HUD and Richmond Redevelopment and Housing Authority officials hold a roundtable in Richmond

RICHMOND, Va. (WRIC) — Top housing officials in the US government paid a visit to Richmond.

A round table with the Richmond Redevelopment and Housing Authority (RRHA), officials from the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) and community leaders was held at the Armstrong Renaissance Community Center on Tuesday, April 23.

Officials said the event was a way to lay out strategies for low-income households to “break the cycle of poverty and become self-sufficient.”

This round table came just days after the CEO of RRHA, Steven Nesmith, announced that they plan to pause evictions for the next thirty days. In that same announcement, Nesmith also stated that the housing authority was more than $3 million in debt due to not collecting rent during and after the pandemic.

He announced the “Compassionate Action Initiative,” stating it was a way to address the debt. The initiative plans to make sure that rents are accurate and families don’t end up homeless.

Nesmith also said that RRHA will be making the 12-month Eviction Prevention Campaign more “robust.” He said they will continue notifying families who are behind on rent through email, text messages, letters and even door-knocking.

At the roundtable event Tuesday, Nesmith said they’re bringing in an outside organization to review rent calculations and then they’re performing a quality check on each case.

“We’re going to ask Nan McKay — who is a nationally recognized organization that does rent calculations and recertifications — to review our process and procedure to see if we’re doing it the right way,” Nesmith said. “Then we’re going to take our [new] chief compliance officer and we’re going to do what’s called a ‘Q.C. check,’ [or] a quality check, on all of those cases to ensure that we got those right.”

Nesmith also said that 14 eviction cases that were on the court docket the week prior in Richmond have been dismissed as a part of the initiative. However, he didn’t comment Tuesday on how many have been dismissed since then.

A representative from HUD who was present at Tuesday’s round table agreed the eviction pause was necessary and that RRHA’s rent calculation is something to address.

“The HUD field office here in Richmond will work with the [public housing authority] to determine what the issues are, not for just these specific files, but for the housing authority overall,” said Richard Monocchio, Principal Deputy Assistant Secretary Office of Public and Indian Housing. “We need to get that right. Not only because the Housing Authority needs the revenue, but also to make sure that we’re charging families the right amount,”

Nesmith said that more information about the Compassionate Action Initiative and the results of the quality checks are due to come out at their next board meeting.

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