Eviction City [View all]

[TexasTowelie]

Organizers behind a Richmond coalition call for officials to address the needs of displaced public housing residents.


If Navy Hill is built, expect displacement and evictions to rise, say organizers with Richmond for All, coalition formed last year to protest inadequate heat for hundreds of public housing residents. Now its fighting public housing evictions and Navy Hill, the proposed $1.5 billion dollar megaproject that would require public financing through an 80-block tax increment financing zone downtown.

Nearly a hundred activists gather in front of City Hall before a Nov. 12 City Council meeting to protest Navy Hill. Among the crowd are many of the same activists who rallied in front of the Richmond Redevelopment and Housing Authority headquarters in January and who mobilized to fight evictions of as many as one in eight Creighton Court residents recently.

Omari Al-Qadaffi, a longtime public housing organizer, says that Navy Hill is part of a long-standing plan by the housing authority to demolish public housing.

“The plan was formulated by [former authority chief executive] T.K. Somanath, and he’s the affordable housing consultant for Navy Hill,” Al-Qadaffi says. He points to the recent evictions in Creighton Court as phase one. “They think they’re going to redevelop Creighton Court first, so the evictions and vacancy rates are highest there.”

Read more: https://www.styleweekly.com/richmond/eviction-city/Content?oid=15340683