The property at 10 E. Belt Blvd. includes a 53,000-square-foot warehouse and a 3,800-square-foot office. (City property records photo)
As it looks to enhance area homelessness services and increase its year-round emergency shelter capacity, the City of Richmond is planning to add to regional efforts with an additional facility on the Southside.
In a presentation last month to City Council’s Organizational Development Standing Committee, Chief Administrative Officer Lincoln Saunders said plans are in the works to add a shelter site at 10 E. Belt Blvd., where the city would lease a nearly 57,000-square-foot building with an option to buy it in three years.
The site would add to other shelter facilities at 7 N. Second St., the former HI Richmond Hostel building downtown, and at the Salvation Army headquarters at 1900 Chamberlayne Parkway, which is lined up to serve as the city’s inclement weather shelter this winter.
Enhancements at those sites would add 50 beds for homeless families beginning Dec. 1, and 50 beds for single adults beginning next May, after those latter beds are put toward inclement weather shelter capacity this winter. The Chamberlayne site will also include a city-run housing resource center for information and referrals.
There are currently 209 shelter beds available in the city, according to Saunders’ presentation: 117 for single adults and 92 for families.
With the service expansion, those numbers would increase to 167 for single adults and 154 for families, for a total of 321. Saunders said that amounts to a 54 percent increase from the current year-round shelter capacity within the regional Greater Richmond Continuum of Care (GRCoC) services network.
“We know that we do not have enough year-round shelter beds that are available for those who are housing insecure today,” Saunders said, adding that efforts to expand shelter capacity have been underway for years but ramped up this year.
The former HI Richmond Hostel building at 7 N. Second St. (BizSense file photo)
For the hostel building, the city would provide funding to help subsidize rent and renovations for operator HomeAgain, a homeless services group that used the building as an emergency shelter during the pandemic.
HomeAgain would lease the building from Potomac Area Hostels, which purchased the property two years ago and had been planning a new hostel, called Seven Hills Hostel & Lodge, that had been targeted to open sometime this year, according to a website.
The two-year lease, at $15,000 a month, would have an option to renew for an additional year, and for the city to have first right of negotiation if Potomac elects to sell the property. The 13,700-square-foot building includes 14 living units, a kitchen and congregate space and would be used as a family shelter with 50 beds.
The city also would work with Salvation Army to expand bed capacity at its Chamberlayne headquarters, and to establish the housing resource center, which the city would operate.
The 47,000-square-foot building was used as a shelter last winter. Previous years saw the inclement weather shelter at various locations around town, such as the Quality Inn Central hotel on Arthur Ashe Boulevard, now slated to make way for a 375-unit apartment development.
The Salvation Army bought the former Eternity Church property at 1900 Chamberlayne Parkway for its regional headquarters in 2019. (BizSense file photo)
The city would secure long-term use of the Chamberlayne site through a three-year lease at $43,000 a month. It also has agreed to contribute $7 million toward a $15 million upgrade of the building, though if that project doesn’t go forward, Saunders said the city would be able to buy the Chamberlayne property at the end of the three-year lease for $4.5 million.
Rounding out the shelter enhancements would be a new facility at 10 E. Belt Blvd., which the city would lease for three years at $26,000 a month and purchase in the third year for $3.6 million. Rent paid up to that point would be applied to the purchase price.
Saunders said the Belt Boulevard location was identified as an alternative site before negotiations with Salvation Army were finalized. The 53,000-square-foot warehouse with a 3,800-square-foot office provides an opportunity for future expansion of homeless services in the city, Saunders said.
Lincoln Saunders
“As a facility, we think it’s a great opportunity and did not want to lose the opportunity to have it for this type of service in the future if we need it,” he said.
Saunders said the owner, Grove Avenue Partners LLC, has expressed interest in retrofitting the building to suit the facility. He said costs for that work would be rolled into the lease rate for the building, which the locally based LLC purchased in February for $2.35 million. The 1.9-acre property is currently assessed by the city at $1.18 million.
The cost for the three shelters would total $2.4 million through the rest of fiscal year 2024, and $3.2 million for all of FY25. Saunders said the city’s current budget had $1.75 million built into it for year-round shelter funding, and $2.7 million carried over from the previous budget could help fill the gap over the two years.
However, he said, “If we enter into these agreements, we’re going to need to plan for expanding our funding in order to meet this obligation going forward.”
Saunders said agreements for the enhancements would be presented to council later this year, including the lease for the Belt Boulevard site, which would require council approval.
Stephanie Lynch
Councilmember Stephanie Lynch, who works for the Virginia Department of Social Services, described the proposed enhancements as the culmination of three or more years’ worth of work and advocacy for a better access point for homeless services in the city.
“What’s really the pivotal point of this plan that moves it forward is that the housing resource center can indeed be that point of access for people,” Lynch said. “The vision is, when you are experiencing a crisis and you have a family who is either three days within facing eviction or currently unhoused – be that in their car, in a hotel or on the street – they can seek an actual live person and start an intake process with a case manager through the housing resource center and get hooked up with services and referred into the GRCoC.
“That is the very most critical point of the work being done here,” Lynch said, “because part of our challenge is that we have a fairly good and effective GRCoC system, if you are so lucky enough to get in.”
The property at 10 E. Belt Blvd. includes a 53,000-square-foot warehouse and a 3,800-square-foot office. (City property records photo)
As it looks to enhance area homelessness services and increase its year-round emergency shelter capacity, the City of Richmond is planning to add to regional efforts with an additional facility on the Southside.
In a presentation last month to City Council’s Organizational Development Standing Committee, Chief Administrative Officer Lincoln Saunders said plans are in the works to add a shelter site at 10 E. Belt Blvd., where the city would lease a nearly 57,000-square-foot building with an option to buy it in three years.
The site would add to other shelter facilities at 7 N. Second St., the former HI Richmond Hostel building downtown, and at the Salvation Army headquarters at 1900 Chamberlayne Parkway, which is lined up to serve as the city’s inclement weather shelter this winter.
Enhancements at those sites would add 50 beds for homeless families beginning Dec. 1, and 50 beds for single adults beginning next May, after those latter beds are put toward inclement weather shelter capacity this winter. The Chamberlayne site will also include a city-run housing resource center for information and referrals.
There are currently 209 shelter beds available in the city, according to Saunders’ presentation: 117 for single adults and 92 for families.
With the service expansion, those numbers would increase to 167 for single adults and 154 for families, for a total of 321. Saunders said that amounts to a 54 percent increase from the current year-round shelter capacity within the regional Greater Richmond Continuum of Care (GRCoC) services network.
“We know that we do not have enough year-round shelter beds that are available for those who are housing insecure today,” Saunders said, adding that efforts to expand shelter capacity have been underway for years but ramped up this year.
The former HI Richmond Hostel building at 7 N. Second St. (BizSense file photo)
For the hostel building, the city would provide funding to help subsidize rent and renovations for operator HomeAgain, a homeless services group that used the building as an emergency shelter during the pandemic.
HomeAgain would lease the building from Potomac Area Hostels, which purchased the property two years ago and had been planning a new hostel, called Seven Hills Hostel & Lodge, that had been targeted to open sometime this year, according to a website.
The two-year lease, at $15,000 a month, would have an option to renew for an additional year, and for the city to have first right of negotiation if Potomac elects to sell the property. The 13,700-square-foot building includes 14 living units, a kitchen and congregate space and would be used as a family shelter with 50 beds.
The city also would work with Salvation Army to expand bed capacity at its Chamberlayne headquarters, and to establish the housing resource center, which the city would operate.
The 47,000-square-foot building was used as a shelter last winter. Previous years saw the inclement weather shelter at various locations around town, such as the Quality Inn Central hotel on Arthur Ashe Boulevard, now slated to make way for a 375-unit apartment development.
The Salvation Army bought the former Eternity Church property at 1900 Chamberlayne Parkway for its regional headquarters in 2019. (BizSense file photo)
The city would secure long-term use of the Chamberlayne site through a three-year lease at $43,000 a month. It also has agreed to contribute $7 million toward a $15 million upgrade of the building, though if that project doesn’t go forward, Saunders said the city would be able to buy the Chamberlayne property at the end of the three-year lease for $4.5 million.
Rounding out the shelter enhancements would be a new facility at 10 E. Belt Blvd., which the city would lease for three years at $26,000 a month and purchase in the third year for $3.6 million. Rent paid up to that point would be applied to the purchase price.
Saunders said the Belt Boulevard location was identified as an alternative site before negotiations with Salvation Army were finalized. The 53,000-square-foot warehouse with a 3,800-square-foot office provides an opportunity for future expansion of homeless services in the city, Saunders said.
Lincoln Saunders
“As a facility, we think it’s a great opportunity and did not want to lose the opportunity to have it for this type of service in the future if we need it,” he said.
Saunders said the owner, Grove Avenue Partners LLC, has expressed interest in retrofitting the building to suit the facility. He said costs for that work would be rolled into the lease rate for the building, which the locally based LLC purchased in February for $2.35 million. The 1.9-acre property is currently assessed by the city at $1.18 million.
The cost for the three shelters would total $2.4 million through the rest of fiscal year 2024, and $3.2 million for all of FY25. Saunders said the city’s current budget had $1.75 million built into it for year-round shelter funding, and $2.7 million carried over from the previous budget could help fill the gap over the two years.
However, he said, “If we enter into these agreements, we’re going to need to plan for expanding our funding in order to meet this obligation going forward.”
Saunders said agreements for the enhancements would be presented to council later this year, including the lease for the Belt Boulevard site, which would require council approval.
Stephanie Lynch
Councilmember Stephanie Lynch, who works for the Virginia Department of Social Services, described the proposed enhancements as the culmination of three or more years’ worth of work and advocacy for a better access point for homeless services in the city.
“What’s really the pivotal point of this plan that moves it forward is that the housing resource center can indeed be that point of access for people,” Lynch said. “The vision is, when you are experiencing a crisis and you have a family who is either three days within facing eviction or currently unhoused – be that in their car, in a hotel or on the street – they can seek an actual live person and start an intake process with a case manager through the housing resource center and get hooked up with services and referred into the GRCoC.
“That is the very most critical point of the work being done here,” Lynch said, “because part of our challenge is that we have a fairly good and effective GRCoC system, if you are so lucky enough to get in.”
This is long overdue, and seems like they chose decent locations in terms of transit access. We really need to address the situation nationally instead of putting most of the burden on localities and nonprofits.
Long overdue but talk is CHEAP with this administration and I will believe the shelters expansions when they actually open. The Hostel deal is not even completed and if it weren’t not for Council (Stephanie in particular) we would not be this far on the matter. And Lincoln’s claim of “this year” is comical as it appears the increase in bed space and the move to year round shelters at the earliest will happen in December. Barely in this calendar year!
Stoney said he’s proud of the work that’s been done.
Good news. Let’s hope they all come to fruition. My other hope is that someone continues to run the Salvation Army shelter on Grace after they move to Chamberlyn.
If I were going to deal with this in Richmond I would build several hundred units of housing at 10 E. Belt Blvd and have drug and mental health treatment and 24 hour support services. I really think a shelter is a quick fix that is not long term.