Rhonda Sneed has gained City Council support after a year of pleading for City Hall to create a year-round shelter for the homeless.

By a 9-0 vote Monday, the council approved a resolution that calls on Mayor Levar M. Stoney’s administration to identify a space that could serve the unsheltered during freezing cold, heavy rains and high heat.

The resolution was co-sponsored by 4th District Councilwoman Kristen N. Larson and outgoing 2nd District Councilwoman Kim B. Gray.

The action took place at a nearly six-hour session during which City Council also ap- proved a plan to repurchase part of a once sprawling municipal cemetery for Black people and approved a new, but controversial 20-year master plan for city development with the provision that council members can present amendments next month for city Planning Commission review.

Passage of the shelter resolution represents a victory for Ms. Sneed, leader of Blessing Warriors RVA. The all-volunteer coalition daily provides food, clothing and other help for dozens of homeless people and last year set up the Camp Cathy tent community across from the Richmond City Justice Center that has since been dismantled.

Embodying much of what Ms. Sneed had sought, the resolution calls on the administration to identify a space that would be opened when the forecast calls for the temperature or wind chill factor to fall to 40 degrees or below, for an inch or more of rain or for the temperature to soar to 92 degrees or higher.

Behind the scenes, some are lobbying to temporarily use the Arthur Ashe Jr. Athletic Center.

If a location materializes, it would represent a major expansion of service for a city that for decades has offered only a winter shelter and which, since March, has been paying millions in federal dollars to an alliance of nonprofits to shelter the homeless in hotels or in existing shelters during the pandemic.

The resolution reflects council skepticism that a 14-member alliance, known as theGreater Richmond Continuum of Care, is reaching everyone needing shelter.

“We still have homeless people on the street,” Ms. Gray said. Councilwoman Stephanie A. Lynch, 5th District, who has a social work back- ground, also has argued for greater city involvement in the shelter operation. She worries that the city and the alliance are unprepared to address what she believes may be a huge increase in the number of people losing their homes in the coming months because of the pandemic.

According to U.S. Census data, a majority of Black and Latino families with children have lost significant employment income due to the pandemic, while a new report from the Annie E. Casey Foundation suggests up to 16 percent of households in Richmond and other parts of the state have little or no confidence that they can pay their next rent or mortgage payment.

Along with bidding farewell to Ms. Gray, who gave up her council seat to unsuccessfully challenge Mayor Stoney in November’s election, and 16-year council veteran Chris A. Hilbert, who retired as the 3rd District City Council representative, the council unanimously:

•Cleared the way for the city to re-acquire a 1.2-acre portion of the historic, but long-forgotten Shockoe Hill African Burying Ground at 1305 N. 5th St.

The vote affirmed the work of Texas educator Lenora McQueen, who has documented her relatives being buried there and spent three years lobbying to ensure the site’s preservation and protection.

Along with council members who expressed embarrassment over the city’s long disdain for the Black cemetery, Ms. McQueen generated broad support from academic, Black history and preservation circles for her efforts calling attention to the now obscure burial ground that opened in 1816 and desecrated after being closed in 1879.

In the following decades, the city sliced off portions of the burial ground for rail and highway development and sold off a major chunk of the original 2 acres for development of a now-closed service station.

The city was preparing to auction the property in 2017 to recover unpaid real estate taxes until Ms. McQueen raised the alarm about the property’s historic role as a sacred place.

•Approved the Richmond 300 plan as a guide to future growth through 2037 when the city will mark the 300th anniversary of its founding as a town in Henrico County.

However, advocates conceded that the plan will remain just a vision until the land uses outlined are backed up by a change in the city’s zoning law that is still up to five years away.

Councilwoman Ellen F. Robertson, 6th District, dropped her opposition to the master plan after failing to gain the votes to send it back to the Planning Commission for revision. She also received assurances from Dr. Newbille that council members can offer amendments to the plan that has been in development for four years.

Ms. Robertson is concerned that the plan reserves much of her district for single-family residential development while promoting business, job and apartment growth in sectors that already have seen significant development but which are badly needed in the 6th District.

Ms. Robertson and others also expressed concern that the plan does not focus enough on development of more affordable housing units or transformation of public housing into mixed-income communities.

Council members have until Friday, Jan. 8, to submit proposed revisions to the Planning Commission.