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Speaker's Bio: Kelly Eplee has focused on supporting a variety of non-profit organizations with hand-on projects. Through his nearly four decades, he has learned to speak French, Spanish, and Haitian Creole and has served a wide range of local and international neighbors..

Kelly returned to Habitat for Humanity of Greater Charlottesville in late 2018 to assist in fundraising for mixed-income neighborhood development in the City and County, especially campaigning to redevelop Southwood Trailer Park on 5th Street Extended. Southwood is a mobile home park of 342 trailers and 1,500 residents, redeveloping with the goal of building affordable housing and replacing the current trailers, without evicting current residents. Habitat for Humanity of Greater Charlottesville 2020 Film - YouTube
In 2018 Kelly retired from the Building Goodness Foundation supporting skilled volunteers -designing, developing and building schools and clinics after earthquakes and Hurricanes in Haiti and Central America. For nine years In partnership with NGOs in Haiti and Central America, BGF constructed more than 1,000 homes with the displaced and 23 community centers, clinics and schools. Kelly is functionally fluent in French, Spanish and Haitian Creole. Note that about a year ago we had a presentation about the Building Goodness Foundation from Jack Horn and learned about the challenges of managing projects with volunteers.

Eplee has been in nonprofit management and leadership for 38 years both locally and internationally. He began his career as an American Baptist pastor and eventually became involved in the leadership of community organizations that organize residents and skilled volunteers to accomplish housing, medical and educational programs. He has served with Habitat for Humanity International, Madison House at UVA, AIDS/HIV Services Group, Building Goodness Foundation and Habitat for Humanity of Greater Charlottesville.

Seminar Desciprtion: Communication and Collaboration among Diverse Stakeholder Groups

Habitat is implementing a national model, community-based redevelopment process at Southwood Mobile Home Park. Southwood is currently home to 1,500 people in 341 trailers on 120 acres, and like many trailer parks across the nation, aging infrastructure, tenure insecurity, severe development pressure and a housing stock that was largely built prior to HUD safety standards, mean that this vibrant community of hard-working families was on the brink of permanent erasure prior to Habitat’s purchase of the property in 2007.

Through the process of physical redevelopment, Southwood will be transformed into a sustainable, mixed-income, mixed-use village without resident displacement, transferring physical and emotional ownership of the neighborhood to the families and neighbors that call it home. Central to the process at Southwood is authentic and intensive engagement with residents to provide them with the necessary information to make intelligent decisions about the future of their community. This focus on listening first requires putting aside assumptions and predetermined solutions for the neighborhood, approaching master planning as a process rather than a product.

At full build-out, Southwood will include amenities to support the community vision like parks, community centers, and affordable childcare, as well as ready access to additional jobs and support services. A range of housing types available to individuals across the economic spectrum will ensure a diverse, sustainable neighborhood where community members can move up without moving out.

Approximately 20 million people live in trailers nationally, most of whom own their homes but not the land underneath them. Southwood will provide a blueprint at an unprecedented scale for empowering residents to improve their long-term housing, financial, and social conditions while achieving secure tenure. 

Key Learning Objectives:

You will come away from the session understanding more about

1) the process of information gathering from residents and the community, and

2) the ongoing process of their involvement in each phase of the project as planning and construction move forward. 

3) Challenges presented by COVID and resident distrust of change at each step recent months as construction begins in February of 2022.