Petersburg Council hears new initiative for handling its homeless
PETERSBUG — "A Plan to Address Homelessness" is one of several items listed on Petersburg City Council's upcoming work session agenda.
City Council agreed to the sale of the former Salvation Army Homeless Shelter last week. Petersburg has been without a place to house its homeless since that building closed in 2017.
The agenda says that a report on the plan is up for discussion. The 104-page plan includes a number of adjustments that could both aid current homeless people, and help stop people from falling into homelessness.
More: 03-01-2022 Work Session Agenda
Part of what's being put forward is called "The Humanities Bill." It talks about establishing one day for all evictions cases in the city's court system. A social worker would be appointed to help families either find new housing, or stay in the current residence.
A second part of the plan proposes using the former Southside Virginia Training Center as a place to house the homeless. The property is located in Dinwiddie County, with a Petersburg address, and is owned by the State.
The report calls for the use of this facility to be adopted by the region, and for the costs to be shared among the region.
The property has several cottages with two and four bedroom apartments, plus three other buildings with apartments and office space. One buildings has housing for at least 19 people with amenities like kitchen space, while the other building is described as having several wings.
City Council meetings can be viewed live through the city's public meetings page. You can also join directly to the City Council's Zoom meeting as an observer at this link. The work session is scheduled to start at 5 p.m. on Tuesday March 1.
Before the work session, City Council will be hosting its special meeting consider Mayor Sam Parham reconsidering his vote for the ward maps.
At last week's regular meeting, Parham was one of four councilors who voted to pass Map Scenario 6. Parham first began the voting by offering up approval for Map Scenario 10, which failed in a tied 3-3 vote.
More: Last-minute vote change by Petersburg mayor delays final decision on city redistricting
Parham motioned to reconsider his vote to approve Map Scenario 6 just before the end of the meeting. Scenario 6 passed by a 4-2 vote, meaning that if he changes his vote, Map 6 will also fail to pass.
The special meeting is scheduled for Noon on Tuesday March 1. The meeting can be viewed publicly through the city's live meetings page or joined directly through the city's Zoom link.
You can reach Sean Jones at sjones@progress-index.com. Follow him at @SeanJones_PI. Follow The Progress-Index on Twitter at @ProgressIndex.
This article originally appeared on The Progress-Index: Preview: Petersburg Council hears report to 'eradicate' homelessness
