Bama Works partners with CRHA to kick off Crescent Halls renovations in Charlottesville

Charlottesville, VA - The Charlottesville Redevelopment and Housing Authority and the Public Housing Association of Residents held a kickoff ceremony Wednesday for the renovation of Crescent Halls. Speakers included Mayor Nikuyah Walker, Del. Sally Hudson, D-Charlottesville and Sen. Creigh Deeds, D-Bath.

The public housing facility’s 105 units will all be fully renovated by the end of March 2022, according to CRHA. There will be 98 one-bedroom and seven two-bedroom apartments. The renovations will be completed floor by floor, with construction starting with the eighth floor on April 30. The skeleton of the building will be preserved, but all of the residential units, building systems, underground infrastructure, common areas, exterior spaces and parking areas will be completely redone. The project is being led by Chicago-based general contractor GMA Construction Group.

Residents will relocate to temporary units while their floors are being renovated, and CRHA covering all moving expenses. Crescent Halls’ units are primarily occupied by seniors and individuals with disabilities.

“Crescent Halls was sold to the community as this grand thing, this amazing thing that was going to happen for seniors in our community. And I think for a short time it was that,” said Brandon Collins, an organizer with PHAR. “But federal disinvestment and local disinvestment and the challenges of systemic racism and disrespect in this community has led to a really hard slog for Crescent Halls over these past few years.”

PHAR and Crescent Halls residents have been asking for renovations to be made for several years. In 2016, residents held a demonstration protesting conditions and management. They complained of water damage from leaking washing machines, bedbugs, roaches and poor sanitary conditions in the common areas. The same year, residents voiced concerns about unbearable heat due to malfunctioning air conditioning in the building. In 2018, Crescent Halls Tenant Association asked CRHA for around-the-clock security and at least two “highly skilled” maintenance workers just for their building.

“Our organization fought very hard to make sure that there was a residents’ bill of rights for redevelopment,” Collins said. “We did a lot of work here in Crescent Halls, [we had] hundreds of conversations with folks here about what the future might look like. The residents came together and presented this vision.”

Deeds emphasized that while housing is a national and statewide crisis, it takes organization at the local level to actually take action and make changes.

“I’ve been intricately involved in working on providing better services for people with mental illness. And what we’ve found is one of the best ways to provide a person who’s mentally ill with long term stability is to provide long term supportive housing. Long term supportive housing is incredibly expensive,” Deeds said. “Every single investment is worth it because we improve the life of some person. And that’s what this investment’s going to do, it’s going to improve the lives of a lot of people in Charlottesville, for a long, long time to come.”

Walker said that it’s important that housing improvements and renovations are made as quickly as possible.

“Everybody deserves not just housing to go to, but housing that has been created with intention and with love. I think that once we understand that, and act on that, then we start the process of showing people that we honor them. By doing this today, we also show that our promises that have been broken for decades are finally being fulfilled,” Walker said. “People shouldn’t have to wait for decades for their basic needs to be met.” - The Daily Progress