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4/11/10 Why do I pay only $474 in Virginia income tax?

4/7/10 Grassroots Response to Health Care Passage

4/3/2010 Grassroots group eyes reform

3/30/10 Augusta Free Press audio show on VOP's state budget proposals

3/15/10 New Yorker audio slides on Martinsville, site of VOP's newest office

1/22/10 VOP on NPR's Morning Edition

11/25/09 Charges dropped against Joe Szakos, the Anthem Blue Cross customer arrested for questioning rate increases

Great New Books on Organizing:

Residents of Public Housing in Richmond Against Mass Evictions is a group of public housing residents, advocates, concerned individuals and community groups devoted to preserving and expanding affordable housing options for low-come Richmonders.

The Legal Aid Client Advisory Council, Virginia Organizing Project, Jobs With Justice, Richmond NAACP, and other groups support RePHRAME’s vision for all residents of Richmond to have safe, stable and affordable housing availability, with the necessary training and support system in place to eliminate poverty and provide opportunities for individual and community development.

The group is led by low-income residents working with advocates and allies to push for fair and humane housing policies in Richmond.

On September 15, RePHRAME sponsored a community forum on public housing redevelopment to inform and educate public housing residents and community members about plans to redevelopment the Gilpin Court housing project located in historic Jackson Ward.

The panel included Andy Epps, chair of NAACP Richmond Housing committee; Cora Hayes, Central Virginia Legal Aid Client Advisory Council; Marilyn Olds, president of the Richmond Tenant Organization; Alex Gulotta, executive director of the Legal Aid Justice Center; and Joy Johnson of the National Low-Income Housing Coalition Board. Lillie Estes served as the moderator.

Panelists called for public housing residents to get involved and learn more about the long-range housing plans for their communities, to stay involved with the Richmond Tenant Organization and speak to their elected officials about the need to develop affordable housing in Richmond.

Richmond City Council candidates were asked to address the concerns and goals of the organization and identify what they would support. The responses were recorded on a large board and were available for all attendees to view at the close of the forum.

VOP provided a voter registration table for the forum.

Lillie Estes stated, “I want to change the narrative on deconcentration of poverty and how it will be applied to the revitalization of public housing. The numbers don’t work and displacing people and not addressing poverty is the main issue.”

The goals of RePHRAME are to achieve one for one replacement of any public housing units lost; to ensure meaningful, ongoing participation by public housing residents in the planning process; and to raise awareness and increase implementation of anti-poverty measures.

For more information about RePHRAME, contact Andrew Schoeneman, community organizer at Legal Aid Justice Center, (804) 643-1086, ext. 104, or e-mail at andrew@justice4all.org.