Res Ipsa Loquitur

All over Hampton Roads rents are high and available apartments hard to come by.  This situation, difficult for renters across all spectrums of the market, is even harder for low-income Virginians in Hampton Roads.  Across our service area, local housing authorities are increasingly moving away from creating and maintaining affordable housing communites and are relying more and more on Housing Choice vouchers to assist the low-income renters in their service areas.  Yet payment standards for vouchers are not keeping up with even median area rents.  In Norfolk, for instance, payments standards for vouchers are at 110% of fair market rent and are barely keeping in line with actual median rents.  In other local cities, the situation is much worse, with essentially no units affordbale to voucher holders.  

Housing Choice voucher participants also face discrimination throughout Hampton Roads due to race, familial status and for being voucher holders themselves.

At Legal Aid Society of Eastern Virginia we fight for people's access to safe, sanitary and affordable housing.  We help people stand up to discrimination in all its forms.  As the rental protections set in place at the start of the COVID-19 pandemic expire, now more than ever, we need you to stand with us in the fight by volunteering, by donating, by getting involved in our communities.