No, Piedmont Habitat isn’t closing. Here’s what’s changing.

No, Piedmont Habitat for Humanity isn’t closing. It’ll still be operating in Farmville beyond August. The same goes for Prince Edward, Cumberland and the rest of the counties served by the organization. That’s one thing members of the group want to make clear. Just because one change is happening, it doesn’t mean the whole thing is going away.

And there is a slight change, as the Habitat ReStore, located at 1512 S. Main Street in Farmville, will be shutting down in August. August 17 will be the last day of business for the store. Piedmont’s Interim Executive Director Sam Rabon said the numbers just didn’t add up to keep it going.

“It was a tough decision, not one that was made lightly,” Rabon said. “It’s something we’ve been looking at, running the numbers for months now. It just kinda came to the point where all of the costs involved with running a quality business were just no longer feasible for us to continue to pay.”
That includes everything from paying the needed number of staff to keeping the truck maintained and pieces in between. The costs were just too high for the ReStore to stay in operation, Rabon said.
“Just after looking at all that, the bottom line takeaway is the costs kept adding up,” Rabon said.
The decision brings to an end a piece of the operation that’s been in business for more than a decade. The Piedmont ReStore opened its doors in 2009 and ever since has been a staple of the area.
“We are thankful for everyone who has shopped at the store, who has donated, volunteered or worked on staff,” Rabon said. “It has been a blessing being able to serve the community in that way.”

Piedmont Habitat projects still running

As it stands, this Friday, Aug. 2 will be the last day the ReStore will accept in-store donations. Then over the next two weeks, prices will be cut, from 50% to 75% off as officials look to clean out that area. Then Saturday, Aug. 17 will be the last day it’ll be running.

But as Rabon mentioned earlier, while the ReStore will be shutting down, that has no impact on Habitat’s ongoing projects across the area. That’s especially true of the work getting ready to start in neighboring Charlotte County.

In February 2022, the Piedmont Habitat for Humanity was awarded a grant in the amount of $946,149 through the Commonwealth Regional Council (CRC) Affordable Workforce Housing Grant. This funding is to be used to build 10 new homes with four in Farmville, two in Nottoway County and five in Charlotte County through June 30, 2025. Now the Farmville part of the project is finished, with residents moving into the buildings on Andrews Drive and Parkview Drive. The Nottoway work just wrapped up, with families moving in this summer. Now it’s time to work on the third piece of the project. This fall, Rabon said we’ll start to see some work happening in Charlotte.
“We’ve got five new builds in Charlotte County that will be starting in September,” Rabon said. “They’ll be in the town of Keysville.”
A typical build for a home from the ground up can take four to six months to complete. That’s where Cardinal Homes comes in. The Charlotte County based company is building modular homes for the nonprofit as part of this project, prefabricated buildings that come in sections. Even though they come prebuilt, the quality is the same as a normal Habitat build.

The homes get built in their controlled environment before being delivered to the site for final setting on the foundation. From there, Habitat staff, volunteers, and sub-contractors took over all the finish work. This new construction technique allows for a tremendous increase in building capacity, with the ultimate goal of serving more families.

Housing still a need

This project stems from data in a Dec. 2021 report by Virginia’s Joint Legislative and Audit Review Commission. It said 29% of households in the state struggle with housing costs. Nearly half of those spent more than 50% of their income on housing, both rental and owned. And as mentioned, it’s a problem here locally. The study found 67% of households struggling with housing costs either lived in this region or in Northern Virginia.

So what’s causing this problem? Housing prices keep rising. Zillow data shows the average home value in Virginia reached $385,780 by March of this year. That’s a 5.8% year-over-year increase. Another key piece is that in the last three years alone, Virginia’s supply of “starter” homes, those usually more affordable to low-and-middle-income households, has dropped by 40%, according to the Virginia Realtors Association. The goal here is to try and increase the number of affordable starter homes in the area.

Nothing changes

Nothing on that side of the Piedmont Habitat operation will change after the ReStore closes, Rabon said. The projects will keep moving, just like normal.
“That’s the thing i want to emphasize the most,” Rabon said. “A lot of people, when they think Habitat, the ReStore is what they think of. It has been a great ministry, but the primary mission has been providing safe, decent, affordable housing . Nothing’s changing on the side of the housing mission. That’ll still be moving forward.”

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