RICHMOND, Va. — Richmond City Council voted in favor of a resolution that would extend discussions about whether to move the Gilpin Court housing community under new leadership, following months of conversations between Richmond Redevelopment Housing Authority (RRHA) and its residents.
The vote took place at Monday night's City Council meeting, where dozens of Richmond residents weighed in on the potential transfer of power.
"I'm not for the transfer to RDC because I feel like I was misled and deceived about how the plan would actually be redeveloped," said one Richmond resident.
"How will transferring Gilpin to an institution with even less oversight and transparency offer anything different? The only guarantee is that the public won't actually know and be powerless to stop them," said another resident.
For months, RRHA has shared its hope to move Gilpin Court management from RRHA, a public entity, to Richmond Development Corporation (RDC), a private non-profit under RRHA. In order to make this move, a vote by the RRHA Board of Commission is required—a change RRHA CEO Steven Nesmith says would help residents.
"How can it be best leveraged to redevelop Gilpin Court? And the other things that it could do is attract and raise money for all sorts of things that public housing residents need, and that includes Gilpin Court, that is generating money which we don't have," Nesmith said.
In April, the board voted not to approve the new leadership, seeking more public support for the project. RRHA put a new vote on the calendar for September. This prompted Councilwoman Kenya Gibson to submit Monday's new proposal for expedited approval.
"When I heard that a master development agreement was signed after the RRHA board of commissioners voted against transferring the property to RDC, this was concerning to me," Gibson said.
The resolution allows the city's attorney to send a letter to RRHA, informing them that the attorney's understanding of the state law requires the approval of City Council before any changes in the development, including the transfer of Gilpin Court.
"The law is very clear, that before RRHA has the authority to go into agreement, our body needed to vote in support of that and that did not happen," Gibson said.
Gibson and those who shared their concerns say they hope RRHA seeks more input from the community and its representatives before moving forward on work in any of its communities.
"This matters because we have 2,000 residents who need to have a voice and we are their voice in this matter," Gibson said.
"Most of the residents do not know what's going on, it's not a robust communication from RRHA," added a resident.
CBS 6 reached out to RRHA for a response to the resolution approval. We are still waiting to hear back.
CBS 6 is committed to sharing community voices on this important topic. Email your thoughts to the CBS 6 Newsroom.
📲: CONNECT WITH US
Blue Sky | Facebook | Instagram | X | Threads | TikTok | YouTube
This story was initially reported by a journalist and has been converted to this platform with the assistance of AI. Our editorial team verifies all reporting on all platforms for fairness and accuracy. To learn more about how we use AI in our newsroom, click here.
