By Maggie Glass, 29 News
A group of more than two dozen area congregations held a meeting Monday to outline which community issues it feels should be top priorities to solve.
IMPACT, which stands for Interfaith Movement Promoting Action by Congregations Together, handed out packets highlighting what it identified as major problems and what solutions the ministry leaders envision.
“There are 10,000 families that are at risk of being one paycheck away from losing their homes,” John Frazee, with St. Paul’s Episcopal and IMPACT, said.
To fix this, the group pleaded with Albemarle County supervisors to create a housing trust fund and a $10 million commitment every year.
“Without putting a serious amount of money into the affordable housing trust fund, we won’t see the kind of response we need to see to start building the houses we have already needed,” Frazee said.
Another dilemma identified by IMPACT is what the group said is an unreliable and inconsistent public transit system.
“You really need to see wait times of about 15 minutes,” the Rev. Alex Joyner of Charlottesville First UMC said. “Ours is more like 30 minutes.”
The group said hiring more transit drivers would help reduce these times.
“It’s going to take about 80 funded positions, is what we hear, in order to have that reliable network that the city says it wants,” the Rev. Joyner said.
The other issue listed is a lack of care for women dealing with substance abuse. To help with that, the group wants Region Ten to expand services so that women don’t have to drive to Culpeper or Richmond, the other closest locations for treatment.
IMPACT said Monday night was just step one. In order to accomplish what it wants, it will need elected officials on its side. That’s why the group has invited Albemarle supervisors, Charlottesville councilors, and the community to come talk it out in April.
“We will get a clear answer from them,” Frazee said.
“It’s going to take about 80 funded positions, is what we hear, in order to have that reliable network that the city says it wants,” the Rev. Joyner said.
The other issue listed is a lack of care for women dealing with substance abuse. To help with that, the group wants Region Ten to expand services so that women don’t have to drive to Culpeper or Richmond, the other closest locations for treatment.
IMPACT said Monday night was just step one. In order to accomplish what it wants, it will need elected officials on its side. That’s why the group has invited Albemarle supervisors, Charlottesville councilors, and the community to come talk it out in April.
“We will get a clear answer from them,” Frazee said.
View the original story here.
