southwood redevelopment receives $2.25 million

Governor Ralph Northam announced on Tuesday that the Southwood community will be receiving $2.25 million in funding as part of the Vibrant Community Initiative, which seeks to expand affordable housing opportunities in the Commonwealth.

“This is incredibly exciting news,” said Dan Rosensweig, Habitat President and CEO. “It’s the initial chunk of funding necessary as we develop the resource bank to build the first model village.”

In 2007, Habitat purchased the Southwood Mobile Home Park with the goal to redevelop it as a mixed-income, sustainable neighborhood without resident displacement. Since that time, Habitat has worked closely with residents to stabilize the current infrastructure of the park, expand upon community building efforts, and design a blueprint for phase one of redevelopment.

This year, residents contributed over 900 hours toward a phase one rezoning application. Thirty seven Southwood families have expressed interest in being part of the first phase of redevelopment, and this number is expected to grow as the project moves forward.

“We are so grateful to the residents of Southwood for all of their hard work in putting together a development plan, and we look forward to bringing the entire community together as they work side by side to build a better future,” declared Rosensweig.

Habitat and Southwood neighbors plan to break ground on the first of multiple redevelopment phases in 2020.