When Anthony Scott took interim control of the Richmond Redevelopment and Housing Authority in 2006, departing Executive Director Sheila Hill-Christian had a word of warning about its housing-voucher program for needy families. “She said, ‘You’ve got to get in there and figure out what’s going on with it,‘“ Scott recalled. Focused on the authority’s strategic plan, Hill-Christian hadn’t been able to address increasing concerns about management of the program.

The Richmond Redevelopment and Housing Authority expects to need a smaller city loan than initially thought to prop up its housing-voucher program. Anthony Scott, the authority’s chief executive officer, told the City Council yesterday that the authority may need about $600,000 next year, including $400,281 by this Dec. 1, for the program that supports subsidized rental housing of low-income families.

The Richmond Redevelopment and Housing Authority will make a public pitch today for a city loan to prop up its ailing voucher program, but the authority still doesn’t know how much it will need or how it will repay the money. Anthony Scott, the authority’s chief executive officer, is scheduled to appear today before Richmond City Council to discuss a loan request of up to $1.4 million to fill a projected gap in the voucher program for subsidized rental housing of low-income families.

The Richmond Redevelopment and Housing Authority is hosting a fall open house at a model home in the Randolph community tomorrow. Prospective homebuyers can tour the model home at 1608 Winder St. and participate in a guided bus tour of two other featured homes—located at 1119 Meade St. in the Randolph community and 2608 Harold St. in the Highland Park community.

A year ago, the Richmond Redevelopment and Housing Authority wasn’t spending enough of its money on housing vouchers for needy families. Now, the authority is spending more than it can afford.

The public housing resident received a letter in May saying she’d been picked to receive a rent-subsidy voucher. She’d been on the Richmond Redevelopment and Housing Authority’s voucher waiting list since at least 2000 and was living with her mom. “I was glad to receive it so I could have my own place, finally,“ said the woman, who did not want her name published for fear of retaliation.

Richmond’s housing authority is freezing its rent-subsidy program because of a financial jam. The Richmond Redevelopment and Housing Authority’s move means that 130 families who received vouchers for subsidies within the past two months won’t be able to get the help. “We’re telling them, unfortunately, we don’t have the funding,“ said Shawn Williams, director of the authority’s federally funded rent-subsidy program.

Five students who live in Richmond Redevelopment and Housing Authority properties have been awarded Tomorrow’s Promise college scholarships. In addition to the scholarship awards, the students will receive coaching and mentoring throughout college from RRHA staff. The honorees are: Francyne Hamilton of George Wythe High School

Richmonder Latifah Neblett-Burrell, 15, will head to Savannah State University in Georgia on June 20 to be named Youth Female Diver of the Year by the National Association of Black Scuba Divers. The award, to be presented June 25, will be part of the association’s sixth annual Youth Educational Summit. In addition, on July 16-17, Latifah will be in Washington with representatives of NABS to receive an award from the U.S. Department of Interior.

When: Thursdays this month
  What times: 10 a.m., 2 p.m. and 6 p.m.
  Where: RRHA capacity building office at 200 Hospital St.
  What to bring: photo identification and Social Security card
  Questions: (804) 780-4835

The Richmond Redevelopment and Housing Authority is holding information sessions to fill jobs for people who live in government-assisted housing or whose incomes fall below certain limits set by the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development. RRHA will be hiring for positions with the agency’s contractors that may include clerical, general labor and construction, according to an RRHA statement about the information sessions.

They patrol some of Richmond’s meanest streets, handle thousands of calls each year and recently nabbed two murder suspects.

The oldest house in Fulton, once described as the birthplace of Richmond, was built in 1965. The brick rancher belongs to Earl Robinson, whose father built it a few years before Fulton was demolished with a breathtaking lack of discrimination, leaving scant clues of what had previously existed. The valley between Rockett’s Landing and Fulton Hill became a community without a discernable past.

Richmond officials last night showed off their plans to transform one of the city’s toughest neighborhoods into a vibrant mixed-used community.

The Youth Sports and Fine Arts Academy’s Hillside Cobras will participate in the Virginia Silver Gloves Boxing Tournament at 1 p.m. Dec. 6-7, 2008, in the old Armstrong High School gym, 1611 N. 31st St. The Richmond Redevelopment and Housing Authority’s YSFAA is a comprehensive, prevention program that uses sports to engage youth in organized, structured programs aimed at helping them aspire to their full potential.