Housing

Governor Ralph Northam launched a statewide rent and mortgage relief program on Monday.

School may be officially out for summer, but food distribution efforts aren’t ending just because the school year has.

The Eviction Lab at Princeton University unveiled an online tool on Friday that monitors eviction filings in 10 U.S. cities — including Richmond. Updated weekly, it compares the numbers of eviction filings to those from 2016, which data shows has significantly declined since the start of the pandemic.

Richmond Redevelopment and Housing Authority’s Board of Commissioners will hold a virtual meeting on Wednesday. They’ll be voting on the sale of five properties through Rental Assistance Demonstration, or RAD — a federal program that aims to preserve public housing.

As of Friday, Richmond’s General District Court has nearly 2000 evictions scheduled for the month of June. Although the city has an eviction diversion program meant to help people stay in their homes, housing advocates say COVID-19 will limit its reach.

A week after Virginia’s state of emergency declaration, Richmond city officials demolished Cathy’s Camp, a tent community outside the overflow shelter in Shockoe Valley. Advocates say that, and what happened next, reveals a bigger, systemic problem.

Virginia housing advocates are asking the governor to freeze evictions statewide, in an effort to keep people in their homes and prevent the spread of COVID-19.

Hundreds of evictions are on the docket this week as some Virginia courts begin hearing non-emergency cases for the first time since a judicial emergency halted proceedings in March.. But advocates are concerned that a lack of instruction to courts and tenants will lead to wrongful evictions.

A longtime food distribution program will return to Richmond’s public housing communities on Monday. Richmond Redevelopment and Housing Authority paused the service in April in an effort to contain the spread of COVID-19.

The Eviction Lab at Princeton University released a report on Monday, rating states’ housing policies during the pandemic. Virginia, which has 2.6 million renters, was among the lowest-ranking states.