As housing prices remain at record highs in Richmond and the region, Mayor Danny Avula’s administration has announced the city’s first Anti-Displacement Week. 

The effort, which includes a lineup of information sessions and events from this Monday through Friday, aims to get more Richmonders aware of the programs and services the city offers to help residents who are at risk of being forced out of their homes due to rising costs.

Using U.S. Census data about individuals who spend more than 30% of their income on housing costs — a widely used metric to classify a household or person as “cost-burdened” — the Avula administration estimates that about 40% of Richmonders are at risk of displacement. 

A City Council-requested review of all of the city’s anti-displacement initiatives turned up 30 different programs that last year provided $36 million in aid of some kind to more than 18,000 households.

Those range from federally funded programs like Community Development Block Grants and utility assistance to the city’s eviction diversion program and a guaranteed income program Richmond has run since 2020 that pays participating households $500 per month. 

They also include the city’s efforts to produce more affordable housing, including its Affordable Housing Performance Grant program, the Affordable Housing Trust Fund and the endlessly controversial overhaul of the zoning ordinance known as code refresh. 

A number of initiatives are geared specifically toward tax relief for residents aged 65 or over and those with permanent disabilities. Last year, the city spent almost $5.8 million on a program that lets certain people in those groups either receive real estate tax exemptions or have their assessments frozen. This year the city allotted $7.4 million in funding to the effort. 

Less well-known is a program that lets renters who are disabled or over age 65 avoid paying solid waste and recycling fees. 

City officials have said the inventory of all Richmond’s anti-displacement work can help the city better grasp both what it’s already doing and what gaps or overlaps exist. 

The report “makes clear that while the city has invested substantial financial and human resources into critical anti-displacement efforts, those programs have not always been coordinated or fully utilized by the residents they are meant to support,” said Richmond Director of Housing and Community Development Merrick Malone in the announcement of the week. 

Contact Reporter Sarah Vogelsong at svogelsong@richmonder.org