You may have read about some of the great work our housing team is doing across Virginia recently. From public housing in Richmond to a mobile home park in Charlottesville, we have been working alongside communities to support their immediate needs while fighting for a better future.
For years, we have advocated for public housing tenants in Richmond. We represent individuals who are facing eviction by the housing authority while pushing back against systemic issues in how this vital source of housing is run. We recently worked with Washington Post reporter Danny Nguyen to shed light on our concerns about inaccurate billing in public housing, an issue that tenants are facing outside of Richmond, too. When residents’ incomes are not properly calculated, their rents are incorrectly and artificially inflated, leading them to fall behind on rent and eventually face eviction. Currently hundreds of families are at risk of eviction and have few if any housing options available to them. We continue to organize with public housing residents in Richmond to fight to ensure that they can stay in their homes. Read more here:
In Charlottesville, one of the last mobile home parks in the city—a refuge of affordable housing in an ever increasingly expensive area—was put up for sale and on track to be bought by a private developer. We have seen this pattern happen again and again in Virginia and across the country, with the end result nearly always being mass displacement and rent increases. So, we joined a team of park residents and advocates to push for an alternative. After weeks of intense organizing and public pressure under a compressed timeline, there was a breakthrough: Habitat for Humanity of Greater Charlottesville agreed to put in a bid on the park that, if accepted, would include promises to keep rents affordable and tenants in their homes. On August 6, the current park owner decided to forgo their original plans to sell to the private developer and accepted Habitat’s bid instead. A huge win for residents! Read more here:
We are also hard at work in Northern Virginia helping low-income tenants navigate the fight for better living conditions and the fraught world of renting an affordable apartment in such an expensive locale. Much more to say on their accomplishments soon, so stay tuned!
