On Friday, November 5th at 10am, Habitat for Humanity of Greater Charlottesville and residents of the Southwood Mobile Home Park will celebrate the grand opening of the Southwood Design Center, a space where Southwood residents can come to learn about homeownership and rental options in the redeveloped community, meet with financial coaches and ultimately choose their new home and select their interior finishes.
Habitat has been the non-profit owner, developer, and property manager of Southwood since purchasing the park in 2007 in order to prevent the displacement of 1,300+ residents, including 500 children. Over the last 14 years Habitat has invested more than $25M into park improvements and operations and after years of working side by side with residents to design the first neighborhood, began site construction early this year. Construction of the first five homes at Southwood will start by the end of December.
In addition to designing the neighborhood, the residents of Southwood provided input to Habitat in creating 11 different homeownership options and four different rental options. At the design center, Southwood residents will be able to see home designs, learn about prices and weigh their options including purchasing or renting a variety of condominiums, townhomes, single family attached units, and single family detached units.
For many resident planners like Lourdes Vasquez, who helped design the first Southwood village, this is an exciting moment. “This project means for us the opportunity to make a dream come true, the dream of giving our children a decent place that they can call home,” said Vasquez. “An important part of our dream is not only to have a home, but also to stay in the area where we have already planted roots for several years.”
The design center will feature a scale model of the first two villages, a “fly through” virtual tour of phase I of the development, renderings and floor plans of Habitat and rental home options, and brochures that provide helpful details about housing square footage, amenities, cost, etc.
In November of 2019, Habitat formally noticed each household living at Southwood at the time that they would have the option to live affordably in the redeveloped Southwood. No resident will pay more than 30% of their income on housing expenses, no matter what home they choose to purchase or rent. The opening of the Design Center is yet one more exciting milestone as Lourdes’ dreams and the dreams of so many Southwood residents become a reality.
Event Information:
Southwood Design Center Grand Opening
387 Hickory Street Charlottesville, VA 22902
Friday, November 5, 2021
10:00am – Noon.
About Habitat: Habitat for Humanity of Greater Charlottesville brings people together to build and rebuild homes and communities while catalyzing new pathways to safe, decent affordable housing. Our work has evolved from building one house at a time to developing vibrant, sustainable, mixed-income communities, where local families can achieve their dreams of homeownership. Since our founding in 1991, we have built more than 280 new homes and safely housed 2,000 neighbors, thanks to the commitment and dedication of our thousands of volunteers and supporters.
