’s pushed down to 76 percent.

Unless Congress authorizes more money, one of the first cutbacks will be services to help residents out of poverty. “That money will have to go back into just general operations,” Schwartz says. “There’s nothing extra being done here.” He points out his bare-bones staff and how utility costs were down because of a warm December. CRHA may dip into a $350,000 emergency fund and is discussing the situation with City Council.

Holly Edwards, a public housing resident in the Westhaven complex, says maintenance has been the biggest consistent concern for residents. With the cuts, they’re particularly worried about requests being filled in a timely manner.

She is also concerned about cuts in the self-sufficiency programs. “It makes me worry about the culture of the city now,” Edwards says. “With the analogy of the city being a quilt—with squares being the University, the low-income community and so on—I’m worried that the fabric of the quilt is slowly becoming unraveled. …The thing that makes the quilt beautiful is that it’s a variety of different patches. And what would it look like if the low-income piece was missing?”" (Will Goldsmith, C-Ville Weekly, February 20, 2007)