Posts Tagged ‘housing’
Tough to Find Secure Housing During the Pandemic
It was a warm day in August when Gloria Schroeder received a panicked call from her roommate that they were being evicted. She had barely arrived for work after dropping off her 8-month-old daughter, Davina, at daycare. The 22-year-old relied on public transport to get everywhere. Once she got closer to the house, she saw…
Read MoreCesar Zepeda: Putting Hilltop back on the map
How Cesar Zepeda, the President of the Hilltop District Neighborhood Council, is putting Hilltop back on the map.
Read MoreCouncil greenlights tenant purchase proposal, Veolia deals
Richmond landlords may be forced to give tenants the first shot at buying their homes before putting them on the market under a proposed rule whose drafting the City Council kicked off on Tuesday.
Read MoreA formerly homeless family finally gets their home in Richmond
For the first time since he was a toddler, 25-year-old Sedzi Solomon McNair has a home to call his own.
Read MorePanel discusses resolving homelessness in the East Bay
Over the years, Nella Gonçalves has become very used to hearing a certain question: “Ew, you work with the homeless? Don’t they stink?” Gonçalves is the deputy director of Beyond Emancipation, an organization that helps foster youth transition into lives as independent adults. Gonçalves meets a lot of very young people in very difficult positions;…
Read MoreRodents, Roaches and Broken Elevators: Why it took nearly a decade for Richmond to fix public housing
By Betty Marquez Rosales and Ravleen Kaur The elevators inside a Richmond public housing building had been broken for about a week before city officials moved to have them fixed — an unusually rapid response for a building plagued by maintenance issues for years, where residents regularly endure long waits to have them repaired. This…
Read MoreHow 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.
Read MoreProposed housing developments promise to transform downtown Richmond
A series of recently proposed housing developments along Macdonald Avenue in downtown Richmond could spur a business renaissance in the struggling district if city and local business leaders’ predictions ring true. In a city desperate for affordable housing, the developments reserve only about one quarter of the total number of units for residents making below…
Read MoreThe battle over rent control in the East Bay
As rents and home prices continue to skyrocket across California, a major ballot fight is brewing between tenants and the real estate industry over the state rent control law Costa Hawkins. The law prohibits cities from implementing rent control on single family homes as well as homes or apartments built after 1995 (or the year…
Read MoreThe 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…
Read MoreJudge rules on Point Molate development; housing to be built, but no casino
After almost eight years of grinding litigation that has brought proposals to develop Richmond’s controversial Point Molate area to a halt, the city and the developer who sued it over a plan to build a casino have finally reached a settlement. This means 13 years of political fighting since Richmond officially acquired the 270-acre parcel…
Read MoreNo Easy Answers: Richmond confronts a growing homelessness problem
At least 109 individuals living in Richmond city limits have no home to return. This is according to the annual Point in Time count, a county-wide assessment conducted on one night of the year that tallies the number of people sleeping outside.
But the Richmond Police Department reports encountering up to 800 separate individuals sleeping outside on any given night.
The situation is desperate. Research indicates that homeless individuals live shorter lives, endure higher rates of mental illness, drug addiction, poor health and injury than their sheltered counterparts. Still, people without homes are often dismissed as careless or crazy, the lasting legacy of a stigma that has its roots in the Great Depression era, when welfare programs were introduced in the United States.
Read MoreMercy Housing gets green light to redevelop blighted Hacienda development in Richmond
The six-story Hacienda development, which once held 150 units of of public housing, fell into disrepair, and residents were relocated in 2015. Richmond City Council has now authorized Mercy Housing, a nonprofit, to redevelop the property, but their plans are contingent on funding for the project, which would cost an estimated $25 to 30 million.
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