The I Love CVille Show With Jerry Miller! - Council To Discuss Homeless Management Tonight; Homeless Policy Could Be Most Significant In Years

Episode Date: September 2, 2025

The I Love CVille Show headlines: Council To Discuss Homeless Management Tonight Homeless Policy Could Be Most Significant In Years Is CVille Preparing To Criminalize Homelessness? Nikuyah Walker & Liveable CVille Oppose Policy UVA Launches Search Website For 10th President Rock Revolution Is Now Open On Old Ivy Road UVA QB Chandler Morris Will Play Vs NC State Exec Offices For Rent ($350 – $4000), Contact Jerry Read Viewer & Listener Comments Live On-Air The I Love CVille Show airs live Monday – Friday from 12:30 pm – 1:30 pm on The I Love CVille Network. Watch and listen to The I Love CVille Show on Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, LinkedIn, iTunes, Apple Podcast, YouTube, Spotify, Fountain, Amazon Music, Audible, Rumble and iLoveCVille.com.

Good Tuesday afternoon, guys, I'm Jerry Miller. Thank you kindly for joining us on the I Love Seville Show. A pleasure to connect with you guys through the I Love Seville Network, a program that is locked and loaded with a considerable amount of content today. We hope you enjoyed the Labor Day. We hope you caught the new show we launched on the I Love Seville Network. It aired yesterday at 10.15 a.m. And it's going to air on Mondays at 10.15 a.m. moving forward.

Jeff Gaffney and Dr. Wayne Frye. Jeff Gaffney, local luminary, the leading points score for the University of Virginia men's soccer team till this day. The all-time points score goals and assist for men's soccer, Jeff Gaffney. He's the CEO of Real Estate 3, Dr. Wayne Fry, the senior pastor at Faith Christian International on Pantops. Those two gentlemen have launched the everyday faith show on the I Love Seville Network, which will are Mondays at 10.15 a.m. on the I Love Seville Network. I think you guys will thoroughly enjoy two really smart guys talking about their faith on Mondays at 1015 a.m. on the I Love Seville Network. A lot we're going to cover on today's program, including something we've been

prepping you, the viewer, and listener for a month and change now. Our sources in City Council indicated that this was coming down the pipe in July. And since July, we've been peppering the new cycle with city council, their first meeting at September, will have an opportunity to discuss policy, approve policy that will help Charlottesville, Virginia manage its homeless population. And this is a sensitive subject. We don't expect viewers and listeners to agree with us on everything. We don't expect viewers and listeners to disagree with us on everything. We want viewers and listeners, however, to feel something, feel something. after watching each episode of the I Love Seville show.

And I think after we're done today, you, the viewer, and listener, will certainly feel something. I'm going to ask you an open-ended question, viewers and listeners. Does Charlottesville, Virginia, have an management problem with their houseless and homeless population? I'll give you a moment to think about that. Does Charlottesville, Virginia, have a management problem with their houseless and homeless population?

What can be done with the houseless and homeless population to create and build a better life for everyone, the houseless and homeless population, the small business community, local taxpayers, local tenants, and renters, local homeowners, local elected officials, local police officers? We live in this world where all those categories are impacted by this.

There's a huge difference between a hand out and a hand up. And I understand the concept of offering a hand up to everyone. Goodness gracious, we have all had our backs against the wall. We've all had our backs against the wall where we've wondered where the groceries are going to come from, how the bills are going to be paid. Are we eating ramen noodles again tonight? Do we go without eating a meal? How are we going to pay rent?

How are we going to pay the mortgage? 90% plus almost clear-cut majority of the people listening to this program have been in that position before. It might be a different kind of bill. It might be a mortgage instead of rent. It might be tuition for your kids as opposed to putting gas in your car. But everyone's asked themselves this question, how am I going to pay a bill? and everyone understands the difference between a hand up instead of a handout. And right now in Charlottesville, Virginia, we need to admit this.

The small business community, local taxpayers, just everyday Joe's, and everyday Jennifer's like you and I, we have been for years since COVID, been asking Charlottesville and City Hall and City Council, to do something about the quality of life impact we have with the houseless population in this community and tonight City Council has an opportunity to do something about it There's policy and play that will be considered that may potentially afford council the police department City Hall and us as a community a way to improve quality of life on the downtown mall on the Rivana Trail and in our public parks in our media in our intersections and in very visible spots where the houseless has become not just

more prolific and prevalent, but from a perception standpoint, potentially a problem. So much to cover on the show, including how Nakaya Walker, the former mayor, is responding, how livable Seville, the urbanist policy lobbying group led by Matthew Gilliken and Stephen Johnson responding, Chief Kachis, how he's a part of this, and what city council will do and how it will impact their legacy moving forward. Boy, oh, boy, do we have a great program for you. Judah Wickhauer's studio camera, then a two-shot. I want to thank John Vermillion and Andrew Vermillion

for being a part of the program. 61 years in business, John Vermillion, and Andrew Vermillion, are honest, they're communicative. They understand how to run a business on East High Street and online at Charlestful Sanitary Supply.com. Viewers and listeners, order your sanitary supply needs through Charlestful Sanitary Supply in person or on their website. and not the big box stores.

Three generations of business and five generations in Almore County, Charlottesville Sanitary Supply. Judah Whitcower, I would like for you, if you could please, to set the stage of what's happening tonight, and then we will offer our commentary.

The show is yours, my friend. So tonight's city council will meet to discuss a proposal to create policy, as Jerry has said, That will give them, give essentially chief conscious and the police a framework for how they deal with some of the issues that we've been having with homelessness. And this is not about arresting the homeless. This is about how we prevent people, you know, using public spaces as storage for their stuff and how we deal with essentially,

you know, people sleeping in, in doorways and on public land. The presenter tonight will be police chief conscious. And I believe he'll go over the reasons why it's necessary to set a framework for how to deal with this. The reasons are seeing pretty clear to me. Quality of life has been impacted. Safety has been impacted. Health concerns are significant. and it's not just economic impacts are tangible and palpable how many people have said downtown mall

and doing business in downtown Charlottesville is more difficult now than before the pandemic because of some of the challenges we're facing with the houseless and homeless population how many times have viewers and listeners taxpayers how many times have small business owners how many times have elected officials how many times have our children come downtown and seen something they should not have. I cannot put in perspective how many it's impacted me, you, Judah, us being down here 50, 60 hours a week, every week, my children, my wife, you the viewers and listeners. It's unfortunate that Chief Cottius is in this position. It's, from my standpoint, not the police department's position to be in, but I don't understand

any other organization, any other outfit or team that can lead this charge. Well, I believe the reason that police chief conscious is the one presenting is because you're right. The complaints that have come to his department. But they are the only ones that can do anything. We're not going to send, you know, we're not going to send social workers to help people move stuff. There needs to be laws in place that set down the, you know, set down the record for how we do this. And anyone reading the agendas and minutes of the city council meeting for, for this evening, I feel like it would be very hard to misapprehend what they are saying.

It spells it out in clear language. It's addressing camping and public rights of way, storage of personal property in those areas. The proposed ordinance seeks to balance public safety, accessibility, and quality of life concerns with a compassionate and empathetic approach to enforcement. And it goes on. If you want me to read the whole thing, I will. So it's well written. It explains what they're trying to do.

It explains that this is not about criminalizing homelessness. Yes, it does involve classifying certain actions as a class four misdemeanor, which is not a jail penalty, it doesn't provide jail penalty. It's set in place because you need laws in order to enforce what you want to enforce. 100%. Let me ask the viewers and listeners this question. Should we be allowed to sleep on city property or in public parks? Should we viewers and listeners be allowed to store our belongings, our personal belongings, on city property, in public parks for extended periods of time?

Answer that question, viewers and listeners. Should you be allowed to store your personal belongings in parks on the downtown mall and the vestibules in front of the storefronts in downtown Charlottesville or in other aspects or locations of the city? Should you be able to sleep in parks despite clear curfew deadlines and times to leave the park in public property? It's obvious that you should not be able to do this. It is obvious.

Some of the ramifications that can be used to modify or manage this behavior, as we've been talking about for weeks now on the show, because we knew that this was upcoming, and we wanted to give you the heads up, is the police now has the opportunity to take the possessions of the homeless. And store them. Store them for 60 days. We're not talking.

Take the possessions, throw them in a garbage truck, and bring them to the dump. And it also states that if the possessions, if what they find are not providing a, what's the word, if they're not dangerous to anyone, if there's no, if there's no problem with them, they can give them 10 days to move them. This is not, you know, nobody's going to be going around and, they're giving them a heads up and notice that they need to do something with their belongings that they can't keep them on the parks, the down. downtown malls, the storefronts, or the medians in the city. Plenty of notice, folks. And once again, this... I Love Seville is not live. We need to reconnect that page, please. There's plenty of notice here.

Yeah. And again, this is not a... This is not an order for the police to... For the police to start... To start going hog wild, taking people's possessions and kicking people out of parks. This is an enabling process. This is an enabling policy that allows them to do something. It gives them the ability to do something. I don't believe that, for instance, the guy, the very kind man outside of the post office,

I don't think he's going to get bothered because he hasn't been a bother to anyone. This isn't about the police having the ability to harass every single. single homeless person in the city. That is TBD. Do you have I Love Seville Facebook back live? It's going on. Okay. That I think is to be determined. The very kind person, that's the veteran of a foreign war, that's sleeping in the post office, right outside the post office door, that's using the downtown post office as his, basically as his living room and his hangout room, you know,

I don't think that's above board. But I think this policy, to Judah's point, is to pursue the houseless population that is antagonistic, that is angry, that is in your face in downtown Charlottesville and elsewhere. The city and council will be discussing this tonight in their first September meeting. And I'm going to tell you right now, Brian Pinkston, Juan Diego, Wade, Lloyd Snook, Michael Payne, and Natalie Oshran, what you determined tonight. tonight will be a part of your legacy. And if you do not have the courage and gumption to face a very small minority of people that are led by Nakaya Walker, who frankly seems deranged and unhinged with her Facebook commentary on this topic. And Livable Seville, Matthew Gilliken and Stephen Johnson, who have been on the wrong side of most issues policy-wise locally.

If you don't have the thick skinness to go toe to toe and face the social media backlash and the public commentary portion backlash from Nikiah Walker, Matthew Gilliken, Stephen Johnson, and their cronies, then this is something that's going to impact your legacy. And as Judah Wickhauer has said, and please rotate the lower thirds on screen here, Mike Cottius is a reasonable, he's a measured, he's a thoughtful man. He's a man that does not want to use the law as a weapon. He does not want to weaponize the law. And I can assure you that Chief Cottius has received hundreds, if not thousands of complaints

from local taxpayers, local residents, average Joe's and average Jennifer's like you and me, complaining about quality of life, safety issues, drug use, open container, human feces, human urination, just feeling uncomfortable in downtown Charlottesville on the Rivana Trail, medians around town. This is the first step for Charlestville to potentially turn the corner post-COVID on a houseless issue that has become out of control. And ladies and gentlemen, I empathize with anyone that's in this position.

Hand up instead of a handout. Do we have a problem with shelters in this community? and not having enough beds for the houseless population? Hell, yes, we do. Should part of the taxpayer contributions and part of the many hundreds of millions of dollars of yearly Charlottesville budget and be utilized to help figure out a solution

for the houseless issue? Yes. Did they try to do it with the Salvation Army site on Cherry Avenue in Fifeville? Yes. Did the people that live in Fifell next to the Salvation Army site do the not in my backyard? fight against this shelter next to their neighborhood?

Yes, they did. Have I said on this program that Al Morrow County in the city of Charlottesville should do a JV, a joint venture where they pull their resources to build a houseless shelter epicenter somewhere in Almore County? Yes, I have. It should include more beds.

It should include computer labs, laundromats, drug rehabilitation, drug rehabilitation resources, alcohol rehabilitation resources. and counseling. It should include resume services. It's got to happen in the county because there's nowhere in the city to do it. There's not enough land to develop. Almore County's Board of Supervisors Charlottesville City Council should JV joint venture a concept where they pull resources. And they say if we do this, if we do it on a bus line and we create a center that's going to help both jurisdictions, it's going to be great for the houses population, it's going to be great for the small business

community for economic development for the university. Heck, the University of Virginia should be a part of this too. It should be a triology with the three UVA, Almar County, and the city. All three of them should be a part of it. The chief conscious I know does not want to weaponize, ladies and gentlemen, the law. The Joe Plantania, I know, does not want to weaponize the law.

The Jim Hingley, I know, does not want to weaponize the law. the law. But it's gotten to the point where locals in this community are beyond frustrated. We walk outside on the downtown mall and are routinely stepping over human feces. That is not an exaggeration. Jude, am I right? I've never actually stepped over it, but I have gone around it. Okay, so Jude is going to get into minutia over there. You're playing frogger with feces. Are you not? I have seen it. Okay, there you go.

Man of many words. Kyle Irvin wants to know, can we get the police chief on the show this Thursdays, the communications director with Charlottesville Police Department? Yes, Kyle Irvin, we can get police chief cautious on the show. Please do a text chain with us and Chief Cottius, locked and loaded for the show this Thursday, absolutely. I see a man who's sensibly trying to put a plan in play

that will potentially empower police officers to create a solution for an improved quality of life. I see a man that is tasked with a responsibility that no police department should be tasked with. The police force should not be tasked with homeless management. But there is no other group that is better fit to do this, unfortunately, because you're not going to send some social workers out at 11 o'clock at night, at 2 in the morning, at 8 o'clock at night, at 7 in the morning, and to manage the houseless population we see in downtown Charlottesville

that is oftentimes intoxicated, high on drugs, antagonistic, and aggressive. And if you have 250 houseless in this community, I would bet you the percentage of houseless that actually causes problems is below 20%. No doubt. And by now we know who those folks are. But the police in the current state has such little that it can do. Please rotate the lower thirds on screen. So the viewers and listeners can know what we're talking about.

They have such little of what they can do on this topic that their hands, put-intended, are cuffed behind their back. And now you have a former mayor, Nicaia Walker, and you have a urbanist lobbying group called Livable Seaville that, frankly, where livable Seville started, where it originated as a lobbying group for bicycle and pedestrian safety. It originated as a lobbying group for improved public transportation, and it originated as a lobbying group to try to stabilize price points with housing. Now, Livable Seville has turned into a lobbying group where it's basically trying to use its influence,

to get public schools and the University of Virginia to clash over the Federal Executive Institute, to try to utilize public school teachers as leverage against UVA and say, let's use these teachers and keep them from hosting UVA students to pursue their in-classroom hours. And if we don't get the Federal Executive Institute from UVA, we're going to tell the university

that their students can't teach in our classrooms anymore. It's turned into a lobbying group that is so anti-examination. police. It's turned into a lobbying group that has radicalized the new zoning ordinance to the point of tying it up in lawsuits, to the point of being a laughing stock and

zoning nationally. I don't even recognize what livable CIVO has become. And if you, the viewer, listener, don't push back on this organization and say where you started, okay, I get your launch point, but now with this new zoning ordinance, and now you're trying to stigmatize

Mike Kachis, and now you're trying to attack the council over houseless, homeless management? What are you doing? You're making the community worse. And Nakaya Walker, the former mayor, I'll say it. Her commentary of late has absolutely deranged on social media. It is deranged and out of touch on social media. And I hope she hears what I said. All everyone wants in this community is a sharp,

Charlottesville quality of life where parents can bring their kids to downtown Charlottesville in the evening or where a date night can have and downtown Charleston you can walk from your car to go get some dinner and to drinks and back to your car and feel okay. All we want is safety. We want small businesses to feel supported. Ask the business community in the downtown mall if their revenues are down, if their volume of customers is down. And I want to emphasize this again, and then you jump in here, Judea Wickhauer. The policy that they're discussing is not criminalizing homelessness. And if anyone says they're criminalizing homelessness, you need to push back on them immediately. That's not what's happening here.

They're giving the houseless population a 10-day warning to remove their possessions from public property. As long as there's no danger. If there's danger, they can remove their property right away. And put it in storage. For 60 days, storage. So hear what they're doing here. If a houseless contingent of people or a houseless individual is on public property or a public park, and this man or woman is causing danger, the police can take their possessions away from them and store it for 60 days.

If they're not causing danger, they will give them 10 days notice before they remove their possessions, and then store them for 60 days after the 10 days notice. On top of that, the worst case scenario here is potentially a misdemeanor class four that involves no jail time. Just a fine. Just a fine. Now, Nikaya Walker is trying to spin, oh, you're telling me these houses population has the money to pay the fine? What happens if they don't pay the fine? They're going to throw them in the slammer. That's what she's saying. That's an exaggeration. that's an extreme, that's deranged. That's out of touch, what she's saying.

Out of touch. There's a reason during her term, it was one of the most tumultuous periods in Charlottesville governance in its history. This is called a civil approach to a problem that's percolated into an economic catastrophe, a quality of life conundrum,

and a straight-up safety hazard. Ten days to take your possession off the public property. Don't sleep in the storefronts of private business. can't sleep in the park there's a curfew can't sleep on the mall if you're causing trouble we'll take your possessions from you right away

and then we'll store them for 60 days if what you're doing is causing a safety hazard we're going to prioritize you as you should you know that the the Ravana Trail encampment below Freebridge the feces

and the trash and the alcohol and the drug paraphernalia found there upon removal? Families hike the Rivana Trail by the river under Freebridge and are playing frogger with drug paraphernalia, feces, trash, alcohol. That's not right. Comets coming in quickly. Absolutely, Kyle Irvin, we can get Chief Kottis on the show on Thursday. Judah Wickhauer, the show is yours.

I think, well, I think that, I think that Nakaya Walker and Matthew Gilliken are, I think they're being disingenuous if they're not outright lying. We've got this advocacy alert that outright says it's going to make it illegal to sleep on city property or leave personal property unattended. while the city claims otherwise this is a blatant and unacceptable attempt to criminalize homelessness in Charlottesville. The fact that we haven't even had tonight's meeting yet, and they're already basically alleging what the outcome is going to be, I find troublesome. And the fact of the matter is that we've already discussed most of the, of the way we see things. We know that police chief

conscious is a reasonable person. We know that he doesn't want... He's been in office, he's been police chief long enough for us to have... for us to have a clear vision of who he is and what his police force is.

And there is no evidence to support him turning his police force into a Gestapo group of hob-nail-booted you know thugs. Thugs.

Yeah. I would bet you $100 that he doesn't even want the police to be the people to solve this problem. No, he doesn't. But there needs to be something put in place to deal with the problem. Bingo. Without something in place, we're left with what we have right now,

which is people sleeping in doorways, people going to the bathroom in alleyways. And I'm telling you right now, I've heard through the grapevine from extremely reliable people that the guy that run, the folks that run the Haven over here, have an exit acquisition price to purchase the real estate and the dirt for the Haven. And it's about $5 million. It's in an extremely inflated value for what the actual tangible value of the real estate and

the dirt are, $5 million. And how I was told is I want $5 million to exit this. If not, we're doubling down with what we're doing here. That's too bad. That is leveraging and or extorting the house list to drive real estate values to cause a more expensive exit than what market would suggest. that's how I've been told the situation is not everyone in this scenario

is a genuine player tonight's the meeting and for Lloyd Snook and for Brian Pinkston and Juan Diego Wade and Natalie Oshar and Michael and Michael Payne and Lloyd Snook just walked by He's about to walk through the hallway next to our studio right now.

Well, speaking of the council, this is as significant of a vote that they have ever done. Certainly. This is as significant as a new zoning ordinance. This is as significant as filling a city manager. This is as significant as a real estate tax rate increase. This is as significant as any vote this council has ever done and will, without question, be associated with the,

their legacy in Charlottesville for generations to come. You go mute, or you don't have the courage and gumption to stand up for what's right for the community at large, and you fall, pray to the very small number of people that are going to be pressuring you this evening, the Nakaya Walker contingent and the livable Charlottesville contingent, and this is a sting and a stench that we're going to be pressuring you this will follow you six feet under and longer. And you mark that down. I'm not saying this is going to be etched on your tombstone, but this will be on your Wikipedia page.

This will be on your Wikipedia page for your kids and grandkids to read. Mark that down, counselors. Jim Hingley sends this text. In my 49 years of law practice in this area, this is the Commonwealth attorney texting us here of Almore County. In my 49 years of law practice in this area, I have never seen non-payment of a fine imposed for conviction of a class four misdemeanor result

and a jail sentence for non-payment. Yeah. In my 40th, Commonwealth's attorney, Jim Hingley, in my 49 years of law practice in this area, I've never seen non-payment of a fine. imposed for conviction of a class four misdemeanor result in jail sentence for think about that right they're not criminalizing the homeless here and nobody's going to go shake them down trying to get the money from them if they are fine the

fines are part of the the foundation the structure by which we uphold the law if you have no fine if you have no consequences yeah well there's no enforcement if there's nothing to call something, then how do you enforce it? If there's a speed limit and it's 55 miles an hour and that speed limit's 55 miles an hour and you go 80. And if you do not get a ticket for going 80 in the 55, you get stopped by the police, but there's no consequences once the stop happens, what's going to keep you from going 80 the next day or after the police car leaves the stop? Yeah. And if you continually do it, There's, there's all, yes, there is, there is a way to say, look, we've given you a fine. We've told you not to do this.

Now we have to escalate. Without that, there is nothing you can do. You just say, please stop doing that. Deep throat, and then we are ending the show in four minutes. I have a 1.30 meeting that's important that I have to get to. We're going to talk Chandler Morris starting quarterback. This news just broken. Tony Elliott at his press conference says Chandler Morris will play against NC State Saturday.

The injury where some thought, including me, could have been concussion or a serious shoulder injury. He said Chandler Morris will play and he will ball out. We'll talk tomorrow about Mike Kinnick and Rock Revolution, a fantastic rock climbing gym that is open on Old Ivy. Road, Mike Kinnick, his wife Jessica Kinnick, their daughters, the local owners of Rock Revolution. This is a fantastic business. We'll talk about that and highlight it tomorrow. They had their grand

opening over the weekend. We'll talk the University of Virginia launching a web portal for their search for their 10th president. That portal is now active. So much we can cover on the program. Tonight, City Council will discuss a policy to potentially take Charlestville

back to what it was in 2019 where the houseless population did not have the impact on the community that it does now. And I don't want anyone to take anything out of context here. This is not about lacking empathy. This is not about offering a hand up. But it is absolutely against offering a hand out. Do we need more shelters?

Yes, we do. Should the city in Alamoire County do a joint venture on a houseless shelter in Almaro County because they have the land where there's drug and alcohol counseling, where there's resume services, a laundromat, a computer lab, cots and beds for sleeping where kids and women and men can stay safely?

Absolutely should. Bathrooms, absolutely. Shows. Yes, that should be done. We should literally pull our tax dollars and do this. Our tax dollars should go to this. And I'm not one to tax, but we should do this with our tax dollars. Yeah.

But the solution we have now where anyone can go sleeping nilly-willy anywhere, whether public or private property, there's clients of mind that literally have to do a deal with the houseless population who are sleeping on their personal property under their storefronts of the downtown mall. And these small business owners, I'm talking men and women that are 70 years old and older, 65 years old and older, have to broker a deal with the houseless population. You can't do drugs here. You can't pee here. You can't poop here. You can't drink here. But if you don't do those things, I'll turn a blind eye and let you sleep in my storefront as long as you're gone by 7 a.m.

No one should have to deal with that. Deep throat, it is costly to have the homeless people acting out on the mall, leaving junk in parks, etc. On the other hand, a bed in jail is probably even more expensive. But if we are willing to put homeless people in jail, why not build a low barrier shelter next to the jail? It's not like you are putting a shelter in a residential neighborhood and surely will be cheaper for the city and better for the homeless than the jail. You can't sleep here in the mall. You can come to the shelter next to the jail or you can be in jail.

At least it is a choice. And there is a storage space for your stuff at the shelter. There's the joint venture. Create the Almorel County, City of Charlottesville joint venture down Avon extended. They're already sharing the jail. Let's see what counsel does tonight.

Ladies and gentlemen. and what is one of the most significant policy conversations that five people in local government will have in Charlottesville in generations. I'm going to follow closely, and you should too. And for the Nakaya Walker's and livable Seavilles of the world, enough already. The extent of how you are presenting this, criminalizing homeless, is distasteful and disingenuous. That's the Monday edition of the I Love Seville Show. For Judah Wickhauer, I'm Jerry Miller.

Thank you. Thank you.