Nonprofit plans to built homeless facility by 2011

BY WILL GOLDSMITH - Cville Weekly

Undergraduates’ typical culminating class products—hastily scribbled exams, papers slapped together with a lot of caffeine and little sleep—are destined for the dustbin. But the nine seniors in Betsy Roettger’s community design studio put together plans that will help a nonprofit build housing for Charlottesville’s homeless.

Single Resident Occupancy housing (SRO) is the next step up from a homeless shelter. Essentially, an SRO is a dorm—many of them have computer labs and exercise rooms —albeit a dorm that provides easy access to social workers and services for people long accustomed to living on the street. Virginia Supportive Housing (VSH), a Richmond-based nonprofit, has built SROs in Richmond, Norfolk and Virginia Beach, and is in the midst of finishing one in Portsmouth. Formerly homeless people live in the facilities, often for many years, in hopes that they will stabilize their lives, find work and, eventually, move up to independent living.

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