For immediate release: December 13, 2024
Richmond, Va. – The Richmond Chapter of Virginia Organizing held a successful community forum with newly elected city councilmembers to discuss the importance of the rental inspection program on Wednesday, December 4. Virginia Organizing received verbal commitments from city councilmembers in attendance to prioritize the program.
One Richmond tenant who spoke at the forum emphasized the need for a rental inspection program, by asserting that landlords “need to be held accountable.” They continued on to discuss the hypocrisy of the current system by stating, “Communities are suffering… If you don’t pay your rent, you get kicked out. But what happens to these [landlords] who have you living in uninhabitable properties and they are not held liable? Something needs to be done.”
The lack of accountability has ultimately bred distrust amongst tenants. “We cannot trust our landlords or the city to stay accountable for the safety of our families,” said another Richmond tenant, Kim Taylor.
Almost fifty Richmond tenants, community-based organizations, and local landlords attended the forum in favor of a rental inspection program.
Newly elected Richmond city councilmembers Andrew “Gumby” Breton, of the 1st District, and Kenya Gibson, of the 3rd District, attended the forum and publicly committed to support the rental inspection program. Virginia State Senator Ghazala Hashmi also attended in support of the program.
While not in attendance at the event, the chapter received emails of support from councilmembers Jordan, Lynch, and Jones. The chapter received no communication from the 6th, 7th, 8th council district teams about their support for the rental inspection program.
Richmond tenant and Virginia Organizing chapter leader, Melanie Taylor-Carden, summed up the issue with the statement, “our current code enforcement is the definition of putting a Band-Aid on the issue except we don’t always have a Band-Aid big enough for a fallen roof.”
As a follow-up to the community forum, Kim Taylor attended a Richmond city council meeting on Monday, December 9 to deliver “nice” certificates to councilmembers who publicly committed to support the program and “naughty” certificates to those who have not. However, Taylor was cut off when sharing the “naughty” list, as the list was deemed to be “disparaging language.”
Richmond tenants have waited long enough for landlords to be held accountable for uninhabitable living conditions. A rental inspection program must be prioritized now!
For more information or to interview a spokesperson about this event, please contact Meghan McNamara at 847-922-1213 or email meghan@virginia-organizing.org.
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Virginia Organizing is a non-partisan statewide grassroots organization that brings people together to create a more just Virginia.
