FAQs

We are located at 682 Berkmar Circle in Charlottesville, VA. If you have a general inquiry, call 434.817.2436 or email us at info@piedmonthousing.org. Check our contact page for more specific ways to contact us.

Our Board of Directors currently consists of 11 board members. A portion of our board is made up of residents of our communities and individuals who have used our home buying services. Board leadership includes the President, Vice President, and Treasurer.

Visit our Donate page to learn about the different ways you can give – online, via check or by giving a gift of stock.

We serve the city of Charlottesville and the counties of Albemarle, Greene, Fluvanna, Louisa, and Nelson.

Complete the “Intake Form” available online or contact a housing counselor at housingcounseling@piedmonthousing.org.

You can download and complete the intake form and email it to housingcounseling@piedmonthousing.org or mail it to 682 Berkmar Circle, Charlottesville, Virginia 22901.

After completing a housing counseling session, a counselor will help you decide if our Down Payment Program is a good fit for you and they will assist you in completing the application.

Our schedule changes but you can always check our Classes page to see when our next one is.  You can also take an online homebuyer class anytime at vhda.com/freeclass.

The services we offer are free unless otherwise stated.

You may contact a counselor directly via phone to navigate filing a complaint, or reach out to the Financial Opportunity Center & Housing Hub at (434) 242-5165.

Currently, the only financial products we offer are down payment assistance loans.  We also offer free housing counseling sessions and group education classes.  Our sessions and classes cover a wide range of personal financial topics—we will meet you where you are and, typically, we meet with folks about creating a budget, building your credit score, savings and paying off debt.

Yes, we can pull your credit report. The service is free if you have completed an intake form.

If you are a resident at a property that we manage you may be eligible for our Eviction Prevention Program—you can speak to your property manager about this and they will determine if you are eligible.  If you are late on your rent or mortgage it is important to contact your property manager or mortgage servicer as soon as possible.  They may have options for you to help you get caught up.  If you want someone to help you with that you can complete our intake form and a counselor will help you navigate your options.

Piedmont Housing Alliance currently manages 12 properties in the counties of Albemarle and Nelson and City of Charlottesville.

Complete the application that is available online or come to 682 Berkmar Circle and complete one in person.

There is currently a waitlist for some communities.

Contact resident services at residentservices@piedmonthousing.org, or contact our Financial Opportunity Center & Housing Hub at (434) 242-5165.

Yes, call us to speak with a community manager about which communities have accessible units available.

Piedmont Housing Alliance owns Kindlewood (formerly Friendship Court) in a partnership with the National Housing Trust. Piedmont Housing began managing the community in May 2019.

Any affordable housing development requires many, many layers of funding.  Kindlewood is no different, and each phase will be financed independently.  The primary funding source is Low Income Housing Tax Credits (LIHTC), a national program operated by the US Treasury that is the largest public-private program in the country.  Many other sources will need to come together including contributions from the City of Charlottesville, foundations, and philanthropic donations. The final gap will be filled with a mortgage. In the end, the goal of the subsidy from LIHTC, the City, etc., is to reduce the amount of the mortgage so that the income from rent (even though the rent income is low) on the property can cover the cost of operations (maintenance, staff, etc.) and the mortgage payments while also building long-term reserves for repairs in the future.

The Friendship Court Advisory Committee is a team of nine residents elected by their neighbors and six members of the at-large community that provides guidance to Piedmont Housing Alliance in two primary areas: physical revitalization and community life.

The existing open space already at Friendship Court enabled Piedmont Housing to begin construction of Phases 1 and 2 with zero displacement of current residents.

No, Friendship Court has never been owned or operated by the Charlottesville Redevelopment and Housing Authority (CRHA).  Friendship Court has always been privately owned and operated.  Nonetheless, Friendship Court has project-based Section 8 subsidies provided directly from HUD that allow for extremely low-income families and individuals to live at Friendship Court.

No, we do not currently have plans to sell Kindlewood/Friendship Court.

Our history of creating affordable housing opportunities has included both the development of new housing and the preservation of existing affordable housing to help meet the needs of our community. In support of affordable rental housing, we have participated in the development or rehabilitation of the more than 600 apartment homes in our portfolio of eleven communities. In support of affordable home ownership, we have built more than 64 single family homes, in neighborhoods such as Starr Hill, Hinton Avenue, 10^th and Page, and Fifeville. We have been certified as a Community Housing Development Organization (CHDO) since 1997.

We do not currently have any rural development projects.