Charlottesville approves funding for school security and homelessness

CHARLOTTESVILLE, Va. (WVIR) - “Consent agenda is adopted - Five nothing,” Charlottesville Mayor Llyod Snook said in Tuesday night’s meeting.

The first grant approved was over $500,000 from the Virginia Department of Housing and Community Development. This money will go to a few different organizations -- including The Haven and PACEM.

The goal of the funding is to get people off the streets, an issue community members continued to push for during Tuesday’s meeting.

“We got a whole lot of homeless people out here,” Jay Hooper said. “It hurts me to see.”

Also approved was a $150,000 grant for adding new care and safety assistants to Charlottesville City Schools. There will be three new CSAs, one at Charlottesville High School and two at Walker Upper Elementary School.

Noticeably removed from the agenda was what the city plans to do with a small piece of land on West Main Street. This sparked input from some community members during the meeting.

“Here the public interest is in and demand for additional shade trees among a busy street, in a historic area already designated as a tree desert,” Kay Slaughter said.

“Plant some trees there, put a bench there, so that when my dog walks me, and I’m wore out, I can sit,” Pat Edwards said.

Ultimately, City Manager Sam Sanders announced he is still looking into it, but for the time being, the land is staying with the city.

“If there is a reason to bring it back, we will bring it back, but at this moment we will consider this matter not for sale,” Sanders said.

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