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Governor OKs Program to Help Renters Facing Eviction

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Building on a package of new laws to reduce evictions, Gov. Ralph Northam announced Thursday that he has approved creation of a program to help low-income tenants facing eviction.

The Eviction Diversion Pilot Program will begin in Richmond, Hampton, Petersburg and Danville in July 2020.

The program is the result of identical bills sponsored by Democratic Sen. Mamie Locke of Hampton and Republican Del. Christopher Collins of Frederick County. The General Assembly unanimously approved SB 1450 and HB 2655. Northam signed the bills Tuesday.

The pilot program is aimed at curbing evictions in Virginia as well as collecting data on the problem, according to a press release from Northam’s team.

“Virginia localities have some of the highest rates of evictions in the nation, yet there are clear gaps our ability to obtain tangible data and fully address this crisis in our commonwealth,” Northam said.

“My administration remains focused on increasing access to quality, affordable housing, and this pilot program will assist the state in developing stronger methods for preventing evictions and expanding important protections for all renters in Virginia.”

Christie Marra of the Virginia Poverty Law Center said the pilot program is essentially a payment plan for tenants who might occasionally have problems paying rent.

“This program is for tenants who are not chronically late on rent,” Marra said. “It diverts eligible tenants into a payment plan, and if they pay their debts off, their cases are dismissed.”

Marra said the Virginia Poverty Law Center and the Virginia Housing Commission were closely involved in pushing for legislation to reduce evictions in the commonwealth.

Last month, Northam signed several bills addressing eviction rates and affordable housing. The measures include:

  • HB 1898, which will give tenants more time to submit unpaid rent and fees prior to an eviction judgment.
  • HB 1922, which will reduce the number of legal actions a landlord may file in court against a tenant — and limit the amount of court fees that tenants would incur.
  • SB 1676, which will require landlords to provide tenants with a written lease agreed upon by both parties.

“Most people don’t know that it is actually not a law to have a written lease in Virginia,” Marra said. “This happens a lot, especially in rural areas in Virginia.”

Marra and other advocates for low-income Virginians are hopeful that the new laws will help struggling tenants.

“From Day One, we knew eviction was a problem,” Marra said. “These six bills that passed are a wonderful step forward for leveling the playing field.”

A recent study by the Eviction Lab at Princeton University found that of the six cities with the highest eviction rates in the U.S., four were in Virginia: Richmond, Hampton, Newport News and Norfolk.

“Increasing the quality, availability and affordability of housing in our commonwealth is critical to ensuring that all Virginians have an equal opportunity to lead healthy and productive lives,” Northam said in a press release.

“These measures establish important consumer protections, help to improve housing stability for vulnerable populations, and represent a fundamental step forward in addressing Virginia’s disproportionately high eviction rates.”

By Katja Timm, Capital News Service

Op-Ed: Can Virginia’s Democratic Party Recover From the Northam Backlash?

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Governor Ralph Northam may be trying to put his blackface scandal behind him. But we are just beginning to see the effects of his missteps, on state politics in general and on the Democratic Party in particular.

Some of these effects extend beyond the Governor’s office. As was widely reported last week, VA First Lady Pam Northam got in hot water by handing out cotton to school kids and asking them to imagine what slavery was like. Some of the students who were there dispute the idea that she singled out black kids. But the whole episode surely would not be an issue without her husband’s blackface incident; the kids on the tour clearly were hyper-aware of the Northams’ recent history. Routine duties like leading a school tour become perilous when everyone wonders if you and your husband are racists.

Still, such a precarious position has not stopped Northam from getting involved with legislative politics. Thanks to some terrific reporting by the RTD’s Patrick Wilson, we learned last week that Mark Bergman, head of Governor Northam’s political action committee, had been talking to Delegate Debra Rodman about making a state Senate run — convincingly so, it seems, as Rodman officially announced her campaign yesterday. Some Democrats think Rodman may be able to challenge conservative Republican Siobhan Dunnavant in the 12th Senate district in purplish Henrico County.

If I were Rodman, I would think twice about a Senate run. I think Deb is great – she’s a colleague of mine at Randolph-Macon College – and she ran a terrific underdog campaign in 2017. But she has only been in office for two legislative sessions, and might not have enough of a record to stand on. (Not to mention that you can see her standing behind Kathy Tran in the viral video from the infamous “Dems want to kill babies” abortion fiasco earlier this year.)

Del. Debra Rodman/via Facebook

Still, maybe Rodman’s platform as a sitting Delegate and her existing network of volunteers and donors could offer a real challenge to Dunnavant. The district voted Democratic last year by 15% (although that may have been more about voters rejecting Corey Stewart than anything else).

There’s just one problem: two Democratic candidates have already announced they are running against Dunnavant. And both – Veena Gupta Lothe and Marques Jones – are ethnic minorities. Rodman is not.

It is true that Lothe and Jones are newcomers with little political experience and not much money in the bank. (Of course, the same could have been said about Rodman in 2017.) So if the party is focused on winning that particular Senate seat, it might make sense to recruit a stronger candidate.

But what about the bigger picture?

First of all, the Party should be wary of taking sides in a primary among good faith candidates. According to the RTD report, the Governor’s PAC asked the state party to conduct a poll in Dunnavant’s district; they shared the results with Rodman, but not Lothe or Jones. Other candidates, activists, and volunteers could lose faith in the fairness of party leaders in an important election year.

Even more importantly, the Governor, at least through his PAC team, appears to be working to support a white woman over people of color at a time when minorities are already suspicious of his intentions.

More than the Governor’s reputation is at stake here. If Democrats want to reproduce the success of the last two elections in Virginia, they need ethnic minorities in the state to turn out for Democratic candidates. They also need volunteers and activists to fundraise, phonebank, and canvass. Thanks to Northam’s yearbook photo, African-Americans and other POC in the state have plenty of reasons to opt out this year.

In any other year, Northam’s actions here might be viewed as demonstrating important party leadership. As unpopular as partisanship is these days, political parties remain the most effective and important means of gaining power and governing in a democracy. If you like Democratic Party policies, you want a strong party voice helping to ensure that Democrats win state elections – and, eventually, win control of the General Assembly. This kind of coordination may involve some tough decisions.

But because of Northam’s blackface, Dem voters and activists may see another narrative in play. Instead of party leadership, they may see the Democratic party taking minority support for granted by promoting white candidates over people of color.

They may see a power play by a Democratic Governor who has absolutely no moral standing on race issues, and who is actively working to undermine minority Democrats, including an African-American.

No matter what happens in this particular Senate district, this episode shows – like so much else over the past few weeks – how Ralph Northam’s case for staying in office makes so very little sense. As long as Northam remains Governor, Democrats will be in disarray.

Note: Op-Eds are contributions from guest writers and do not reflect RVA Magazine editorial policy.

Most Virginians Don’t Want Officials to Resign, Poll Finds

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Some want Northam, Fairfax, and Herring to resign. Some want them to stay in office. And almost half of Virginians polled just weren’t sure.

Virginians have low approval ratings of Gov. Ralph Northam and Lt. Gov. Justin Fairfax, but most people say no one should resign or be impeached, according to a recent poll by the University of Virginia’s Center for Politics. It found that of the state’s three top officials, Attorney General Mark Herring is the best-positioned to remain in office.

Over the past month, the three leaders, all Democrats, have been under scrutiny after several scandals, and some politicians and groups have called for their resignations.

  • Two women have accused Fairfax of sexual assault — allegations he has denied.
  • Northam has been in hot water after the discovery of a photograph in his medical school yearbook showing a man in blackface and another in Ku Klux Klan garb. Northam initially apologized for the photograph and then denied he was in the picture. He later admitted to putting “a little bit of” shoe polish on his face to imitate Michael Jackson in a 1984 dance competition.
  • After calling for Northam’s resignation, Attorney General Mark Herring apologized for wearing blackface when he was 19 years old to imitate a rapper.

With that backdrop, U.Va.’s Center for Politics asked a representative sample of Virginia adults about their opinions of Northam, Fairfax and Herring.

The poll found that of the three leaders, more people believe Fairfax should quit. Thirty-five percent believe Fairfax should resign, and 28 percent favored impeachment.

Only 17 percent of Virginians approve of the governor’s job performance. However, only 31 percent of respondents say he should resign, and 21 percent believe he should be impeached.

According to the University of Virginia’s Center for Politics, there was a strong racial divide over whether Fairfax should resign. Thirty-nine percent of white respondents said they favored his resignation, compared with only 8 percent of black respondents.

Of the three officials, Herring had the fewest number of people suggesting he resign (19 percent) or be impeached (14 percent).

The poll involved interviewing 636 adults from Feb. 15-19. It had a margin of error of 4 percentage points.

By Emily Holter, Capital News Service. Images via CNS

Quick Uproar Leads To Slow Defeat For Abortion-Rights Bill

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Delegate Kathy Tran’s controversial attempt to ease restrictions on late-term abortions in Virginia was defeated in the General Assembly. But President Trump is still campaigning against it.

At one point last month, it seemed like third-trimester abortions, and their legality in Virginia, would be the controversy that dominated the state’s political discourse at the start of 2019. Of course, the tempest initially stirred up by 42nd District Delegate Kathy Tran’s HB 2491, a bill intended to ease some of the regulations the state currently has on second and third-trimester abortions, was quickly overtaken by the uproar over the state’s executive branch.

However, the quick progression of the news cycle meant that the first impressions around Tran’s bill were the ones that stuck. The fact that most of those were created by negative right-wing backlash is sure to impact reproductive rights in Virginia over the coming years. And as a closer look at Tran’s bill, and the events and discourse that surrounded it, shows us, there’s a lot about this controversial issue that is still not well understood.

Here’s what happened. At the beginning of this year’s General Assembly session, Delegate Kathy Tran introduced HB 2491, a bill designed to “eliminate certain requirements” around abortions in Virginia. It wasn’t until a couple of weeks later that the internet erupted, after a widely-circulated video showed Tran responding affirmatively to a question from a Republican delegate asking if women would be able to receive an abortion while they were in labor.

The video quickly sparked debate at the national level.

“Democrats have reached a new and disgusting low,” a press release from the National Republican Congressional Committee read. “They have a presented a bill that would allow killing a baby AFTER he or she is born.”

President Trump similarly criticized the bill – and similar legislation in New York – during his State of the Union address. Trump’s criticisms addressed comments made during an interview about the bill by Governor Ralph Northam, comments that only further inflamed anti-abortion activists.

“Then we had the case of the governor of Virginia where he basically stated he would execute a baby after birth,” Trump said. “To defend the dignity of every person, I am asking the Congress to pass legislation to prohibit the late-term abortion of children who can feel pain in the mother’s womb.”

Regardless of the controversy, the facts indicate that late term abortion is incredibly rare.

There have only been two third-trimester abortions in Virginia since 2000, the Richmond Times-Dispatch reported. Additionally, a new poll from The Washington Post reports that about 6 in 10 adult Virginians support third trimester abortion in cases where the mother’s health is at risk.

The furor over the bill has led to charges that the bill “would legalize abortion up to birth,” and even that it would legalize infanticide. However, when one reads the language present in the bill, it becomes clear that it does none of those things.

Here’s what HB 2491 would do:

  • Remove the requirement that second-trimester abortions be performed in a hospital.
  • Reduce the required number of physicians to sign off on a third-trimester abortion from three to one.
  • Eliminate language that requires for the health of a woman to be “substantially and irremediably” impacted for her to receive an abortion.

If the bill were passed, the provision in the Code of Virginia would allow for a third-trimester abortion, provided that, among other conditions, “the physician certifies and so enters in the hospital record of the woman, that in the physician’s medical opinion… the continuation of the pregnancy is likely to result in the death of the woman, or impair the mental or physical health of the woman.”

This last provision has been a bone of contention in right-wing circles, with many criticizing the fact that Tran’s bill would allow for women’s mental health to be a determining factor in the decision to allow an abortion. Many of the criticisms mirrored a line John McCain used in a 2008 debate with then-Senator Barack Obama.

Responding to Obama saying that any late-term abortion ban would have to include an exemption for situations in which the life or health of the mother was included, McCain responded, “Health of the mother… that’s been stretched by the pro-abortion movement in America to mean almost anything.”

Similar phrasing showed up in the discussion of Tran’s bill by multiple conservative outlets. Using a Master And Commander analogy, Madeleine Kearns wrote in the National Review, “Saying late-term abortion is okay when there’s risk of ‘the death of the woman’ or if the birth would ‘impair the mental or physical health of the woman’ is kind of like saying that cutting the man on the mast loose is okay if they’ll all drown or if he’ll contribute to the depletion of sea biscuits.”

On the same subject, RedState contributor streiff wrote, “Subsequent decisions have specified that ‘health’ includes mental health and that is a totally subjective judgment and, as far as I can tell, there has yet to be a case where an abortionist failed to collect their check due to one of them deciding that the woman’s life or health would not be damaged. It just doesn’t happen.”

Here’s what HB 2491 would not do:

  • Advocate for infanticide — which is covered by a different section of the Code Of Virginia than the ones HB 2491 would address, and remains a Class 4 felony regardless of whether HB 2491 passes or not.

Tran has since asserted that she misspoke in the video that went viral, and that a live birth, not an abortion, would happen during labor. “I wish that I was quicker on my feet and I wish that I was able to be more agile in that moment,” she told the Washington Post. “And I misspoke, and I really regret that.”

Tran said in a video statement posted to her Facebook page after the furor erupted that she knew and had heard from women who were faced with the decision of whether to have an abortion.

“That’s why I introduced a bill to repeal the medically unnecessary and unduly burdensome barriers that Virginia women face when they’re accessing this healthcare service in consultation with their doctor,” Tran said.

President Trump campaigns in El Paso on February 11; his discussion of Northam’s comments about Tran’s bill triggered furious booing from his supporters. (Image via YouTube)

Tran has been lauded as a champion women’s rights by a variety pro-choice organizations.

“Delegate Tran introduced a bill to repeal medically unnecessary barriers to reproductive healthcare in Virginia, and she should be applauded for her leadership,” Heidi Sieck said in a statement from Vote Pro-Choice. “Let’s be real: the overly-funded, outsized voice of the anti-choice movement is generating a vicious and misleading smear campaign against pro-choice legislation that is medically sound and aligned with the values of the country.”

Regardless, Tran’s bill was ultimately tabled on February 5 by the House of Delegates’ Committee For The Courts of Justice. And even as Virginians have ceased, for the most part, to discuss the issue, Trump continues to bring it up at campaign rallies, saying in El Paso on February 11, “The governor stated that he would even allow a newborn baby to come out into the world, and wrap the baby, and make the baby comfortable, and then talk to the mother and talk to the father and then execute the baby. Execute the baby!”

Rest assured, we haven’t heard the last of this issue. Hopefully next time it’s raised, it will be discussed in a fact-based manner, rather than destroyed by an uproar around a sensationalist sound bite.

Written by Marilyn Drew Necci and Kate Seltzer. Top Image via YouTube

Health Commissioner Says Most Whites Are Unconsciously ‘Anti-Black’

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The commissioner of the Virginia Department of Health faces backlash after stating that most white people are unconsciously “pro-white” and “anti-black.”

Dr. Norman Oliver’s remarks came through a weekly message last week sent to VDH employees. Oliver, who is African-American, was addressing the controversy over the discovery of a racist photo on Gov. Ralph Northam’s page of his 1984 medical school yearbook. The picture showed a man in Ku Klux Klan garb beside another in blackface.

“Unfortunately, as I know from my own research prior to joining VDH, the majority of whites (and a number of African Americans) are implicitly, that is, unconsciously, pro-white and anti-black,” the letter stated. “We have a great challenge ahead of us to increase awareness of our unconscious racial biases and find ways to mitigate, reduce, or eliminate them.”

In a follow-up internal message this week, Oliver acknowledged that his “weekly message” sparked comments from some offended employees.

I didn’t say that all whites are racist,” Oliver wrote in the follow-up message aiming to clarify his remarks, “rather, I said that the majority of whites have an implicit or unconscious preference for whites over Blacks.

A state worker, who provided the internal messages on the condition of anonymity, said Oliver’s follow-up letter defending himself satisfied some employees but did little to ease concern from others who considered his remarks out of bounds.

In Oliver’s original letter, he drew a distinction between “anti-black” bias and racism, stating that the vast majority of whites are not explicitly racist.

“Racist and stereotype views of Black people were pervasive in the state and in the country,” the letter stated. “Moreover, the events of August 2017 in Charlottesville demonstrate that white supremacist views still hold sway among some Americans of European descent. Thankfully, only a small minority of whites hold such racist views.”

“Some employees mistakenly thought I was calling all whites racist,” Oliver said in an email to Capital News Service. “I wasn’t, and I made it clear that I was talking about unconscious biases.”

Oliver said unconscious bias is also shared by a “significant number of African-Americans.”

“What do we mean when we say someone is a racist?” Oliver wrote in his follow-up message to employees.

“Most of us mean that such a person consciously believes their racial category is superior to others. A racist actively and deliberately discriminates against members of the supposedly inferior racial categories. A racist may harbor such racial hatred that they seek to cause bodily harm to people in these other racial categories. Let’s call such racism intentional and personally mediated, that is, committed by that individual.

“The majority of whites in the Commonwealth, and in the country, do not hold such views or commit such actions. In fact, the majority of whites explicitly, that is consciously reject such racist notions.”

Oliver stated in his letter that those who are “explicitly anti-racist” but still hold “racial biases” can be led to “unintentionally discriminate against those whom they are biased against.” He pointed to studies that have found clinicians with unconscious pro-white biases are more likely to inadequately treat or manage pain among black patients who suffer heart attacks.

Before he was appointed commissioner of the Virginia Department of Health in 2018, Oliver was the chair of the Department of Family Medicine at the University of Virginia School of Medicine.

Oliver’s research focuses on improving people’s understanding of the role of racial discrimination, bias, health injustice, and racial and ethnic health disparities, among other things.

“In the wake of the events of the last few days, I pledge that the senior leadership will work with Office of Health Equity and others to bring this discussion of race, racism, and equity to our offices and local health districts,” the initial letter said. “We will heal through having a crucial conversation about our common humanity and making a mutual commitment to racial justice.”

“In the coming weeks and months,” Oliver wrote in his most recent letter to state health workers, “we will continue our discussion about racism and what we can do as an agency to help eliminate racial inequities in health.”

By Kaytlin Nickens, Capital News Service. Photo via CNS.

Richmond Activists Declare Death of Democratic Party, Hold Funeral Procession

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“We have had it with the old Democratic Party. We’re here for a new vision,” declared activist Rebecca Keel during last week’s public funeral vigil, held in front of the Capitol building.

Late last week, at the foot of Virginia’s Capitol building just before dusk, approximately 50 people gathered around a coffin.

Members of the group held their phones or notebooks, brimming with prepared speeches. Local activist Rebecca Keel shook a tambourine to keep time as the group marched and sang. Organizers and community members passed around a microphone. They spoke in the direction of the crowd, but their voices projected further, towards the rolling greens and fat, white columns of the Capitol.

They were there to mourn what they view as the death of the Democratic Party.

“We have had it with the old Democratic Party. We have had it with you,” said Keel to the coffin on the ground. “We are here for a new vision. We are here to see that phoenix rise from the ashes, and for the people to truly be the democracy.”

Largely a response to the recent news of Governor Ralph Northam and Attorney General Mark Herring’s blackface scandals, an issue that has been marinating in the news cycle for the past week and garnering national attention, the vigil was about more than these single reprehensible acts by two of Virginia’s leading politicians.

“We know that racism is alive and well, not only in the city, in the state, but across the nation. And we see it across the world,” said Arthur Burton, founder of Kinfolk, a community outreach organization focused on Richmond’s public housing sector.

A plethora of speakers spoke about the Democratic Party’s hand in past atrocities, from being the cornerstone of slavery in the south to the displacement and murder of indigenous peoples, acts often disregarded by left-leaning people because of the policy changeover and party realignment that took place in the mid-20th century.

But the purpose of the vigil, according to the message of the speakers, was to recognize that these values have not been left behind. Keel spoke, for example, about the Northam Administration’s support of the Mountain Valley and Atlantic Coast Pipelines.

“Environmental degradation is a tool of the Right,” Keel said. “[It] is a tool to push out poor working class people, people of color, black folks, indigenous folks, and we will have that no more from our Democratic leadership.”

Although the event was mourning a failure by politicians whom some in attendance had passionately supported and campaigned for, the group was also looking to the future, questioning what a new progressive political party might look like and how to get there.

“We actually have to build together,” Brooke Taylor said, Richmond Youth Coordinator at Side by Side, a nonprofit supporting LGBTQ youth.

“Come to these strategy meetings, come to these kickbacks where people are talking real politics. Get involved with each other. And most importantly, have hope for the future.”

According to Keel, the vigil was organized in tandem with the full-throttle news cycle, coming together in only 36 hours. The event was also honoring Lillie Estes, a local activist and community strategist who died earlier this month. Keel said Estes had been an invaluable mentor to people in Virginia and throughout the East Coast.

“We’ve been all coming together and so moved,” Keel said. “Moved to do and continue this work.”

As the evening grew darker, electric candles were passed around. The sky became a deep blue, and the tops of the towering Bank Street buildings became less pronounced. The brightest thing in view became the Capitol, its face lit stark white against the night.

After a heartfelt eulogy from Burton, audience and organizers alike formed a silent procession and marched with the coffin on their shoulders. Snaking up a manicured lawn, backdropped by TV Reporters who’d waited just for this moment, the vigil ended in a quiet spot next to the now-looming Capitol building.

One by one, members from the procession came forward to place their candles by the casket. As instructed by Keel, they each whispered or thought an intention of what they wanted from a new Democratic Party.

“We’re just tired of being tired, so we are really calling on our Democratic leaders to step up and take up a people’s platform,” Keel said, just before referencing the quickly-approaching 2019 General Assembly elections.

“We’re going to vote in who we need to vote in.”

Photos by Benjamin West