Educators, advocates demand city intervention as 900 face prospect of eviction from public housing

About 900 families are slated to receive a 30-day termination notice this week — a precursor to formal legal action, the housing authority said. Another 1,600 households are at least one month behind on rent and could soon face the same fate, according to figures the agency shared.

As frigid temperatures gripped the region and Virginia registered record-breaking COVID-19 cases fueled by the omicron variant, tenant advocates and educators urged officials to avert a crisis that they say would have long-ra anging consequences for residents, especially those with children, and the city’s schools and safety-net providers.

“Educational outcomes in Richmond are deeply tied to the circumstances the kids have at home,” said Thad Williamson, a University of Richmond professor, former policy adviser to Mayor Levar Stoney and former head of the city’s Office of Community Wealth Building. “Poverty has a lot of harmful effects on kids and their ability to learn, and one of them is absolutely housing instability and the trauma associated with having to get up and leave, not knowing where you’re going to stay a given night.”

Williamson joined Richmond Public Schools music teacher Beth Almore in writing an open letter to RRHA and city officials last week demanding action. The pair urged a freeze on evictions for families with children through the end of the school year and called on city leaders to coordinate with the school system and housing authority to ensure those families can apply for rental assistance.

It’s unclear how many of the families facing eviction have school-aged children, but federal data shows three out of five RRHA households are headed by women with children. One of the reasons tenants cited for falling behind on payments was virtual schooling, according to RRHA. RPS held classes virtually for most of the pandemic, and in-person learning resumed this school year. RPS estimates as many as 1,200 students live in public housing.

“The fallout from mass evictions on this scale would land disproportionately upon RPS teachers, staff, social workers, and administrators,” the open letter said. “RPS staff will, by necessity, be tasked with managing the tremendous disruption caused by the sudden dislocation of children from their homes and communities.”

Angela Fountain, an RRHA spokeswoman, said the agency had not filed any eviction cases against tenants so far this month.

Households that receive the 30-day notices will have the option of entering into payment plans and applying for rent relief, Fountain said. If the household does neither within 14 days, RRHA will file an eviction in Richmond General District Court, triggering the legal process and potential removal if the outstanding balance is not settled.

“RRHA has a responsibility to be good stewards of the public resources that are entrusted to us,” Fountain stated. “It is taxpayer dollars that we are in charge of administering and we must be accountable for those resources.”

Once one of the region’s most aggressive evictors, RRHA stopped putting families out for nonpayment of rent in late 2019 after pressure from advocates. The housing authority extended its freeze through spring 2020, while offering tenants payment plans to catch up on rent.

When the pandemic began, state officials temporarily closed courts and established protections to keep renters housed. Many of those safeguards have since expired. The agency’s staff announced plans to resume lease enforcement last summer. However, after calls from board members and tenants advocates, RRHA ultimately pushed that plan out until this month to give families more time to catch up.

As of December, RRHA received $1.8 million for 962 households that have sought rental assistance through a state-run program. Virginia still has hundreds of millions of dollars in aid for renters who have fallen behind during the pandemic. The housing authority is among the top 10 landlords in the state in terms of dollars received through the program, according to data provided by Virginia Housing.

Art Burton, a longtime Richmond activist, said forcing vulnerable families out of their homes, who are overwhelmingly made up of people of color, was poor policy.

“For public housing to think that for some reason the most affected population, those individuals who live in their community who already had been designated as essential workers, should be forced to be facing eviction and have the extra stress of eviction, I mean... that’s crazy,” Burton said.

Tylur Arnold, a 10th grade teacher at Armstrong High School in Richmond’s East End, said evictions disrupt his students’ ability to focus on learning. Housing insecurity can also worsen attendance issues, especially when temporary housing a family may turn to is further from a child’s school.

“Most of the hotels are either near The Diamond, or they’re being placed in hotels further down Midlothian Turnpike,” Arnold said. “Those kids still come to us, and that creates attendance issues in itself.”

Barrett Hardiman, vice chairman of RRHA’s board, said the housing authority needs to reconsider its plan.

“I personally don’t feel confident moving forward with enforcement,” Hardiman said. “There’s more than we need to do to get families back to where they should be … It’s a conversation that [the board] needs to have.”

Last year, RRHA launched a public campaign encouraging residents to “come current” on overdue rent. In recent months, it has sent staff door-to-door, mailed reminders and resources to residents.

Hardiman said he worries residents’ mistrust of the agency has hampered efforts to get them caught up. Working with trusted community organizations, like the Office of Community Wealth Building’s Ambassadors program, could help nudge families toward applying, he said.

“I don’t feel like we have done enough to really get families out of this,” Hardiman said. “I’d love to have a partnership with the city for an all hands on deck, three-month push just trying to get as many people signed up for rental assistance as possible.”

The board’s property management committee is scheduled to discuss plans for lease enforcement on Wednesday.