How Richmond rebuilds abandoned homes

The house on South 37th Street is the ninth one rebuilt under the housing renovation program that turns abandoned, uninhabitable homes into livable ones and sells them to local, lower to medium income, first-time homebuyers.

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The city of Richmond is flipping houses for its low-income residents

Richmond has hundreds of abandoned and blighted properties at any given time. These properties cost the city millions of dollars, because numerous city departments have to deal with them, they drive down property values, and pose serious health and safety risks to neighbors. City officials have taken a unique approach to solving this problem with…

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Richmond’s housing struggle has a ‘fierce’ new advocate: Nikki Beasley

Nikki Beasley is executive director of Richmond Neighborhood Housing Services, a nonprofit developed in the 1980s to address housing inequities, particularly those created by practices such as redlining and discriminatory lending. She’s served in her current position for little more than a year, but in that time she’s made it clear she’ll be showing up and speaking her mind when it counts.

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Hilltop Mall, Revisited: Developers Envision Nearly 10K New Housing Units – But Critics Worry Current Residents Could Be ‘Priced Out’

When Cesar Zepeda, president of Hilltop’s Neighborhood Council, met with investors and developers prior to LBG’s purchase, he emphasized the Hilltop community’s vision: a mixed-use development that incorporates affordable housing units. But while housing is needed all over the Bay Area, Zepeda said the new owners and the community need to be “realistic and understand what the Hilltop area is able to give.”

It’s not 9,600 housing units, he said.

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First community briefing for the Berkeley Global Campus

UC Berkeley and the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory are planning the new Berkeley Global Campus at Richmond Bay. The committee wants the university to sign a legally binding agreement aiding those such as disadvantaged workers, emancipated foster youth, homeless people and individuals with criminal records, and requesting the university pay a fee to the city, to improve affordable housing and displacement issues, among other suggestions.

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