Long Lasting Changes Needed to Combat Housing Insecurity

Housing insecurity impacts many aspects of a person’s life and cannot be fixed overnight or through one solution.

By: Natalie Barr

RICHMOND, Va. -- Housing insecurity affects many aspects of a person's life. A study by the Joint Legislative Audit and Review Commission found that Virginians facing housing insecurities also experience diminished access to education, health care and food. 

In 2019, 29% of Virginia households were classified as cost burdened and spent more than 30% of their income on housing, according to the Department of Housing and Urban Development. Over 400,000 Virginia households were found to be severely cost burdened and spent more than 50% of their income on housing. Housing cost burdens make affording food and other necessities more difficult, and evictions become more likely, according to JLARC.

JLARC commissioned a study of affordable housing in Virginia in 2020. Areas under review included the number of households considered cost burdened and the supply of quality, affordable housing by region and across the state. JLARC asked for recommendations to make existing housing more affordable in the Commonwealth. The study was prompted by findings that Virginia had the highest eviction rate of any state in the country in 2019, according to HUD.

Kathryn Howell, VCU associate professor and co-director of the RVA Eviction Lab, focused her doctoral research and career on how to keep families and communities stable in the context of changing cities. Howell said massive inequality, poor housing quality and other issues are the root causes around eviction.

“We know eviction hits Black women, particularly Black women and children, the hardest,” said Howell. “And so, you know, so did COVID, so does unemployment, and all those things always fall hardest on Black women.”

Public housing residents in Creighton Court were left without heat in the winter of 2018. Residents were given space heaters to stay warm, but this led to unexpected price hikes in electric bills. A new policy from the Richmond Redevelopment and Housing Authority Board combined electric bills into monthly rent payments, but residents were unable to keep up with increasing costs. These factors led to an increase in evictions, said Quinton Robbins, director of operations for Richmond for All.

“We [Richmond for All] staged a pressure campaign against RRHA Board to have a lease freeze and to create a rent release program for folks who were facing eviction right before the pandemic,” Robbins said.

Richmond for All was able to have the rent release campaign extended to cover residents during the pandemic and to pause evictions. The lease enforcement ended Dec. 31, 2021. Robbins said another campaign was created to help residents still facing financial challenges from losing their jobs during the pandemic.

Affordable housing and evictions are issues impacting VCU students, especially those receiving financial aid, according to Lisa Mathews-Ailsworth, VCU assistant director for student support.

“Basically, my role is to serve the 25,000 students who live off campus,” said Mathews-Ailsworth. “I help them to understand the leasing process, find properties that match their needs and resolve any conflicts with roommates, landlords or neighbors.”

Mathews-Ailsworth works directly with students to develop budgets and determine options to afford food, transportation, rent and other necessities all under the allocations of student financial assistance.

“Many college students who qualify for financial aid do not quality for housing assistance,” said Mathews-Ailsworth. “If you can’t afford housing, and you can’t afford food, how are you paying for tuition?” said Mathews-Ailsworth.

Mathews-Ailsworth said landlords are increasing rent to the point of making affordable housing a little bit harder. Most students need to keep their rent levels at $600 or below, but this often requires sharing a bedroom with another student. When faced with choices, students sign a lease outside the range of affordability.

“They sign a lease for $600 to $700 bucks that they can’t afford,” says Mathews-Ailsworth. “And now they can’t afford food or books, and they fail their classes. It’s a whole cycle.”

JLARC research indicated cost-burdened households with children are associated with adverse experiences like food insecurity, material hardships and poor emotional health in adolescents. Craig Dodson, a professional cyclist and founder of Richmond Cycling Corps, wanted to give back to the Richmond community, especially youth facing housing insecurity, said Matt Kuhn, executive director Richmond Cycling Corps. 

One of the first things RCC did as a team was to go to Creighton Court Community Center and meet with the youth, Kuhn added. With continuous visits to the community center, the RCC team built a relationship with adolescents and youths.

“We use bikes to build a relationship with a kid to help them with whatever they need,” said Kuhn. “It's taken a lot of different forms over the past decade or so, but that’s what is boils down to.”

Kuhn said many of kids involved in RCC can easily slip through the cracks when they attend school, and this puts the youths behind compared to others in their classes. He also said a common pattern is that once youths fall behind, it is hard for them to get motivated to move forward.  RCC constantly adapts their approaches to meet new challenges and to be available and supportive to the youth living in the East End of Richmond.

Kuhn said RCC realized another way to be a support system for the youth involved in the organization was by offering an educational component. RCC made this thought a reality in 2017 and started Legacy Academy, an extension of outreach to youth. As classes moved fully online in 2020, Kuhn said, it made it easier for youth to fall behind. RCC was able to quickly assist youth through personable mentorships.

“Richmond Public Schools is doing the best with what they have, but students fall through the cracks,” Kuhn said. “So, what we did was open a small school to help the students that were falling through the cracks.”

Robbins said a cultural narrative has led to viewing public housing as often being an individual problem. There is not a perfect solution for how to begin improving public housing, because it requires multiple fixes throughout the state.

Affordable, secure housing is important to the overall health of individuals and families. Federal funding has been fully tapped, so state and local funds are the next step in tackling the issue, said Howell. Addressing eviction will require working on income, such as universal basic income, or working on the supply of affordable housing.

“And so, it means that people have to get up there and call their legislators and be engaged in the politics of this,” said Howell. “Affordable housing is critical to individual families, it critical to communities, and quite frankly it is critical to regional economies.”

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