IMPACT's Nehemiah Action was held 3/15/07. It was a great event on many levels: the amount of participation exceeded the capacity of the MLK Performing Arts Center (over 1600 sign-ups), the coming together of so many different faith communities unified in addressing social justice issues in the community, and the participation by many public officials. While the concept of grassroots, interfaith organizations addressing social justice issues is not new in this country, it is certainly new to Charlottesville and Albemarle county. None of us knew exactly what to expect from this first Nehemiah Action.

Highlights:
- Enthusiastic, capacity crowd that did a great job of expressing respect and gratitude toward our public officials (this was the largest, first Nehemiah Action meeting in the history of DART).

- IMPACT's 25th congregation, Mt. Zion First African Baptist Church, signed the Covenant Agreement.

- The City Councilors agreed to call this a public meeting and City Councilors Norris, Taliaferro & Lynch and Mayor Brown participated.

- Albemarle County Board of Supervisors (BOS) would not agree to call this a public meeting. Five BOS came to check us out, but because of their process, they wouldn't all participate. Only Supervisors Slutzky and Boyd participated.

Public Transportation Solutions & Results:
1. Establish Sunday daytime bus service on the two most heavily traveled CTS routes, the free trolley and route #7, with buses every 30 minutes. Cost to the City is $117,000 and $10,000 for JAUNT.
* Councilors Norris & Taliaferro agreed to support this solution.
2. Add 5 hours of night service to route #5, with buses every 45 minutes. Cost to the County is $200,00.
* Supervisor Slutzky agreed to support this solution.
3. Establish daytime bus service to Southwood/Mountainwood and 5th St. Extended County Office Building. Cost to the County is $60,000.
* Supervisor Slutzky agreed to support this solution.

1. Support the city's adoption of the Charlottesville Affordable Housing Investment Program (CAHIP) proposal with the original funding of $500K for Special Needs Housing and $500K for Public housing, the two categories of CAHIP serving people who make $20,000 or less.
* Councilors Norris & Taliaferro agreed to support this solution.
2. Secure an additional $420K or 1 cent set aside of the property tax dollar, allocated toward the creation of new affordable units for 0-30% AMI.
* Councilors Norris & Taliaferro agreed to support this solution.
3. Creation of a Regional Affordable Housing Task Force comprised of decision makers from Charlottesville and Albemarle County to (1) develop a plan to create at least 150 additional housing units over the next 5 years for those earning less than $20,000 (0-30% AMI) and (2) keep these units affordable to this income category for at least 15 years. The Task Force will come up with an implementation schedule and funding plan. This plan will be presented to IMPACT congregations at the Oct 15 Assembly.
* Councilors Norris & Taliaferro agreed to support this solution.
* Supervisor Slutzky agreed to support this solution.

Next Steps:
- Continue to participate in City and County budget sessions.
- Continue building Justice Ministry Networks within congregations.
- Support IMPACT through Member Support Drive.