× Expand Participants in a meeting at Virginia Commonwealth University discuss housing needs and challenges in the Richmond area. (Photo by Sarah King)

A regional effort to address affordable housing needs is under way with two rounds of meetings in Richmond and the counties of Chesterfield, Hanover and Henrico — the first to discuss housing challenges and the second to focus on strategies.

These sessions held by the Partnership for Affordable Housing began last week in Hanover and Richmond, and continue May 21 at the Eastern Henrico Recreation Center and May 28 at the Chesterfield Career and Technical Center on Hull Street, both from 6:30 to 8:30 p.m.

“We represent these communities, we work in these communities … and we're looking to help build our communities,” said Jessica Ortiz, who was one of several representatives of Richmond’s Office of Community Wealth Building who attended a May 16 meeting at Virginia Commonwealth University.

Ortiz, like others with the Office of Community Wealth Building who attended the meeting, has first-hand experience with living in public housing and the challenges involved in transitioning out.

“We need to look at other avenues that are accessible and sufficient for these communities,” Ortiz says, “We're at 26 percent poverty level — that is deplorable for us to be the state capital.”

Also among those at the meeting were local government administrators, community activists and representatives of housing-related nonprofits. Of the 40 participants, 25 percent indicated during a clicker survey that they earn more than $100,000 annually. The next largest groups of respondents — at 22 percent for each — said they made less than $25,000 or between $25,00 and $49,900 a year.

It quickly became apparent that there is no one-size-fits-all approach to equitable housing and homeownership, leading to some tense moments during the two-hour participatory session.

Some current and former public housing residents expressed frustration about income-based rents rising from $50 a month to $800 or $1,000 after they secured full-time employment exceeding $30,000, often through the Richmond Redevelopment and Housing Authority’s self-sufficiency programs, and about conditions of public housing units themselves.

“Our hope is we will use priorities for each locality, along with data, to be able to develop strategies that will meet the needs of each jurisdiction,” Greta Harris, president of the Better Housing Coalition, told Richmond City Council members during a committee meeting in March of the effort to develop a regional housing strategy. “From there, we will create a toolbox of policies, programs and resources that are recommended to each locality, and from there we will work together to implement those strategies after they have been reviewed and fully adopted by each locality.”

Mayor Levar Stoney tapped Harris and Richmond Association of Realtors CEO Laura Lafayette in 2017 to lead an affordable housing task force. Their work led to the Regional Housing Framework initiative under way now.

The scope of the need for better housing was underscored by a New York Times article ranking Richmond the second-worst city in the country for evictions.

Lafayette said that the first phase in developing the housing framework — including community engagement sessions such as the one hosted at VCU last Thursday — would conclude this winter, with implementation of the resulting strategy taking place by the summer of 2022.

But the issues surrounding fair housing and accessibility for low-income individuals — defined as at or below 80 percent of the area median income (AMI), which in the city of Richmond is $46,600 for one person; 50 percent of the area median, or “very low-income,” is $29,150 and 30 percent AMI, “extremely low-income,” is $17,500 — are nuanced.

Ortiz points to one example from one she worked as a program coordinator for a local nonprofit where she would tackle questions surrounding fair housing policy.

“We will see the statistics … and then figure out, 'OK how can we go back into these communities and bring somebody with a credit score of 400 or 500 to at least a 620 to qualify for a mortgage and build, not only family wealth but financial stability and teaching financial literacy that will affect generations?” Ortiz asks rhetorically.

Another survey question asked during the meeting at VCU was about homeownership; 45 percent of attendees indicated they are homeowners, compared to the city and regional averages of 42 and 64 percent, respectively. In addition, 39 percent of attendees indicated they rent in the city, a figure closer to the regional average of 36 percent, than the city average of 58 percent.

After answering demographic survey questions and presenting slides summarizing the downward trend in African-American homeownership (3,600 fewer owners since 2000), the session was spent in break-out-style groups where each table of three to eight people discussed values, challenges and opportunities for improvement surrounding affordable housing.

After each break-out session, a member from each table would present discussion topics to the larger group, followed by more questions about ranking priorities for housing in the region. Of those, “repairs and upkeep” garnered only 2 percent of the collective group vote, despite the topic being of importance to many of the representatives from the Office of Community Wealth Building.

After the meeting, Ortiz said that when she and her daughter lived in public housing two years ago, it took her thumb-tacking a rat to the RRHA maintenance supervisor’s door before months of complaints surrounding pests and plumbing were addressed.

When Ortiz received a job promotion, she celebrated by going out to dinner with her family — a cousin had even traveled from Maryland for the occasion.

“But when we walked in the house — and at the time my daughter was very young, she was still potty training, and I'm thinking she's being rebellious because two adults are talking and she's saying 'Mommy, Mommy, I can’t go — there’s a rat in the toilet,’ which came in through the piping — I’ve still got the pictures from it.”

The next day, after she placed the rat in a plastic bag and thumbtacked it to the maintenance door, Ortiz says RRHA leadership held a meeting. The CEO at the time, T.K. Somanath — who is listed as the retired executive director of the Better Housing Coalition and currently sits on the board of directors for the Virginia Community Development Corp., one of the regional housing initiative’s partners — eventually resigned as head of the RRHA amidst a heating crisis in Creighton Court that winter.

The rat incident had a lasting effect on Ortiz’s daughter.

“It took me longer to potty train her because of this,” Ortiz says. “She was always scared after that.”

Another topic of note during the VCU meeting focused on how federal and local policies led to redlining and white flight to the counties in the early to mid-20th century. Highway construction further contributed to disparities in homeownership between white and black city dwellers. During the presentation, facilitators said that by the 1950s, 4,750 properties had been destroyed and replaced with only 1,700 affordable units.

When some attendees asked why the RRHA, a major player in development of affordable housing, was not represented at the meeting, the Partnership for Affordable Housing’s executive director said the group is in communication with the housing authority, which has acquired, demolished and redeveloped properties through its “Revitalize RVA” initiative.

“We are doing a special stakeholder session with the RRHA and we have communication with staff at the RRHA,” says Elizabeth Greenfield. “This is not just us sitting around the room trying to craft solutions — we're doing a very extensive engagement process — this is an opportunity for anyone from the public to come and weigh in, but there are communications occurring as part of this, because that is a big part of the community and we need to address that as part of this.”

As for the timeline, Bob Adams of HD Advisors has been retained as the lead consultant on the project to help draft the framework, and Ebony Walden Consulting has been tasked with the community outreach component. The remainder of the first phase largely entails collecting and analyzing data, policy recommendations and best practices.

The next set of four meetings will take place the week of June 24-27 in Richmond, Henrico, Chesterfield and Ashland, with a focus on strategies to address the challenges identified in the May meetings.