The I Love CVille Show With Jerry Miller! - Highlights/Lowlights From City Council Work Session; Work Session: Homeless+Holiday Drive+Encampment

Episode Date: May 15, 2026

The I Love CVille Show headlines: Highlights/Lowlights From City Council Work Session Work Session: Homeless + Holiday Drive + Encampment 100s Of Pounds Of Human Waste Into Rivanna River City Is Years Away From 2000 Holiday Drive Online 2000 Holiday Dr Communication: Listen To How Poor 2000 Holiday Dr Will Cost Taxpayers $20M – $25M Would A “Ward System” Have Prevented The Mark? Subscribe To JerryRatcliffe.com For $8 Per Month 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.

Welcome to the LBSCivo show, guys. My name is Jerry Miller, and thank you kindly for joining us on a Friday afternoon. This, the water cooler of content and conversation in Charlottesville and across Central Virginia, the Commonwealth, the country, and the world. There's a lot we're going to cover on the show. We've had an opportunity to kind of dissect and watch now the Wednesday work session. And that Wednesday work session, Wednesday, May 13th, has been watched by 65. people on YouTube. 65 people have watched a Wednesday work session that had city

counselors, Sam Sanders, and his city hall staff, and three area nonprofits, the Blue Ridge Area Coalition for the Homeless, the Haven, and Patcham meet in person while some folks joined remotely to discuss the state of of homelessness in the city. This past weekend, there was a fire that we've covered closely on the show in alleged arson that required the fire department and the police department to show its presence. The fire department, the police department, of course, are funded by taxpayers. The fire was put out quickly, although firefighters were on site for two hours.

on Saturday evening, almost into Sunday morning. The alleged arson is now being investigated by the police department and the fire department, which of course is more taxpayer resources. Wednesday, two days ago, city council, city hall, police department, fire department, and the three nonprofits that are trying to figure out houselessness or homelessness, they met in person. And we saw in this meeting, which was more than two hours long, a meeting that's been watched by 65 people as of now on YouTube, a meeting that will now be positioned in front of tens of thousands of people on the I Love Sevo show. We saw basically what appears to be just an absolute train wreck of a project.

in this meeting we're going to play highlights and low lights of where the city is and how it's going to impact neighboring almorel county for example out of this meeting we have learned that there is hundreds of pounds of human waste that's making its way into the rivana river every day hundreds of pounds of human waste and i don't want you to take my word for it i'm going to actually play video and audio for documentation from Wednesday's meeting about it. We're also going to play video and audio documentation that identifies us being years away from Holiday Drive coming online and video and audio documentation that we're looking at a level of communication for this project that leaves a lot to be desired, which is an understatement.

This is a $25 million boondoggle most likely. $6.2 million to acquire the dirt. We removed an office building owned by a private entity that was paying taxes to the city off the tax rolls. So the city is not collecting tax dollars on this property anymore. And now the city is finding itself in the position of being a real estate developer as it tries to remodel a 27,000 square foot office building into a homeless. shelter for roughly 80 beds or 80 Coleman sleeping bags and 80 Yeti tumblers. This show, today's program, is an attempt of, is an indication, I should say, of what we're

trying to do with long form content. All the other folks that are producing media don't have the ability or the infrastructure, the talent, the personnel per se, to go long. long-form content like this without interruption. This gives you an opportunity to have nuance through the long-form content. I encourage you to listen to what's going on here. I'm also going to have this topic on the show today. Are we better served in city council or in Charlottesville City having a ward system, much like Almaro County, where supervisors are elected to serve six unique districts? should city council be, should taxpayers, should voters be electing individuals to distinct districts or wards or areas of the city?

I asked that question, and it was a question that came up on our morning show off air. I found it compelling so, so much that I'm going to bring it on air on this show. Would the mark the UVA luxury student tower that's being built, designed, and developed by a private, developer landmark properties, would that have ever materialized, ladies and gentlemen, in Fifeville, a historically black neighborhood? If this historically black neighborhood, Fifell, had a distinct or specific representative on council that served a ward or a district that was encompassing of Fifell? I mean, this point was made earlier to me as well. When Brian Pinkston was on council, you literally had Juan Wade and Brian Pinkston on council.

and they were neighbors, the same neighborhood, two counselors, literally neighbors of each other. You can make a very legitimate argument that the lack of diversity on counsel today is one of the reasons why this luxury student tower in Fifeville is going to rapidly gentrify a historically brown and black community. I want to talk about that on the program. A lot we're going to cover. I want to salute Judah Wickhauer behind the camera for doing yeoman's work today. the morning show ran long, and it ran long because it featured Ned Galloway, the chairman of the Almore County Board of Supervisors, Mike Pruitt, the representative of the Scottsville District on the Almore County Board and Jesse Rutherford, Nelson County, Board of Supervisor. We have three supervisors on our Real Talk show this morning, and we went about 30 minutes beyond time because the content was so good.

If you want to watch a really good show of what's going on in central Virginia in totality from kind of a holistic view, the morning show that was roughly 90 minutes was something that I suggest you watching. And you can find it wherever you get your podcast and content. Judy, you feeling good right now with the content with our channels. I see we're up on LinkedIn. I see we're up on the group, which is good. You've got the headlines in. I want to salute you, sir, for doing a phenomenal job this morning. Thank you.

You cut four highlight clips that we're going to give to the viewers and listeners. You got us online and you got the headlines as well. Consistent as always, and you do it cool and calm under pressure. I appreciate you, Judah. I want to also, you know, start the program here. Are you ready for potentially the first sizzle reel? Yep. Why don't we go?

The fourth one in. Okay, great. Can we go to the studio camera, then a two shot? Unless that's going to keep you from doing your... All right, two shot, my friend. if we could. The sizzle reel that you find most compelling for the viewers and listeners, is it the hundreds of pounds of human waste is entering the Rivana River every day?

That's certainly compelling. Yeah, that's a good one. But, I mean, there's a lot in here, especially, I think, in just in terms of communication, in terms of having a clear view of how and who is paying for what. I think there's definitely some stuff to parse through. We've got newspaper reporters watching the program today.

Radio, media, and TV media watching the program today. Counselor, supervisors, and delegates and lawyers of the elected variety watching the program today. Should we go to the hundred pounds

of human waste? How long is this sizzle reel? It's about about three minutes. This is a three minute long clip. I play this for you not to disgust you, although it's absolutely disgusting

the content that's covered here, but I play this for you for you to truly understand what city council and city hall has done. They have prioritized the convenience of temporary housing encampment housing

for a few hundred people at the absolute what? Poison and stain and and and discuss of the most important tributary in central Virginia. Hundreds of pounds of human waste in the Rivana River every day because of a couple hundred people living on a bridge is the detriment of our overall society here in central Virginia. Okay? So you need to hear this. I'm going to be listening to you in real time. Play that clip in and three and two and one. That's the level. There's immediate responses.

There's midterm responses and long-term responses. So the immediate needs are in regards to what Parks and Rec has begun to do around sanitation. That project has not been completed. There was additional trash installed at the site and two sharp. containers installed near the bridge. And there are really two distinct encampments. One is a free bridge. This is in the floodway.

This is the most dangerous site to camp because when the water floods, as it does regularly, there's rapidly moving water, moving through all of those tent encampments. So that's a critical safety issue site. There's also a distinct encampment at zero east. high the city owned property which is more of like a trail system it's probably like a half mile south of the free bridge um so the city cleanup focused on the free bridge encampment what we have heard is that the trash receptacles aren't sufficient they need more due to the number

of people there um the sharps containers also they could use more and more broadly dispersed through that area and then the most The most critical issue is port-a-potty. And I know Rion and the Parks Department has been working hard to try to site a porta-potty here, but they are not able to get access from the property owners or permission to put a porta-potty anywhere in that area.

And so this is one of the critical public health issues is that people are, and there's human waste everywhere. And that site, they get washed into the risk. river and this is health hazard community interest hazard makes the river less useful so that is a critical need that again whatever the city can do to site portifies in this site as soon as possible that is just the top of the immediate priority list and zero east high needs all of those same facilities they have not they have not there is no plan currently that we're aware of Parks and Rec may be working on this,

to create additional facilities up to zero East High encampment. I don't think this was a very, we heard the cost of this was $5,000 or less for the cleanup at Free Bridge. So this is not a lot of money that City Council needs to allocate to make the necessary, sanitary interventions that are required to complete it free bridge. And again, understanding that the Port-a-Pottie is the missing piece

and additional trash and okay that there was Owen Brennan the executive director of the haven you have hundreds of pounds of human waste going into the Rivena River from what we are now calling

officially as two Judah encampments Judah encampments well would we call them that there's a dad joke right there Two encampments. You want to call them Judah encampments? Is that what you're saying?

No, I don't get, I just didn't get the joke. Two encampments. There are two encampments. Yeah. Judah. We're not going to call him Judah encampments. I was bringing you into the dialogue there. Okay.

Yeah. The one encampment that's under Free Bridge and then the other encampment that's at Zero East High Street. Let's give a history on Zero East High Street for the viewers and listeners. Zero East High Street is land that was previously owned by the Wood family, United Land Company, Wendell Wood, Hunterwood. Zero East High Street is the name of a defunct project in the city of Charlottesville that would have built 245 units in three apartment buildings on land within the floodplain with vehicle access to High Street and Caroline Avenue. Zero East High Street was purchased by the city of Charlottesville for $5.9 million from Southern Ventures LLC, an entity connected to United Land Corporation, which is of the Wendell and Hunter Wood fame. Is there an issue, J-Dubs?

No, no. Seven Development, a development company headed by Bo Carrington, a local developer, had a public developer, had a plan in place to purchase the land from Wendell Wood and United Land Company. But instead of purchasing that land from Wendell Wood, 7 Development, they ended up being essentially cock blocked by the city of Charlottesville. The city of Charlottesville cock blocked 7 development because the neighborhood around 0ease High Street said you shouldn't build three apartment buildings and 245 units in the flood plate. This made Wendell Wood, Hunterwood, and the Wood family even wealthier.

The city's Office of Economic Development is charging Rivana River Company a lease, is leasing part of this property to Rivana River Company. Unbeknownst to the city and perhaps community members, Zero East High Street is now home to a second encampment. And that second encampment at Zero E's High Street, Street is far enough away from the free bridge encampment that the little allocation of financial taxpayer resources, $5,000 to put porter potty at the free bridge encampment to provide needle disposal kits or needle disposal boxes, basically used heroin needles.

I think they call them Sharps containers. Okay, you call them Sharps containers. I say, if you want to shoot the white china into your veins and you're done, chasing the dragon, you dispose of your used syringe in this box as opposed to throwing it on the ground or in the river, which is happening now. The point is this. The second encampment at Zero East High Street is far enough away from the Freebridge encampment that the Porter Potty's are not being used by the Zero East High Street. What? I think the issues are... What do you call the folks that live there? Zero hires. What are the folks that live there? I mean,

at the second encampment, they're not going under the free bridge to use the resources the city put there for dirty needle disposal and porta-potties. Well, they're also saying that there aren't enough porta-potties for the free bridge encampment.

So you see the absolute debacle that we have here, ladies and gentlemen. We now have not one but two, homeless encampments. The one that we know of that is getting the most attention under Freebridge and also a second homeless encampment on Zero East High Street that is land that is owned by the city. I'm just going to ask some very basic questions, a man with a microphone and a platform. The city owns this land. The city knows that an encampment is happening here on land they own. If someone starts a fire on city-owned land, while the city understands that people are

camping and using propane heaters and propane tanks and shooting up dope and heroin and white china into their forearm veins or between their toes, while defecating in the river, urinating in the river, and passing other DNA on the banks and into the river, and something bad happens. Is there any liability there for the city? The city knows folks are using propane heaters. There was a fire last Saturday. The fire chief has told everyone that this is extremely dangerous. The police chief has told everyone that is extremely dangerous.

If a fire originates from land the city owns, from human beings that aren't supposed to live there, but are being allowed to live there, while shooting dope, drinking malt liquor, chasing the dragon, and using propane, open-air fires to cook their dinner while burning trash and whatever disposable materials that are around them and something bad happens from this, is there a liability? Second question I have for you,

how many of you, viewers and listeners, realized that there was a second encampment? Third question I have for you, viewers and listeners, how many of you realized that there were hundreds of pounds of human feces going into the Rivana River every day. Did you know that? I could not have given you exact measurements, but I think the obvious answer is, of course,

hundreds of pounds? It sounds like the porter potty aren't even being used. I mean, I don't know about the hundred pounds part, but yeah, if there aren't enough porta-potties, of course people are using the either digging holes, or using the river. Rivana River company owner Gabe Silver was quoted in that meeting yesterday. He literally is the business owner next door.

And he said in that meeting, right now there's probably hundreds of pounds of human waste hitting the ground all along the river every day. That is, you see, disturbing thought. Do you see that the city has prioritized the well-being and the convenience of a couple of hundred people at the expense in detriment of 48 to 50,000 Charlottesvillians in a region that's roughly 300,000 people strong

that could potentially use the Rivana Trail and the Rivana River in any kind of walking, hiking, running, bicycling, bicycling, kayaking, tubing, floating, swimming capacity. This is the definition, the definition

of malpractice. A couple 100 people's well-being positioned ahead of 48 to 50,000 Charlottesville city dwellers in a region that's nearly 300,000 people strong, a tributary, the most

significant one in the entire region. Now, we have more highlights or low lights from the cliff notes version of Wednesday's city council session that had city hall city council and the nonprofits that are trying to solve this problem all at the same room the same table the next clip that we're going to play judo what what is that clip my friend as you put lower thirds on screen as well let's see it depends which direction we're going but we could talk about when the budget comes through, if ever. Okay, is this the one where we're years away from this materializing?

Yeah. Okay. This is insanity right here, this clip that I'm about to play for you. Do you have it ready to go? I'm going to listen to it with the viewers and listeners in real time as well. Can you play this one? This is from Wednesday's session in three, two, one. The assumption was we are remaining three separate organizations.

So what wasn't clear in that is that it appeared as though each individual budget was presented as what it costs to operate today. The request from the city is for you to co-locate at Holiday Drive. The question is, and what is it that you are asking the city to contribute financially to everything that happened? That did not stand out as an answered question. Again, this is back to Councillor Payne's observation. It's going to take us a while until we can identify what are the gaps in the fundraising. After we do our internal, what are the other places we can raise funds from? So it just seems like it is going to be a while before we have a clear sense of what the operational gap is that we need to fill, whether from the city or from other sources.

Sure. I think that's part of the work. I think that's the clarity that's needed. I would venture to say that it's hard to make a commitment that we're going to work with funding agencies to raise $6 to $9 million to produce a space that we don't know if we can afford to fund. So there has to be some working through of that notion

because the assumption has always been when I pitched this to counsel as the pursuit of this building would be, $6.2 million, I said, we're not paying for the outfit, but you need to be ready to pay for operations. That was not meant in any way to them as in total. But the question is, what share of that? It's a fair question for you to even ask is what I'm saying as well. So having the clarity of that is important because as the manager of the budget, I need to know that too.

And to be able to time that, of course, so that it goes in line. And so, Owen, what I understand, what you all, are saying is that you all are just, you know, trying to answer all our questions and deal with this. You really haven't had time with your different organizations to go back and determine, like, we don't know what this change, how this change is going to impact our fundraising, what we typically do and things. So we don't know how much money we'll be able to bring to the table. Is that what I'm hearing? Well, I guess just to speak from the Haven's perspective, because again, we all have our budgeting processes,

but if we're talking about three years in the future, I'd shorten that. Okay. So this is another, again, knowing what is the timeline that we're working on shifts the urgency. Based on our sort of the information that we've gotten from our sources, we're hearing two to three years. But if there's other information, we absolutely need that. And I guess I would put a pin in the budget conversation and add that to the last item as far as like action items coming away for the COC.

That's what I'm highlighting. That's exactly what I'm suggesting is that the operating plan, the budget, yes, those are those are important matters. Referencing a project. Okay. I'm playing you that clip, which I'm listening to. I'm back on air now. Yeah. I'm playing you that clip to help you understand that there is legitimately, there's no money here.

They don't know where it's coming from. There's no money here for Holiday Drive, or at least they don't know where it's coming from. You saw the city manager Sam Sanders say to the nonprofits from Blue Ridge Area Coalition from the homeless, the Haven and Patcham, that when I purchased, the city purchased Holiday Drive, our intent was not to then upfitted and outfitted and continue financially contributing to it. And then you saw that Blue Ridge Area Coalition for the homeless in the Haven in Patcham said back to the city manager that, well, we don't have this money. We're not sure where it's going to come from. Do you understand viewers and listeners the absolute boondoggle and money pit that this is?

They don't know where the money is coming from for this project. I'm not sure they know how much the project is going to cost. They don't know. Go ahead. And so, yeah, more than just whether or not we can get the money, whether or not these three groups can get the money, is how much is it going to cost and who's going to end up paying for it? And if it goes over cost, is that just, do we just consider that lost? Is that just, what is it, the lost?

uh, opportunities. Opportunity costs? Yeah. Well, who does the money come from? If it goes way over cost, if it keeps going over cost,

when does it become, you know, that's why you have a plan so that you don't get to this point before you start building, right? You have, you have nonprofits in the homelessness space

whose business model, a nonprofit is a business, whose business model is to monetize homeless, Nonprofits in the homelessness category are raising money to serve homelessness. It's no difference than a business consultant like yours truly, a firm that's a consultancy that's offering services from a funding, real estate, market share expansion, strategy, positioning expansion.

I serve clients in a space. I'm driving revenue in this space. Brack, Patcham, the Haven are driving fundraising dollars in the space of homelessness. It is a capitalistic endeavor. And they're clearly soliciting or trying to solicit dollars of Sam Sanders and counsel to fund positions and efforts because in their current coffers or budget,

they don't have the money to bring this online. So I have two more clips in this Cliff Notes version of Wednesday's meeting that we're going to play for you, the viewer and listener, before we take your comments, questions, and relay your perspective live on air. Judah, can you set the stage, please, for the third clip? Do we have two more clips? Two more clips?

I'd say this one is closely related to the, the one we just played, which brings up the question, who pays? Who's paying for it? We're trying to figure out where the money is coming from for a project that is years away at the earliest, money from entities that need that money to pay their personnel first before they use it on any altruistic or philanthropic endeavors, all while not one encampment,

but two encampments are growing in momentum, all while not one encampment, but two encampments are growing in human feces into the Rivana River, dirty syringes and needles in the river and on the banks of the river, and while an alleged arson was committed this past weekend,

a fire under a bridge that transports on average daily 20,000 vehicles per day into the city. This is an absolute nightmare. There's a third clip we're going to play for you the viewer and listener. Do you have that ready to go? I'm going to listen to it with the viewers and listeners in real time. Can you play it in three, two, one? So there's been a lot of ongoing conversations in that regard. There have been a number of questions and concerns about

how do we pay for it alternatively. If it's not only philanthropic, there has been engagement of UVA in addition to what was presented as a part of the vision that was presented by the low area shelter group. to see is their interest in their spending dollars on this. We heard a number of responses, so there's still work to be done in that space. So I can acknowledge that yes, there hasn't been further engagement,

and that was not a knock or slight in any way. That was, we received the vision that was requested and we now were working that vision. In addition to that, there have been considerable internal conversations. This team and others that are in the room have all been a part of how do we look at this particular issue as what is our way for operationalizing a city response.

I think I've heard from these five individuals that we can't continue to not be a part, more actively a part of the response. And then the question is, what does that look like? So we have not gotten to a place of being able to say that we know exactly what that looks like at this present time, but she's sitting next to me because she's helping me figure some things out.

So I can honestly acknowledge that that work is ongoing, and we even met this week and have met, how many times you've seen me in the past month now. But we are digging into this because I think the acknowledgement is mutual that we need to strengthen the connection. And I think that's really what the focus is. Two quick questions in response to that. Well, one's an observation,

but we have a number of identified touch points that we would love to find places for city staff and COC to, work on these discrete projects. And then on the funding side, I know that the state was interested in funding the Salvation Army Center of Hope project. Has there been any engagement with state senator representatives to forward that?

Always, yes. Confidently, yes. Great. But there's no guarantee at this moment with the state budget being stuck. We're not receiving any confidence of. what that's going to end up coming out to be. I have continually inquired about it because I have also wanted to make sure, and I'll say it again publicly,

that I wanted to make sure that we express the support for the Salvation Army's capital campaign from the city's perspective, because it was also communicated to me publicly that some thought that because we started activating this conversation about the low barrier shelter, that that meant somehow we did not support the Salvation Army's expansion. It is both things that we are very much. much in support of because again, as you look at the slide and the scope of our needs,

we know that we need both of those things and then some. So I'll say that again, this is not all that we have to work on to address this issue. We have to continue to do more than that. So I think that's we can continue to cross our fingers and hope that out of the budget session we get something that lands and sticks, but there's nothing that I've been given in a way of confidence that we will get anything. I spoke with Senator Deeds today, and he basically said don't expect anything until the end of June. Yeah.

And that's the latest that I've heard is that we should not expect that the budget will come together by then. So that impacts a number of things that we've been monitoring. Okay. That's the third highlight clip. We have four total, so one more to go. In that scenario, you clearly see funding is an issue. In that clip we just played, you clearly see the city is going to shake down UVA in Almaro County for funding.

And how the shakedown is going to work is this. Homeless are transient. If you don't help us with Holiday Drive in this $20 to $25 million boondoggle, these homeless may go to your lawn in your academic village and your grounds, or they may go into your Jack Jewett District, your Ryo District, your Scottsville District. That's how the shakedown is going to work. it's going to be a scare tactic negotiation shakedown to figure out a way to make up a funding gap

that's would seem to me 6.2 million's been paid and now they need an additional 14 to 19 million that they don't have also noteworthy from that clip the mention of the Salvation Army the Salvation Army is in the middle of a capital campaign for high barrier shelter, high barrier shelter on Ridge Street, a high barrier shelter on Ridge Street. We're talking $28 million. Of that $28 million, 1718 has been raised. A board member Matt Green from the Salvation Army will join us on the show next week to talk about this campaign. Matt Green is a Salvation Army board member. We're going to discuss the 17, 18 million they've raised, the gap they need to close, the expectations for the Ridge Street location.

He is also a commercial real estate broker. He's a friend of mine, a great guy. We'll talk economic, the economy, market trends, real estate, Charlottesville and Alamara, all things. It's going to be a compelling interview on Thursday, May 21 with Matt Green. The city, I need to highlight. this is launched or has launched a $6.2 million purchase or has purchased Holiday Drive for $6.2 million and is now trying to fund or fundraise or draw attention to a low barrier shelter at the exact very same time that the Salvation Army is trying to raise $28 million.

There are competing or conflicting efforts. There's only so much state money to go around. There's only so much city money to go around. Al-Morrow County resources to go around, UVA resources to go around, Charlottesville resources to go around, private donor resources to go around, nonprofit resources to go around. This homeless shelter on Holiday Drive was launched at the exact very same time that a planned, organized, well-executed, proof of performance,

backed by data, empirical evidence in history, Salvation Army effort was on the calendar well beforehand. Timing or lack thereof is the point I'm making here. I'm going to play one more clip on the show from Wednesday's work session with City Hall, City Council, and the nonprofit groups. that are trying to solve homelessness. This clearly is a communication fiasco. Is the last clip about communication?

Yeah. And this clip is it, and this clip is it Miss Washington from Brack who's talking here? She may start off talking. I believe it's largely Brennan. Okay. And this clip, you will literally hear how the nonprofits are telling city council

that it's your fault that we are in this position where nothing has been done. The purchase was made in the fourth quarter of last year. Early Q4 2025, the city spent $6.2 million on a 27,000 square foot office building. Early Q4, 2025. Here you're going to hear the nonprofits throw city council under the bus saying,

hey, you haven't been communicating with us. You haven't given us any direction. It's your fault that in seven months, Dick has been done. Get ready. And three, two, one. Okay, great. So I'll kick off number three. And again, this is, you know, from the CEC's perspective, I think this is the issue,

sort of a structural issue that impacts all of the others. And it's how are the city staff, the COC agencies and city council, communicating with each other, updating each other on what progress is being made. In our observation, we were working really closely, really well with the city through phase one of the low barrier shelter design project, through phase two of the low barrier shelter design project. And then we had a, you know, the presentation on March 25th to you all in this room and walked away without clear action steps of who is owning what next. And then there were no touch points for the next month and a half.

And I do think that that resulted in a lot of confusion. And so the first thing that we would love to address is what are the structured touch points that we need between the COC and city staff and end city council, if city council is able to participate in some of those touch points? And if city council members are not, what's the best communication on like a monthly, basis to update city council about those touch points. I guess from the COC's perspective, we would like to request by monthly meetings with one rep from the city, one decision maker from the city who city manager appoints as their representative. And we would love to have one city council member as well present for those meetings. So you're saying touch points.

on the status of the lowberry shelter or everything on this list? Everything on this list. And you say a month? I said twice a month. What you said was by month. I'm sorry. Yeah. Yeah.

Twice a month. Yes. So every two weeks, it sounds even better for me. So because that that sounds about right. Right. Yeah. Okay.

I'm in absolute disbelief here. I've an absolute disbelief here. Are you not in disbelief here? I'm amazed that they're starting to communicate now. What did you just see right there from your standpoint? And then I'll all from my standpoint. From my standpoint, I mean, there's no organization. There's no organization.

I don't think there's anyone in charge. There's no one in charge. Everyone's asking who else is. in charge. 100%. And when it came down to it, one person came forward and Brennan, I believe, said, look, we need to communicate. I'm going to use a restaurant metaphor, a restaurant metaphor, a back of the house,

restaurant metaphor. Help pay my way through college while working in restaurants. most notably Ruby Tuesdays in Barracks Road, worked in six different restaurants over the course of my time on this planet. I'll use a back-of-the-house restaurant metaphor. With homelessness in Charlottesville City specifically, you have a bunch of line cooks

that are trying to solve a problem. You have line cooks, Blue Ridge Area Coalition of the homeless, line cooks, Patcham, Line Cooks, the Haven, Line Cooks, City Hall, Line Cooks, City Council. And these line cooks are trying to roll out a brand new menu. And these line cooks, as they roll out the brand new menu and solve the problem of rolling out the brand new menu, Holiday Drive, lack any kind of leadership or direction from an executive chef, a sous chef, and an expo.

So as all the line cooks are rolling out a new menu with no direction from an executive chef, sous chef, or an expo, all they're doing is getting in each other's way or not listening to them or working in silos or individually or as opposed to a cohesive unit. And as a result, this new menu that's supposed to be rolled out, 2000 Holiday Drive, nothing has materialized. and currently, and now I'm going to weave, I'm going to weave in your comments and your questions and your perspective viewers and listeners. Currently, in conclusion, and as a summary, here's what we know following Wednesday's meeting. There's not one, but two homeless encampments now.

There's the one that we will moniker Freebridge, and then there's the other, which we will dub Zero East High Street. of those two encampments the $5,000 the city allocated and taxpayer resources to clean up the encampment to provide dirty needle heroin needle disposal kits and porter potty's and cleanup services to the encampment that has absolutely backfired and failed there's not enough porter potties there's not enough white china syringe kits there is not enough cleanliness done and as a result we have hundreds of pounds of human feces every day going into the Rivana River. We have dirty syringes every day going into the Rivana River. We have an alleged arson that took place.

And we have the homeless that are burning trash and plastic to cook their food in a public setting, all while using propane heaters and propane tanks and completely zipped tents to keep themselves warm while sleeping next to blankets and sleeping bags. The propane tanks on top of sleeping bags and blankets. We have three nonprofits that have put budgets together that are for their own respective nonprofits and not budgets that work holistically with each other's other budgets to execute or materialize a holiday drive shelter

that's best for the community. We have a city manager, that's telling the nonprofits, we're not going to contribute any more money to this shelter. We have nonprofits telling the city manager. We don't have the money to do anything with this homeless shelter. We have one nonprofit telling the city manager and city council, we are years away from this homeless shelter coming online.

Am I missing anything? We have the fire chief saying this is as dangerous a situation as we have in Charlottesville right now. there was an alleged arson that took place. Am I missing anything? And we have Almarle County and the University of Virginia that are on the cusp of being shaken down to contribute to this project.

I asked this question, now I open it up for comments. I ask this question, if Charlottesville City owns zero East High Street, and Charlottesville City knows that there are dozens, if not a hundred or more people camping on land that it owns, And the dozens, if not a hundred or more people that are camping on Zero East High Street are defecating in the river, throwing dirty syringes in the river,

and using propane tanks and propane heaters inside zipped tents next to blankets and sleeping bags. If something terrible were to happen like a spread fire or someone were to die, is the city liable? Deep throat offers some analysis. On the topic of liability, I don't know. the exact legalities of that, but if someone wanted to, pun intended, light a fire under the city, all they would need to do is to reach out to Charlottesville City's

insurance provider, the Virginia Risk Sharing Association. A phone call to the Virginia Risk Sharing Association asking the provider of insurance if they feel comfortable providing liability coverage under the current conditions of city own land where heroin is being used, fires are being lit, people are defecating in the river, and tents are home to propane heaters with blankets and sleeping bags next to the open flames and the propane heaters. Furthermore, he says, one could make a phone call to the Virginia Department of Environmental Quality and ask him how they feel about hundreds of pounds

of human feces being dumped into a waterway. Very interesting. Lynn Snyder is watching the program. I believe this is one of her first comments. The reasons this is so wrong, the list is endless, and the solution is so obvious. Holiday Drive. It does not need a study or a consultant.

It just needs to have its doors open where people can live. That was actually one thing that was discussed on Wednesday. can we use holiday drive as an interim solution for people sleeping there? And then one of the nonprofits said, well, if we use this as an interim solution, then we won't be able to use this for our staff, the nonprofits, because we were initially going to use this holiday drive as a place for our headquarters and our offices. And we thought that was the best use of this facility, having our offices here instead of the home and the housing for the homeless that are sleeping outside.

we wanted to put our team and our personnel inside this building first. Can you make that make sense for me? Probably not. Barbara Becker-Tilly is watching the program. In New York City, they labeled a Park Needle Park. It's now known as Brian Park. Do we need to look at the history of that park? Hank Martin watching the program.

Did you not just play a clip a week or so ago? Where in that clip? It was stated that the finances raised thus far were only for administrative and personnel and not towards the physical infrastructure needs. Yes, last week we played a clip where the non-pro- I don't think it was that good because they said when we get the money, it's immediately going to go towards staffing. That was in a city council meeting. You're exactly right. When there's money allocated to us, the first thing we're going to do is use it to pay ourselves and our staff.

Ellen Adams is very direct with her comments. Sam Sanders, the city manager, needs to go. First the encampment at the park. Now two encampments on the river. Sam Sanders is in over his head. Here comes California to Charlottesville. Build it and they will come. This is beyond ridiculous.

And the crazy thing is there's no really other, there were 65 views of that YouTube video. If we don't put this in front of thousands of people today on the I Love Seville show, Wednesday's session, for the most part, goes completely uncovered. I want you to think about that. My primary job in how I pay my bills is not doing this. While this has turned into a pretty hefty six-figure revenue stream, this is not us.

Vanessa Parkhill, usually those in charge are the ones with the money, since no one seems to be bringing any money to the table, leadership is obviously extremely unclear. Interesting. Who would want to be the point of contact for this? Who would want to be the shot caller for this? No, no, like for real.

Who would want to be the shot caller for this? Is there anything you want to add here at the one, 30 marker of Friday show. I think everyone's insane. We are years away from this. There's no money to fund it. We took the property off the tax rolls. The nonprofits are in over their head.

The city manager is asking the nonprofits to take the charge. City Council now realizes, if you saw their faces on council, you realize, Jesus, what have we gotten ourselves into? And what should have been done all along is banning public camping and banning the storage of possessions. There are thousands of cities and jurisdictions across America that don't allow the camping in public places, public parks, rivers, under bridges.

And there's thousands of places in America, jurisdictions, cities, and towns that don't allow the homeless to camp on land that the city actually owns Zero East High Street. we city hall city council allowed a couple of hundred people that are transient and overwhelmingly not originally from charlottesville and almore county to be prioritized ahead of a population of charlottesvillians that is around 48,000 people in a region central virginia that is 300,000 strong. when leadership allows a couple of hundred people who are not from the area and large majority to be positioned in priority and resource ahead of 48,000 taxpayers in a region that's 300,000 people strong, that's called malpractice at its absolute kindness. What it's really called is the foundation for firing and pink slips. and if there's only, if there's any saving grace to any of this, any saving grace to any of this,

is the houseless population is no longer on the downtown mall. And it just happened to coincide with the 50-year anniversary of the downtown mall, which is going to be celebrated in less than a month. And the 250-year anniversary of the bicentennial, of the birth of America, and UVA graduation, which is happening this weekend. you have a Pandora's box that was opened and that box became such a problem that it is now no longer controllable

or manageable. Hour and two minutes into the show. I didn't have a opportunity to talk about a topic from yesterday that we did not cover who's the most liked counselor on the dais right now and the most disliked counselor. Good God. Maybe we'll save that for next week.

Also, I think we should say for next week, this whole concept of a ward or a vote for counselors in the city based on certain districts or wards or areas, like Almar County's board of supervisors has. They have six people that represent six districts in Almara County. Charlottesville City Council, it's all at large. It was presented to me earlier this morning by someone extremely in the know that if there was a ward system or a district system in Charlottesville City specifically that the fight the mark the the the private developer that's bringing uh an apartment tower to fifeville a historically

black and brown and marginalized community that if there was a district if there was a ward system that we would never have had um seven stories 180 units and 770 beds because fifeville would have had an advocate that would have been able to go balls to the wall all along from the platform, from the dyes, and said, this is wrong, this is wrong, this is wrong, this is wrong. Instead, what you have is five white people. This past council, you had Juan Wade and Brian Pinkston that were next door neighbors. That live literally next door neighbors in the same neighborhood. Excuse me, you have four white people on council now.

So the district or ward system, would that have prevented the mark from materializing? These are uncomfortable conversations, but there are uncomfortable conversations that pretty much think we should have. And unfortunately, no one else is doing this. We'll give some attention to Charlottesville Sanitary Supply and Charlottesville Swimming Pool Company to close the show. If you're doing anything swimming pool related, including swimming pool construction, swimming pool cleaning, swimming pool robots for cleaning your pools, water testing, pool shade or pool covers.

Check out Charlottesville, Charlottesville Swimmingpool Company.com. Charlottesville Swimmingpool Company.com. It's one of the divisions of the Vermillion family who've been in business for 62 years. They know swimming pools like the Pope knows holy water. And Charlottesville Sanitary Supply sells anything and everything cleaning related.

Anything and everything, Mila vacuum in general. And anything and everything, Bona wood floors related, staining and cleaning and coloring of floors. 62 years in operation speaks for itself and two men, John and Andrew Vermilion, who are honest, honest as the day is long. Honest as the day is long. Thank you for watching the program. It's graduation weekend.

Tread carefully. For Judah Wickhauer, my name is Jerry Miller.