Richmond’s public housing authority is reassuring residents they won’t be displaced by a long term plan to replace the city’s housing projects. Community members turned out by the dozens Wednesday evening to speak against the proposal.
Richmond’s decades-old public housing is on city-owned land. In recent years that land has become prime real estate in the state capitol.
The Richmond Redevelopment and Housing Authority is now looking for private developers they can partner with to replace some of the larger neighborhoods with mixed-income housing.
At a meeting of the board Wednesday evening, commissioner Robert Adams sought to reassure residents they were the priority.
“You have a guarantee that you will have much better housing than you have now,” Adams said. “You will have the opportunity to return to your neighborhood to new or rehabilitated housing. And we will endeavor to offer you other choices.”
That did little to appease residents who fear they’ll have nowhere to go in the interim. Carmen Terrell called for more efforts to involve the community in the process.
“Not down the road, but right now, with us residents and others to come up with solutions so none of us would have to worry about where our children, as well as the elderly and disabled and parents that work hard - two and three jobs - where they would have to go to live,” Terrell said to applause.
For many, the reassurances from the board fell flat given the city’s long history of displacing poor black residents.
Activist Phil Wilayto recounted his own experience moving to the city in the 1970’s.
“And one of my neighbors told me how the city had come in and told everyone ‘We’re going to upgrade the neighborhood and you’re going to have to move for awhile but you’re going to be able to come back and everything will be much better.’ And today that whole area is upper middle class townhouses and garden apartments and none of the people came back,” recalled Wilayto.
Still, something has to be done. Public housing in the city is crumbling, and federal funds to support subsidized housing are decreasing. It’s a difficult situation faced by leaders across the country.
RRHA is still finalizing its five year plan. They anticipate the entire overhaul will cost upwards of half a billion dollars, and they don’t have the funding yet.
This report, provided by Virginia Public Radio, was made possible with support from the Virginia Education Association.
