Council recap: Rental inspection program passes, but officials still have to decide where to use it

After years of discussion and advocacy, the Richmond City Council formally signed off Monday on the creation of a new rental inspection program meant to give the city another enforcement tool against negligent landlords.

“The more vulnerable you are a resident, the easier it is for people to prey upon you,” said Councilor Stephanie Lynch (5th District), a sponsor of the proposal the Council passed in a uninamous 9-0 vote.

The new ordinance sets up a framework for how rental inspections work, but the Council would have to take further action and hold future public hearings to identify housing units to be inspected.

In a statement after the vote, Mayor Danny Avula applauded the move while noting there’s still work to do to “build a fair, transparent process that protects tenants, supports responsible landlords, and strengthens neighborhoods.”

“Safe housing is healthy housing,” Avula said. “This ordinance creates a pathway to ensure that Richmond renters live in homes that meet basic standards of safety and dignity.”

After amendments were made to the original proposal, the rental inspection districts the city envisions would most likely only be applied to specific housing complexes, not to entire neighborhoods or more broadly defined areas. 

The inspections would only apply to properties with more than three dwelling units, and the inspection districts can only include multiple properties if they’re under the same ownership or management. Those limitations mean the districts could mostly apply to individual apartment complexes causing concern.

Councilor Kenya Gibson (3rd District) said she’d like to eventually see a broader inspection program.

“I could envision a city in which rental inspections are necessary to have a rental,” Gibson said. “And that the fees that are collected through widespread rental inspections fund the program in and of itself. Every rental that is in the city should be safe.”

Once the Council votes to establish a rental inspection area, the city would be empowered to inspect housing units within that area after 90 days. That new process will presumably give city officials more power to enforce code violations against landlords leaving their tenants in particularly unsafe or squalid conditions.

Lynch pointed specifically to the Richmond Redevelopment and Housing Authority as one of the city’s worst offenders in terms of the treatment of tenants. That remark drew pushback from Councilor Reva Trammell (8th District), who pressed her to clarify that she wasn’t singling out current RRHA leadership for criticism.

Property owners won’t be charged a fee for being inspected, but violations identified during an inspection could lead to penalties.

Because the eventual size and scope of the program is still somewhat unknown, the Council has asked to receive more specific fiscal impact numbers before it moves forward with the creation of rental inspection areas.

Several local activists and city residents spoke at Monday’s meeting to encourage Richmond to adopt the program to give tenants a new way to hold landlords accountable.

“Weeding out slumlords helps the whole community, whether you’re a renter or own your home,” said Gwen Otwell with Richmond For All.

Thomas King, a leader with the local chapter of Democratic Socialists of America, said several other cities across Virginia have had rental inspection programs for decades.

“I’m really just up here to speak to how normal and common these things are,” King said. “They’re a basic part of the building code.”

Higher private towing fees get thumbs up

City residents will have to pay a little more to retrieve a vehicle towed from private property under another ordinance the Council passed Monday that increases the maximum fee towing companies can charge.

The standard tow fee will increase from $135 to $195. An additional $30 fee can be added for tows that take place overnight, on weekends or on holidays.

The fee increase, which doesn’t apply to vehicles towed from public streets, was requested by the city’s towing advisory board.

During Monday’s public comment period, one speaker questioned why the Council would support making it more expensive to be towed, saying “it would be kind of like voting for Darth Vader.”

Several employees of local towing companies urged the Council to support the increase, saying it was necessary to keep them afloat when inflation has caused the industry’s costs to rise.

With the increase, Richmond’s new towing fee is still slightly lower than the $210 maximum allowable under Virginia law. 

Gibson said she didn’t doubt whether some sort of towing fee increase was overdue, but asked if the body might be interested in delaying the matter to get a better understanding of the math behind the proposal.

No one else seemed interested in postponing the vote.

Trammell said the tow truck drivers are just doing their jobs and suggested that, without the fee increase,  they could be put out on the street.

“We don’t want to see any more people homeless,” Trammell said.

Papi’s gets a nightclub permit

Papi’s, an LGBTQ+ bar in Shockoe Slip that has run into regulatory trouble, was approved for a nightclub permit that could help the business resume operating as it once did.

Papi’s had struggled with a series of state and local code issues, including the loss of its state alcohol license. 

But the permit approved Monday resolves one outstanding issue. Under city zoning, a nightclub permit is required for establishments to offer alcohol, music and dancing between midnight and 2 a.m.

City transfers $2M to affordable housing after scrutiny over unused money

Delivering on a promise made a few months ago by Mayor Danny Avula’s administration, the Council transferred $2 million to the city’s Affordable Housing Trust Fund from a pot of one-time money that was previously going mostly unused.

In 2019, the Council passed a policy to create a dedicated source of affordable housing money by tapping into a special fund a special fund that holds money from the city-overseen sales of properties long delinquent on real estate tax bills. 

The Council envisioned up to $1 million a year being transferred from the delinquent tax sale fund to the affordable housing fund. However, that enacted policy has not been followed.

The discrepancy was discovered over the summer when the Avula administration suggested drawing from the more than $9 million in the tax sale fund to make a restitution payment to wrongfully imprisoned man Marvin Grimm Jr.

The Council approved the payment to Grimm, but not without some anger over the appearance that the money was being used for a different purpose than what the Council instructed in 2019.

The transfer of the $2 million drew a strong show of support from local housing advocates, including several from the faith-based activist coalition Richmonders Involved to Strengthen Our Communities, or RISC. 

Several RISC members noted what they see as a contrast between how quickly the city can move to approve things like tax incentives meant to help bring a hotel to Scott’s Addition while refusing to follow its own policies on directing money for affordable housing.

“Our city’s priorities must reflect the needs of all its people, not just the interests of developers and tourists, the Rev. Derek Starr Redwine, a pastor at First Presbyterian Church and co-president of RISC, said in a news release from the group.

RRHA wins approval for roughly $94 million in bond-financed projects

The Council gave its approval for approximately $94 million in bonds the Richmond Redevelopment and Housing Authority wants to issue for three proposed housing projects.

City taxpayers are not on the hook to repay the bonds, which are designed to facilitate the construction of new affordable housing that will produce its own revenue.

The three separate bond issuances are:

• $40 million for the 288-unit project Rady Flats project located at 2811 Rady St.
• $45 million for the 234-unit Joyfield at German School Road project located at 250 E. German School Rd.
• $9 million for a 77-unit project at 101 West Commerce Rd.

Contact Reporter Graham Moomaw at gmoomaw@richmonder.org