RICHMOND, Va. -- Virginia Attorney General Mark Herring announced the launch of a new project to reduce crime in one of Richmond’s oldest and largest public housing neighborhoods.
That project -- ‘Greater Gilpin' -- is a three-year, $1 million project to reduce violent crime in the Gilpin Court neighborhood.
The project, funded by a federal grant, will strive to reduce the number of homicides by 50 percent, the number of violent gun crimes by 25 percent, improve the relationship between law enforcement and community members, and increase employment rates by 10 percent.
Herring said they plan to do this by targeting the root of the problem.
"Greater Gilpin is going to reduce crime and make Gilpin Court safer by attacking the factors that we know contribute to crime," Herring said. "We’re going to break the cycle of violence by attacking the problems that contribute to it like poverty, drug use, limited education and job opportunities, and poor health."
Herring said this will be a community-driven project in which they will hire a full-time project coordinator who will work to engage with people in the neighborhood to find out how best to spend that money. He said they will also pair that with evidence-base law enforcement strategies to strengthen the neighborhood and reduce the violence.
Herring also said they planned to target the young people in the community, who make up a large portion of the community. He said about half of the residents of Gilpin are under 25.
A spokesperson for the Richmond Redevelopment and Housing Authority said they are also on board, and added that the neighborhood is also one of several in the planning phase for future redevelopment.
