Time to Celebrate!
The January 14 meeting of the CRHA brought about great victories for Residents, PHAR, and the CRHA.
After years of hard work two policies were revised to improve resident life in public housing, and the CRHA also approved an Annual Plan that protects residents, expands participation, and seeks to outline big improvements in CRHA operations in the coming year! Finally, the CRHA is committing to participating fully in the City of Charlottesville’s efforts to end homelessness in our community.
All that in one night! Of course, most of these changes have been sought by residents and PHAR for years and we thank everyone who has protested, spoken out, showed up, and helped us to identify what changes will most have an impact on resident quality of life.
Here’s what happened:
Eviction Prevention Put into Policy:
The effort to include prevention efforts and protect residents from eviction was begun in earnest on September 11 with eviction of an elderly resident from South First Street. A noisy protest was held, an arrest occurred. Residents demanded action form the housing authority! From there other protests ensued and culminated in over 100 people marching ion the streets for justice and dignity in public housing in May 2013. The CRHA had a hard time coming to see things from our point of view- but they did eventually. PHAR and Legal Aid presented a draft of a policy (informed by residents) and pushed to have it passed, after many arguments, and many more meetings, the CRHA staff and board came to support nearly all of the changes proposed by residents!
Over the years, PHAR’s strong push to prevent evictions had a huge effect even before the new policy was passed. We have pressured CRHA to use eviction only as a last resort, and we have seen evictions drop dramatically from 2011 to 2014:
A 91% decrease in evictions!
*Some* of the new changes to how CRHA approached evictions are:
– eviction only as a last resort
– Summons to court only issued for amounts owed over $50
– No summons before the 25th of the month
– repayment plans offered to all
– more hardship exemptions offered
– 21/30 notices only issued after other informal notices and one on one meetings with residents to resolve lease violations
… and much more!
Improved Resident Access to Community Centers
Similarly, PHAR has been trying for two years to get an improved Community Center Use policy that expands access for residents. This effort had been largely ignored by CRHA for a very long time. Residents and PHAR mobilized, and even threatened legal action for CRHA’s unwillingness to negotiate (a cool provision under federal law allows resident associations to have negotiations on community center uses). Eventually, a meaningful negotiaion occurred and PHAR secured almost everything we had asked for! Those changes include:
– Centers will be available more hours: 8:00am to 9:30pm.
– Residents will be able to reserve the centers for 6 -8 hours on weekends and holidays!
– On weekdays flexibility to get more than 4 hours if there are no other reservations in the 2 weeks before.
– Electronic key code system (“key FOB”) will be in place soon, giving residents better accessibility.
– No cameras! Video Cameras will not be installed in the community centers
– The requirement for residents to be in “good standing” was changed to allow residents to reserve if owing a balance of less than $50 for less than 30 days, and you can ask for a flexibility.
Annual Plan Includes Resident Desires and Addresses Concerns
After many conversations, and a blizzard of memos and questions, CRHA passed an annual plan that largely reflects PHAR’s concerns and desires. Unfortunately, the Board of Commissioners were still resistant to meeting with PHAR to craft the plan, and Commissioners failed to attend resident meetings. Nevertheless, PHAR’s suggestions for the annual plan made it into the plan. These changes are too numerous to mention but add attention to:
– Expanding Resident Participation and Guarantees for Participation in the Redevelopment Process.
– Ensuring attention to Relocation for Redevelopment
– Making Improvements to the Family Self Sufficiency Program and Collaborating with PHAR Efforts and the City
– Using responsible funding ideas for management and operations.
… and about 50 other things!
PHAR also pointed out inconsistencies and bad information in the plan that helped the CRHA avoid including incorrect information in the plan.
Attention to Homelessness
One mistake the CRHA almost made was to claim that the Annual Plan was “consistent” with Charlottesville’s Consolidated Plan. The Consolidated Plan calls for the CRHA to include a preference in admissions for homeless persons. The CRHA was negligent in providing ample discussion on the issue in advance of the decision, despite City officials and PHAR asking for the idea to be talked about. At PHAR’s insistence, a preference is to be had for homeless. This preference will most likely be for families with children and will be referred to CRHA from the Continuum of Care overseen by Thomas Jefferson Area Coalition for the Homeless. PHAR is glad to see CRHA partner with the City and our community to address this important issue.
