Today, in front of George Wythe High School, Mayor Stoney announced that the Southside high school will be the next major school facility project to benefit Richmond’s students.
 
The Dreams4RPS Strategic Plan, supported by the School Board and funded in full by the Stoney administration, identified Wythe as the next facility in need of reinvention and rebuilding after the three new schools the administration unveiled this summer: Cardinal Elementary, Henry Marsh Elementary and River City Middle.
 
With the commitment, the School Board has the responsibility to lead a rigorous community engagement process to ensure plans for the school reflect the values and priorities of the community.
 
“Just this summer, we’ve proven this is possible when we put aside the self and focus on the community,” said Mayor Stoney of the school redesign process. “Together, we’ll build a high school that reflects the potential, innovation and spirit of the students inside.”
 
Mayor Stoney was joined by Councilmember Stephanie Lynch, School Board Chair Linda Owen, School Board Vice Chair Cheryl Burke and former School Board Chair Dawn Page, as well as members of the George Wythe and Richmond Public Schools Administration.
 
George Wythe High School opened its doors on Midlothian Turnpike in 1960. With the exception of one renovation in the early 1980s, the building has not undergone improvement since.
 
Wythe serves 1300 students. In the words of the mayor, “Wythe is the space where these students will spend four of the most formative, consequential years of their lives. These years that are so impactful on their futures shouldn’t be spent in a building stuck in the past.”

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Mayor Stoney recommends City Council allocate funding to mental health pilot, doula fund, gun violence prevention 

The Stoney administration, working alongside Richmond City Health District, has proposed $500,000 of special purpose reserves from the projected FY2020 budget surplus go to funding three distinct public health efforts in the city.

The mayor is proposing the following:

1. $200,000, Resource Center Mental Health and Substance Use Disorder Pilot, partnering with Richmond City Health District, Richmond Behavioral Health Authority. The yearlong pilot will fund a full-time clinician, a licensed substance use disorder counselor and a peer recovery specialist to work out of RCHD’s resource centers and provide necessary services to residents in their communities. 
2. $150,000, Richmond Doula Fund, partnering with Richmond City Health District. The Doula Fund will reimburse doulas for services and fund doula training with the goal of decreasing racial disparities in maternal and infant health outcomes. 
3. $150,000, Gun Violence Prevention Framework, partnering with Richmond City Health District. These funds will support the development of a hybrid gun violence prevention model based on national best practices and community input. With this funding, the model will be finalized in early 2021. 

“The pandemic has highlighted a troubling network of health disparities that threaten quality of life for many Richmonders,” said the mayor. “With these three proposed allocations, Richmond City Council has the opportunity to support our effort to address these disparities, building a healthier city for all.”

The Richmond City Council will discuss the potential allocations at the informal meeting on Monday, October 12. The council will have the opportunity to reach consensus on using surplus funds to support these three innovative and detailed public health efforts.

Mayor Stoney indicated on September 15, 2020 that he would propose special purpose reserves be allocated in part to address health disparities in the city. All three of the above projects aim to allocate more resources to historically underserved communities.

For more details on the three efforts this allocation would fund, click here.

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For the first time, the City of Richmond Finance Department will pick up application materials for those interested in applying for the city’s Tax Relief for the Elderly and Disabled Program.
 
“Due to the ongoing pandemic, we know some seniors are uncomfortable visiting public spaces like a post office or City Hall,” said Finance Director John Wack. “We want everyone eligible for this program to participate, but transportation and public health concerns are very real barriers to participation. With curbside document pickup, we can remove that barrier.”
 
If applicants request curbside service, Department of Finance staff will visit the provided address to retrieve application materials from residents. Pickup will be contactless to comply with public health best practices.
 
At the Monday, September 28 meeting of Richmond City Council, the council approved the Stoney administration’s request to extend the deadline for the Tax Relief for the Elderly and Disabled Program to October 30.
 
Participants interested in curbside pickup should call 804-646-6015 to request the service. The service can be requested through October 28.
 
This service is available to first time applicants and residents applying for recertification.
 
To learn more about the program, visit the Finance Department’s Announcements page here.

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The City of Richmond has received a grant from Capital One through the company’s recently launched Impact Initiative, a program that seeks to close gaps in equity and promote social and economic opportunity in the Richmond region.
 
The support from Capital One will help the city fund an equity study, equity and inclusivity training for city staff, and the development of action plans to operationalize solutions throughout city policies, practices and procedures.
 
“Our goal is to normalize racial equity and justice within city conversations, work and culture and operationalize them so that equity and justice are visible in everything our city does,” said Mayor Stoney. “We are truly grateful for the support of partners like Capital One helping to expand our capacity to do this critical work.”
 
“Richmond was once the second largest epicenter of the domestic trading of enslaved Africans, served as the former capital of the confederacy and was a stalwart of Massive Resistance, so it is unequivocally clear that racism has been intentionally built into systems and structures within this city that have harmed Black, brown and Indigenous people for generations,” said Osita Iroegbu, Senior Policy Advisor for Community Engagement, Inclusion and Equity. “It is now our obligation to be just as intentional about creating new systems that work for, and no longer against, those communities.”

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Today, Mayor Stoney announced that the administration’s Biennial Real Estate Strategies Plan places an emphasis on using city land to promote affordable housing development and affordable homeownership.
 
The City of Richmond administration will present the 2020 Biennial Real Estate Strategies Plan to Richmond City Council at the body’s September 28 meeting. This year, the plan’s focus is using city real estate as a means to equitably increase affordable housing accessibility and homeownership opportunities throughout the city.
 
“A fervent sense of restorative justice should impact everything coming out of City Hall,” said Mayor Stoney. “The issuance of this plan might be standard, but the contents are uniquely dedicated to using the city’s assets to promote affordable housing and help our city recover from the setbacks of the pandemic.”
 
The plan lists 66 parcels of city-owned real estate throughout the city. Each parcel is categorized for one of three proposed uses.
 
The plan proposes the plurality of parcels be conveyed to the Maggie Walker Community Land Trust (MWCLT) for the development of affordable homes.

According to Deputy Chief Administrative Officer for Economic and Community Development Sharon Ebert, who was hired by Mayor Stoney in 2019, the city should use available real estate holdings to promote equitable affordable housing development.
 
“To make housing affordable, we have to make the price of developing that housing affordable,” said DCAO Ebert. “If non-profit affordable housing developers have to pay market rate, that adds to the costs and makes it more challenging to serve lower-income residents. We can make city-owned land available at below-market rates for developers who share our commitment to affordable housing.”
 
The third group of parcels are proposed to host future large-scale mixed-use and mixed-income development. As such, some of these high-value parcels will be sold through a competitive RFP process to provide immediate cash proceeds to address CIP needs and result in important community benefits.
 
“We intentionally designed this plan for the conveyance of city-owned lands to increase affordable housing development, facilitate Black and brown homeownership through the MWCLT and provide a much-needed stimulus kick for the city’s CIP funds,” said Mayor Stoney of the plan.
 
City Code §8-56(c) requires that the Chief Administrative Officer provide a biennial real estate strategies plan consisting of recommendations for the sale and disposition of city-owned parcels of real estate to Richmond City Council every even year.
 
Once the plan is presented, the administration will introduce legislation to move forward with elements of the plan. Any conveyances of city-owned land do require approval by ordinance of City Council.
 
Below is a timeline of eviction diversion and affordable housing action items in since Mayor Stoney hosted the Affordable Housing and Community Development Summit.
 
November 2017 – Affordable Housing and Community Development Summit
January 2019 – Founding of the first of its kind in the Commonwealth Eviction Diversion Program
March 2019 – City hires in a permanent capacity Sharon Ebert, DCAO of Economic and Community Development
August 2019 – City team began work on the Equitable and Affordable Housing Plan
August – December 2019 – City team meets with stakeholders to develop plan
January 2020 – Mayor Stoney notes that the city is on track to meet its goal of 1500 affordable units by the end of 2020 and mentions Equitable Affordable Housing Plan (delayed due to pressing needs brought on by the pandemic)
Spring 2020 – City dedicates roughly 14M to rent relief, eviction diversion and emergency shelter beds to manage the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic
September 2020 – Stoney administration introduced ordinance to earmark funds for the Affordable Housing Trust Fund, presents Equitable Affordable Housing Plan to City Council

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