RICHMOND, Va. -- Justina Jackson headed to the bus stop Tuesday morning to catch a ride to an apartment she was touring.
Frankly, the rent on the unit, which is $1,000 not including utilities, is pushing her budget.
"Everything is raised— cost of living, housing, food, but our paychecks hasn't been raised. So how can we pay the cost to live?” Jackson said.
Jackson, who works at the Richmond International Airport five days a week, is among the many working adults in Central Virginia facing housing instability.
Over the years, she said she's been in and out of homelessness services while working with multiple different case workers and relying on help from friends and family to get by.
“I've been through crisis. I've been through different programs that put me up in the houses, and they have put me in hotels," Jackson said. “I’ve been staying from place to place, house to house, asking somebody, 'Can I stay at your house? Can I spend a night there or whatever?' It's been hard, it's been rough, it's been a journey.”
It's also been an excruciatingly long wait to try and gain access to a public housing unit, which she considers one of the only truly affordable options for her.
Jackson showed CBS 6 emails dating back to 2015 when she first applied for a unit through the Richmond Redevelopment and Housing Authority (RRHA).
And since 2019, for the past five years, she's consistently remained on the waitlist.
“I think that's kind of ridiculous to have to wait that long, and to be on the waiting list, 9,200-and-something on one list. Another list, I was 2,000-something," Jackson said.
This summer, Jackson finally got the notification she wanted.
RRHA selected her for a one-bedroom apartment.
“I was excited. I was happy about it," Jackson recalled.
But excitement turned into disappointment after Jackson said she mistakenly neglected to upload the requested documentation to complete her application.
The next email she received from RRHA alerted her that it would be canceling her application.
“Oversight on my part. Like I told them, I didn't see that in the email to upload a birth certificate and social security card. If I had, I'd have sent it to y'all immediately," Jackson said.
So, Jackson's crisis case manager sent an appeal on her behalf, requesting a hearing to reconsider Jackson's application.
"I am writing to advocate for Ms. Jackson and to ask that you please allow her the opportunity to get back her unit due to this oversight on her part," the letter stated. "Ms. Jackson is a hardworking person who is currently facing financial difficulties and is currently without a stable place to stay. This has caused Ms. Jackson to be thrown into a crisis which caused her to be hospitalized in the past. I strongly believe if given the opportunity Ms. Justina Jackson would make an excellent tenant and uphold all the responsibilities that come from renting."
But RRHA denied the request for an appeal, saying it was not sent within a required 15-business day timeframe. RRHA said it received the letter on July 3, 2024, when it should have been received by June 26, 2024.
Jackson said she was devastated by the decision.
According to RRHA's response to a 2023 audit by federal regulators with the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD), more than 10,000 people are currently on RRHA's public housing waiting list.
However, HUD found the authority was not selecting applicants from that list in accordance with policies.
The audit stated that RRHA appeared to skip over some families, could not provide documentation showing the method it used to remove families from the list, and did not maintain waiting list records.
HUD directed the authority to take several corrective actions including updating its procedures to "clearly state its policy for removing applicants from the waiting list" to include how those families are removed "if they do not respond to RRHA requests for information."
RRHA disputed HUD's findings in its response to the audit, saying the authority does in fact follow proper policies when managing the wait list.
For Jackson, she said she's left with the question, "What do I do now?"
While she's desperate for a second chance she may not get, she hopes to "just be stable, just get some stability. Just live and move forward," she said.
RRHA said it could not comment on Jackson's case specifically but said it must follow HUD regulations on managing applications and cannot offer any residents options outside of that purview.
Spokesperson Angela Fountain said applicants who were removed from one waitlist will still remain active on other lists.
Fountain provided the following information about RRHA's process:
"RRHA selects applicants from a waitlist in date and time order. The selections are based on a variety of factors, to include the availability of units according to bedroom size needed, family composition, and type of unit. Once an applicant is selected, they receive multiple notices. Because of the number of persons on a given RRHA waitlist and RRHA’s efforts to pull applicants from the list when suitable units become available, applicants are also provided detailed instructions on what is needed from them concerning the process of placing them in the unit, i.e. If the applicant has trouble logging into their portal, they can call RRHA’s customer call center, or their Housing Specialist. They can also come to RRHA offices during walk-in hours without an appointment on Tuesdays from 9 – Noon and Thursdays from 1 – 4p. As a result of these efforts, applicants who do not follow through with the necessary information in the allotted timeframe and does not inform RRHA within that timeframe, RRHA will move on to the next person on the waitlist that is eligible."
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