Originally published in the Spring 2022 edition of the Virginia Defender, issue 68, printed April 21. Reproduced here for accessibility and archival purposes. To find other stories in the Spring 2022 issue or to download the full PDF, see this post. For other issues dating back to 2012, see the Full Issues page.

Years ago, as a reporter for the Richmond Free Press, I had a conversation with Calvin Jamison, who at the time was Richmond’s city manager. I remember him remarking that Richmond had become the repository for the region’s poor, and that was why the city had a poverty rate of 25 percent. The goal, he said, was to bring it down to 15. (It’s about 21 now.)

At the time, I thought he meant the city would be working to reduce poverty, but now I understand he simply meant it should reduce the number of poor people.

That’s why, when it comes to tearing down public housing, no Richmond mayor or director of the Richmond Redevelopment and Housing Authority has been willing to commit to one-to-one replacement, meaning that for every low-rent unit torn down, another would be built to replace it. The Defenders first raised that demand years ago.

There used to be 4,000 public housing units in the city – 4,000 homes, housing some 10,000 people. Not great homes, but homes nonetheless. Now the RRHA isn’t even taking new applications. The goal is nothing less than to drive thousands of low-income Richmonders – almost all of them AfricanAmericans, out of Richmond and into the counties – which the latest census tells us is exactly what’s happening.

It’s an example of inhumane cruelty that is stunning in its scope. And yet, where is the outcry?