RICHMOND, Va. — Richmond Redevelopment and Housing Authority (RRHA) held a 'Meet and Lease' event on Friday at the Calhoun Center on Richmond's Northside Friday, giving residents an opportunity to meet directly with potential landlords.
"I’m here looking for housing," said Tiffany Jackson, a Richmond mother. "I feel very hopeful that I’ll find something."
Jackson attended with her caseworker, Shantel Anthony Webber.
"I didn’t anticipate this many vendors, this many people," Webber said. "It’s so convenient for them to have everything in one place because just finding housing, in general, is hard, but especially when you're trying to use the voucher and find reputable landlords and good properties, and we’ve seen a lot of them today."
Spreading the word about available properties is a communication barrier landlords are also dealing with.
"It’s been difficult to advertise housing," said Yvette Cotman. "So this gives us an opportunity to get people who are actively looking for housing and have that immediate need."
RRHA CEO Steven Nesmith said Meet and Lease can serve as a one-stop-shop for landlords and tenants.
"Today’s event is about matching up landlords in the city of Richmond with voucher holders who are looking for housing," he said. "It’s like putting a marriage together is what we’re doing here."
Nesmith said he’s hoping it’ll help make a small dent in the city’s housing crisis.
"For those who are struggling when they are hitting the street and they can’t find the landlords, we say RRHA has got a solution, we’re going to bring the landlords to you, meet them where they are," he said.
Also claiming part of the issue with tenants finding homes is the lack of landlords that accept vouchers, Nesmith said RRHA plans to launch a campaign next year educating local landlords about the process and its benefits.
"We’re going to have a big campaign, education campaign around the misnomer and the idea that voucher holders are not going to be good residents," he said. "We want to convince landlords that voucher holders will come and be responsible renters."
If you weren't able to attend Friday's event, Nesmith said the full list of landlords will be posted on the RRHA website, and they also plan to have another one of these in the first quarter of 2025.
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