Incentivize It; A Cursed Parcel; Service Neglect and Bad Math; Good News on Gun Violence; Sheltered.

RVA 5x5 -- December 2, 2023

No algorithms. No content filters. Honest and insightful analysis from Richmond, VA.

This week check out our five stories on:

• Two localities and their different approaches to incentivizing employees’ benefits and property owners;

• The cursed parcel that is the Public Safety Building that has sat and will sit vacant for several more years as a wasted opportunity staring us in the face;

• Ignoring the crisis at the city’s Department of Social Series will not wish the problem away, nor will using bad math;

• Good news on the city’s efforts to reduce gun violence in the city, especially among youth, holds some encouraging results and hope for the future;

• After a self-inflicted bad year of shelter mismanagement, the city has opened two needed new shelters on-time as promised and just in time for winter….

STORY #1 — Incentivize It
We ran a story in September that compared the city’s strategy and Henrico County’s approach for protecting homeowners from predatory buyers and higher property taxes from rising assessments. Henrico used some of their budget surplus to start a new program that locked in tax rates for those that qualify (i.e. fixed incomes) so long-time home owners and seniors aren’t pushed out that can also accelerate gentrification. The city’s strategy was, in contrast, to send letters to 149 homeowners facing real estate tax arrears about taking them into a tax sale proceeding and take their home via the courts.

Henrico’s Real Estate CAP Program (RECAP) locks in a qualifying homeowner’s real estate taxes from the 2023 bill no matter how much the assessment rises in future years. Outgoing Supervisor Frank Thornton put it best: “RECAP will be a great enhancement, as it will help insulate more of our seniors from the sometimes unpredictable impacts of rising home values. RECAP shows, once again, that Henrico is a county with heart.”

Richmond, on the other hand, went in the opposite direction. They sent out 21 letters to mostly seniors that were delinquent with their real estate taxes (for at least two or more years) on their homes in which they are living. They bullied the homeowners into payment plans and misrepresented the amount of time they had to repay the delinquent amounts. Axios Richmond even reported that one senior was told to pay more than $3,000 up front and was going to get a part time job to pay the $800 per month bill. The city told the senior she had to pay it back in two years, even though state law allows up to six years to pay it back.

The city shifted gears and their approach after receiving some negative press and understandable outrage, but it serves as another contrast between municipalities that are run with the employees and residents in mind and some municipalities that don’t consider that as their foremost mission.