Charlottesville Capstone Report
Table of Contents
List of Data Sources
Introduction
In 2023, the City of Charlottesville, VA partnered with the City Health Dashboard (CHDB) to better understand and address the impacts of historical community disinvestment on present-day health and socioeconomic outcomes. This partnership was facilitated by the National League of Cities’ (NLC) Capstone Challenge, an 8-month program to connect NLC’s strategic sponsors with member cities to create local solutions for member needs. In response to rising rental costs, the City of Charlottesville, VA City Council recently approved a large investment to improve housing affordability. The interdisciplinary Capstone team, led by the Deputy City Manager for Racial, Equity, Diversity, and Inclusion, wanted CHDB support to make the connection between housing and health in order to guide the City as they seek to allocate this funding across the community in a fair but data-driven, manner.
What are racial covenants?
Racial covenants and community disinvestment have emerged as key historic drivers of present-day health and socioeconomic disparities and neighborhood residential segregation.
Racial covenants were legally-binding, restrictive clauses that were inserted into property deeds to prevent people who were not White (or not considered White) from owning or occupying land. Widely used throughout the country beginning in the 1920s, including in Charlottesville, racial covenants established systematic and disproportionate barriers to homeownership on the part of Black and other non-White residents and significantly devalued the homes and neighborhoods in which they could acquire property. Though outlawed in 1948, these racial restrictions were a powerful tool in creating racial inequities in home ownership and associated wealth that have continued to impact the health and welfare of excluded Black and other non-White communities to this day.
Many neighborhoods in which racial covenants were common continue to be invested in by the local government. While excluded neighborhoods suffer from systemic disinvestment, neighborhood racial residential segregation, income and wealth gaps, and poor housing quality. This is likely the case in Charlottesville as well, although maps depicting the specific locations of racial covenants in Charlottesville are not available. There is a local initiative to collect those covenants that will be critical to continuing to understand their impact in the future. To better understand the legacy of such practices, this report presents current neighborhood-level data on racial/ethnic demographics, as well as a number of health, housing, and socioeconomic metrics available on the City Health Dashboard website and provided by the City of Charlottesville. This information can help us understand the association between the racial/ethnic or economic makeup of neighborhoods and evidence of community disinvestment and health gaps. Though we cannot make claims indicating that the historic racial covenants are causing present-day disparities in housing, wealth building, or health, we also cannot talk about these complex challenges without understanding and acknowledging the history that got us here and how racial restrictions may have come into play.
Understanding Charlottesville's Neighborhoods
The data used in this report were analyzed at the census tract level, as is standard in public health research. This map presents the neighborhoods and census tracts in Charlottesville. In some cases, census tracts align almost perfectly with Charlottesville’s neighborhood boundaries, as seen in Jefferson Park Avenue (JPA), Belmont, and Fifeville. Other times, though, census tract boundaries do not totally match with how local residents think of neighborhoods. For example, one census tract sometimes includes multiple neighborhoods, as is the case with Martha Jefferson and Woolen Mills.
Note: This map is interactive. You can zoom in and hover over neighborhoods for more information, and can toggle census tracts on and off in the bottom right.
This map provides neighborhood-level racial/ethnic breakdowns for the four major racial/ethnic categories (Asian, Black, Hispanic, White) for Charlottesville. Lighter greens indicate lower concentrations of a specific racial/ethnic group, while deeper greens indicate a higher concentration. Charlottesville's Black community is more heavily concentrated in the southern part of the city, particularly in 10th and Page, Fifeville, Ridge Street, and Belmont while the White population is more heavily concentrated In Locust Grove, Downtown, Venable, and Barracks/Rugby.
Note: This map is interactive. You can zoom in and hover over neighborhoods for more information, and can toggle between different racial/ethnic groups.
Capturing Socioeconomic Advantage and Educational Attainment
The following maps present neighborhood-level poverty and credit insecurity in Charlottesville. The Credit Insecurity Index reflects the proportion of local residents who have limited access to credit on a scale of 1-100, either because they have no credit history or a poor one (higher scores signal greater levels of insecurity).
For both of these maps, deeper blues indicate poorer outcomes (greater levels of poverty and credit insecurity). Greater levels of poverty and credit insecurity can be found in JPA (driven by a large student population), 10th and Page, Fifeville and Rose Hill.
This map illustrates the percentage of Charlottesville residents who have attained a high school diploma or equivalent, or higher degree. Deeper colors indicate lower levels of high school completion. Fifeville, Belmont, and 10th and Page have lower percentages of residents graduating from high school.
Note: These maps are interactive. You can zoom in and hover over neighborhoods for more information!
Higher-income, access to credit, and educational attainment are good markers of community financial health and resiliency, and are closely linked to the health, well-being, and potential wealth building opportunities of individuals and populations. However, African Americans and other people of color have been disproportionately and systematically excluded from these advantages due to discriminatory practices like racial covenants and racist lending practices. In Charlottesville, the neighborhoods that are struggling with greater levels of poverty and credit insecurity and lower levels of high school completion also tend to be the neighborhoods with the largest proportion of African-American residents.
Housing in Charlottesville
Housing Choice Voucher (HCV) Program
Comparing Housing Choice Voucher Recipients and Rent Burden
This map presents the neighborhood-level rental voucher recipients (purple shapes) overlaid with the City Health Dashboard Rent Burden metric (red dots). Across both metrics, lighter colors indicate lower numbers and deeper colors indicate higher numbers. Though some neighborhoods in which a greater number of households are receiving rental vouchers also have high levels of rent burden (in Belmont, Fifeville, and Ridge Street), as we might expect, that pattern does not always hold. In Barracks, Rugby, and Lewis Mountain, for example, fewer families are receiving rental assistance, yet a higher percentage of households are spending 30% or more of their income on rent.
Note: This map is interactive. You can zoom in and hover over neighborhoods for more information, and can toggle rental voucher recipients or rent burden on and off in the top right.
Comparing Housing Choice Voucher Recipients and Frequent Mental Distress
This map presents the neighborhood-level Frequent Mental Distress rates from the City Health Dashboard (orange shapes) overlaid with rental voucher recipients (purple dots). Across both metrics, lighter colors indicate lower numbers and deeper colors indicate higher numbers. Though the pattern does not always hold, in neighborhoods with higher rates of residents reporting poor mental health, there tend to be more households seeking rental assistance.
Note: This map is interactive. You can zoom in and hover over neighborhoods for more information, and can toggle rental voucher recipients or Frequent Mental Distress on and off in the top right.
Comparing Housing Choice Voucher Recipients and EMS Dispatches for Opioid Overdoses
This map presents the average annual Charlottesville EMS dispatches for opioid overdoses per 10,000 population (orange shapes) overlaid with rental voucher recipients (purple dots). Across both metrics, lighter colors indicate lower numbers and deeper colors indicate higher numbers. Belmont and Ridge Street are experiencing a greater number of opioid overdoses, and also tend to have higher rates of households receiving rental vouchers.
Note: This map is interactive. You can zoom in and hover over neighborhoods for more information, and can toggle rental voucher recipients or opioid overdose dispatches on and off in the top right.
Pathways Funds Recipients
Comparing Pathways Funds Recipients and Rent Burden
This map presents the neighborhood-level Pathways Funding recipients (purple shapes) overlaid with the City Health Dashboard Rent Burden metric (red dots). Across both metrics, lighter colors indicate lower numbers and deeper colors indicate higher numbers. Though there are neighborhoods with a greater number of households receiving Pathways financial assistance and higher rates of rent burden, there are multiple neighborhoods where that is not the case. Barracks, Rugby, and Lewis Mountain all have a lower number of families receiving financial rental assistance but a higher percentage of households spending 30% or more of their income on rent.
Note: This map is interactive. You can zoom in and hover over neighborhoods for more information, and can toggle Pathways Funding recipients or Rent Burden on and off in the top right.
Pathways Funding by Race
This map presents the neighborhood-level Pathways Funding recipients (purple shapes) overlaid with the White population (blue dots). Across both metrics, lighter colors indicate lower numbers and deeper colors indicate higher numbers. Generally, in neighborhoods with more households receiving financial rental assistance, the proportion of White residents tends to be lower. However, in Belmont, Greenbrier, and the Meadows there is an opposite trend – higher numbers of residents receiving Pathways funds and higher rates of White populations.
This map presents the neighborhood-level Pathways Funding recipients (purple shapes) overlaid with the proportion of the population that identifies as African American (blue dots) in Charlottesville. Across both metrics, lighter colors indicate lower numbers and deeper colors indicate higher numbers. What the data reveals is that in the City of Charlottesville, there is an association between race and financial assistance. This may not be surprising given that the average median income of a household who identifies as African-American in the City is roughly $39,421 whereas the average median income in the City for a White family was $85,522 in 2021.
Note: These maps are interactive. You can zoom in and hover over neighborhoods for more information, and can toggle Pathways recipients or the Black population on and off in the top right.
Health Outcomes in Charlottesville
Comparing EMS Dispatches for Opioid Overdoses and Frequent Mental Distress
This map presents the average annual Charlottesville EMS dispatched for opioid overdoses per 10,000 population (orange shapes) overlaid with Frequent Mental Distress data (green dots). Across both metrics, lighter colors indicate lower numbers and deeper colors indicate higher numbers. In Ridge Street, 19% of residents reported frequent poor mental days, and there were ~21 opioid overdose EMS dispatches per 10,000 population. In North Downtown and parts of Starr Hill, 13% of residents reported frequent poor mental days, and there were ~22 opioid overdose EMS dispatches per 10,000 population.
Comparing EMS Dispatches for Cardiac Arrests and Diabetes
This map presents the average annual Charlottesville EMS dispatched for cardiac arrest per 10,000 population (orange shapes) overlaid with Diabetes data from the City Health Dashboard (green dots). Across both metrics, lighter colors indicate lower numbers and deeper colors indicate higher numbers. In Ridge Street, ~13% of residents reported having diabetes, and there were 19 cardiac arrest EMS dispatches per 10,000 population. In The Meadows and Greenbrier, 11% of residents reported having diabetes, and there were ~22 cardiac arrest EMS dispatches per 10,000 population.
Comparing Walkability and Diabetes
This map presents neighborhood-level Diabetes rates (orange shapes) overlaid with Walkability (purple dots). Across both metrics, lighter colors indicate better outcomes and deeper colors indicate poorer outcomes. Ridge Street, Fifeville, The Meadows, and the Greenbrier are neighborhoods with less walkable neighborhoods, and they have higher diabetes rates. Interestingly, Belmont has a higher diabetes rate at 8%, while also being very walkable.
Comparing Poverty and Life Expectancy
This map presents neighborhood-level life expectancy (orange shapes) overlaid with Poverty data from the City Health Dashboard (purple dots). The grayed-out census tracts do not have data available for life expectancy. Across both metrics, lighter colors indicate better outcomes and deeper colors indicate poorer outcomes. North Downtown and Starr Hill have 8% of their residents living below poverty level, and are experiencing an average life expectancy of 82.5 years.