City clears application backlog for Gap Grant housing aid program
Richmond officials have cleared a sizable backlog of applications from city residents seeking housing aid money under the Gap Grant program. But most of the $3.9 million allocated to help lower-income Richmonders with housing costs remains unspent.
The program — approved in late 2024 and funded with surplus money — offers up to $1,200 in one-time housing aid to renters or homeowners struggling to cover housing costs. To receive the aid, residents have to apply and file supporting documentation proving they’re eligible.
The city has been unable to efficiently handle the thousands of applications that came in, moving at such a slow pace that only a small minority of applicants were successfully completing the process last year.
In a news release and memo to the City Council Monday, Chief Administrative Officer Odie Donald II said clearing the backlog was a key step toward getting the Gap Grant program back on track.
“We remain laser focused on best-in-class service delivery for all programming, and we’re seeing step-by-step improvement in Finance,” Donald said in the release.
Former Mayor Levar Stoney’s administration proposed the Gap Grant program as he was preparing to leave office, and the implementation has largely occurred under Mayor Danny Avula. As the mayoral transition occurred, several top city officials who deal with finance issues left City Hall and were replaced with new hires.
Both Stoney and Avula have resisted the idea of using across-the-board property tax cuts as a housing relief measure, arguing the benefits would disproportionately flow to the wealthiest property owners. The Gap Grant program was supposed to direct relief only to lower-income residents, but matching the money with people who need it has proven to be a steep challenge for the city bureaucracy.
The city paused the application process in early January to give its struggling Finance Department time to work on applications already in the queue.
Between January and March, the city processed 1,802 applications in the backlog, according to Donald’s memo. Over that period, the number of applications approved more than doubled, from 286 to 610. With that progress, the total amount of money sent out the door to help Richmonders rose from $343,200 to $732,000.
However, those numbers mean nearly $3.2 million of the original $3.9 million remains unused.
Officials seemed to think the money would go fast, initially saying it would be available on a “first come, first serve” basis through the end of 2025.
Of the 3,931 applications received through March, the vast majority, or 3,321, were denied. More than half of the applications lacked supporting documents according to Donald, and nearly a third were denied because the applicants didn’t live in Richmond, were already receiving some other type of public assistance or didn’t meet the financial requirements based on their income and housing costs.
Officials did not give a clear timeline for when the application process might be reopened, but Donald indicated a bigger overhaul of the Gap Grant program may be necessary before that happens.
In his memo, the CAO told Council the Gap Grant program is an “important and much-needed service to the Richmond community,” while stressing it is “not a core function for the Department of Finance.”
“The administration recommends and is ready to take action to reappropriate the $3,168,000.00 in unobligated funds to a third-party non-profit vendor, which will drastically improve the service level and allow Finance staff to focus on core services,” Donald wrote.
The memo did not specify what groups the city has in mind that might be able to finish distributing the funds.
Reallocating the remaining money would likely require additional action by the Council. Donald’s memo said the administration will be proposing a “repeal and replace” of the program.
Contact Reporter Graham Moomaw at gmoomaw@richmonder.org
