PACEM opening sooner to help Charlottesville with Market St. Park situation

CHARLOTTESVILLE, Va. (WVIR) - Two Charlottesville shelters are having different conversations with the city to try help the people staying in tents in Market Street Park.

The Salvation Army along Ridge Street provides beds all year round. PACEM, a network of churches, traditionally only operates during the winter.

“We are partnering with both the city and valued partners to be able to offer a shelter option, hopefully, even in the coming days,” Jayson Whitehead with PACEM said Tuesday, October 3.

PACEM says it’ll be offering beds earlier this season. That decision is part of City Manager Sam Sanders short-term plan to get people out of the public park.

‘The community at large, the city, and the county all recognize that there’s a need for a year-round shelter locally,” Whitehead said.

“The Salvation Army will be the overflow for PACEM,” Salvation Army Spokesperson Mark Vanmeter said.

The Salvation Army says it doesn’t have a plan with Charlottesville right now, but hopes to change that.

“We know how to do shelters. We’ve been doing shelters for many decades, and so we know how to staff, we know how to program it, we know just how to provide those services,” Vanmeter said.

NBC29 reached out to City Hall to get more on all of this from the City Manager’s Office, looking for details on immediate next steps, long-term options, and how the additional support for the unhoused will be paid for.

NBC29 was told all of those things are being worked on, and no new information is currently available.

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