Aerial shot of Jamestown Place.

Jobs Plus Grant Award: $2,300,000

Aerial shot of Jamestown Place.

City of Roanoke Redevelopment & Housing Authority – Roanoke, VA

Jobs Plus Grant Award: $2,300,000

Leveraged Local Match: $788,797

Public Housing Developments: Jamestown Place and Indian Rock Village

“It is with great pleasure that we announce today that a Jobs Plus Grant Award of $2,300,000 has been awarded to the City of Roanoke Redevelopment and Housing Authority for the second time. RRHA is very excited for the families that live at Jamestown Place and Indian Rock Village. With over fifty-three strategic community partnerships, RRHA will strengthen program planning and implementation and streamline access to services for RRHA resident participants. Through the Jobs Plus grant, we will be able to focus on removing barriers to work, locating and maintaining employment for our residents, and sending our residents to school so they are prepared to enter into the completive job market. The Jobs Plus program allows RRHA to allow residents to become employed and not affect their monthly rent. The program will begin in June of 2021 but information and resident outreach will begin May 2021.” 

– David Bustamante, Executive Director

Key Partners

  • Western VA Workforce Board
  • Roanoke City Department of Social Services
  • Blue Ridge Literacy
  • United Way of Roanoke Valley
  • Roanoke City (FEC)
  • Total Action for Progress
  • Blue Ridge Independent Living Center
  • Council of Community Services
  • Child Health Investment Partnership

Purpose of the Program

Jobs Plus develops locally-based, job-driven approaches to increase earnings and advance employment outcomes through work readiness, employer linkages, job placement, educational advancement, skills development, and financial literacy for public housing residents. This place-based program supports economic resilience for residents by incentivizing and enabling employment through income disregards for working families, benefitting the entire community, and supporting a culture of work.

Project Summary

Jamestown Place and Indian Rock Village, comprised of 266 units (186 work-able individuals), and their residents are faced with extensive challenges to self-sufficiency, including 39 percent of residents having earned incomes that qualify as very low income or less and 61 percent with no income from wages.

The Roanoke Redevelopment and Housing Authority (RRHA) will use its Jobs Plus grant to help residents increase job skills, earn credentials for employment in demand-driven job sectors, and earn sustainable competitive wages to be self-sufficient. The RRHA Jobs Plus model integrates a career development framework with the three-part strategy. With numerous partnering agencies and a strong Section 3 initiative, a comprehensive neighborhood-based education, training, and employment program will be offered to residents to increase skills and earn credentials to prepare for employment in demand-driven job sectors that produce livable wages. The proposed program will involve smaller Jobs Plus Centers on each site’s campus to maintain the place-based strategy of Jobs Plus. The RRHA Jobs Plus model offers a structured system that places great emphasis on goal setting and monitoring. As part of the Jobs Plus program, these developments will begin the transformation process of becoming healthy communities where working adults are the cultural norm and residents have a sense of ownership and pride. Ambassadors and the collaborative will place great emphasis on creating a paradigm shift and creating a culture where work is a part of daily life for those who are work-able.