Lawsuit alleges that RRHA broke federal law by not offering Hardship Exemption to minimum rent

RICHMOND, Va. (WRIC) -- One current Richmond public housing resident and a former resident have filed a lawsuit against the Richmond Redevelopment Housing Authority (RRHA) alleging that the authority overcharged them and other residents who experienced financial hardship.

According to the Legal Aid Justice Center, the lawsuit alleges that the authority broke federal law by not offering the residents a Hardship Exemption.

Federal law requires that RRHA make this exemption immediately available to residents if they experience a financial crisis or hardship. The lawsuit alleges that RRHA does not make its tenants aware of this option.

The center said that after a resident's son died, she struggled to pay RRHA’s required rent due to her sole source of regular income, her Supplemental Security Income benefits, being suspended.

After reporting this to RRHA and completing a worksheet detailing her possible income and expenses, proving she had little ability to pay, the center said RRHA did not inform her of the Hardship Exemption.

According to the center, RRHA has reportedly granted only one Hardship Exemption "despite evidence that hundreds of residents were struggling to pay the minimum rent required by the authority."

The Legal Aid Justice Center, the National Housing Law Project and Hunton Andrews Kurth LLP filed the class action lawsuit on behalf of the plaintiffs.

The Richmond Redevelopment Housing Authority provided the following statement to 8News:

The Richmond Redevelopment and Housing Authority (RRHA) has read and reviewed the press release from the Legal Aid Justice Center. From that press release, we understand that a lawsuit has been filed alleging that RRHA is in violation of federal laws. RRHA takes any allegation of a violation of federal laws very seriously and looks forward to seeing the actual lawsuit so that we can respond accordingly.  RRHA has not been served and has not seen the lawsuit, so, at this time, we cannot speak to the lawsuit's merits. It is important to note that RRHA takes our responsibility to  taxpayers and the citizens of the city of Richmond seriously in providing access to  affordable housing (income based housing). It is common knowledge that RRHA is in the process of renewed lease enforcement and is moving forward systematically. These actions are likely creating issues and challenges to those who have not honored their responsibility for rental payments of leased property. RRHA strives to treat all of our residents respectfully and responsibly, uphold our fiduciary responsibility to taxpayers and ensure that we are in compliance with the mandates of federal housing law. RRHA CEO Steven Nesmith