Richmond public housing residents with outstanding rent balances have about three weeks left to sign up for a “last chance” repayment plan offered by the city’s housing authority.
The Richmond Redevelopment and Housing Authority has been working since late June to get the word out to tenants living in nearly 4,000 public housing units, CEO Steven Nesmith told VPM News.
Between text messages, emails, flyers and door-knocking campaigns, Nesmith said, the agency had “a minimum of 11 contact points” with each household from the last week of June through the end of July.
“Even if you didn’t want to be found, you were contacted,” he said.
In August, though, the focus has shifted to a “final push.” Tenants have until the end of the month to sign up for the repayment plan, with the agency set to resume eviction proceedings in September.
“This phase of the campaign is not notifying [or] educating folks,” Nesmith said. “It’s all about getting people into the property management office, literally to sign up for the repayment agreement.”
The plan requires qualifying leaseholders — those who owe at least $51 or have defaulted on a previous repayment agreement — to make a down payment of up to $100, based on adjusted income. They’ll also need to commit to making back payments on top of current monthly rent starting Oct. 1.
RRHA’s lease agreement states that the agency can terminate leases for residents who are late on rent payments four times in a year; those who sign up for the “last chance” plan are also subject to eviction if they miss two consecutive payments.
Nesmith told VPM News that the primary targets for the repayment plan are the roughly 700 tenants with the largest outstanding balances. Those balances range anywhere from $1,000 to $30,000 in unpaid rent dating back years.
RRHA received close to 200 signed repayment agreements by the end of July. Nesmith said the agency’s goal is to convince all 700 high-balance residents to enter into agreements this month.
“We’re going to do all we can,” Nesmith said. “We’re going to try to hold their hands — we might put some on vans, if I can make that rhyme — to get them into the property managers’ office[s] to sign.”
