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Friendship Court, a low-income housing development in Charlottesville, Virginia. File Photo.
As rental housing costs continue to rise, Virginia lawmakers passed a few modest measures this year to reduce fees, offer tenants more protections and boost housing for Navy sailors. More ambitious proposals, including potential rent controls, failed to win broad approval.
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A map shows kindergarten measles vaccination rate across Virginia’s counties and cities according to the vaccination data reported by schools at the start of the school year. Map by Kunle Falayi // VCIJ at WHRO
Just half of Virginia’s public and private kindergarten classes reported a 95% vaccination rate – the key threshold for herd immunity – at the start of the 2024-25 school year, according to an analysis of state health data by the Virginia Center for Investigative Journalism at WHRO.
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Nearly half of the commonwealth’s public and private kindergarten classes fail to meet an important vaccination threshold, an analysis of state health data by the Virginia Center for Investigative Journalism at WHRO shows.
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Julie Sikes, in her Newport News, VA apartment, on Wednesday, March 12, 2025, holding her phone with a picture of her son Josh Sikes. Photo by William Tiernan.
No one knows what caused 11-year-old Josh Sikes to die last November. But his final moments in a Virginia Beach classroom have led to investigations and renewed questioning over techniques used by Southeastern Cooperative Educational Programs.
Read moreThe General Services Administration (GSA) listed 28 properties in Northern Virginia, Richmond and Hampton Roads as “excess real property” that could be put up for sale. The agency said removing the properties from the federal rolls would reduce maintenance costs, although it did not break down the accounting for the proposed savings.
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The backyard of a home for sale in Henrico County. File photo by CHRISTOPHER TYREE // VCIJ
The median price of a single-family home in Virginia rose almost 40% between 2019 and 2024, pushing home ownership out of reach for many working-class families.
This year, Virginia legislators have introduced various measures to make home buying more attainable, both by helping buyers and incentivizing more home building. Progress has been slow.
This year, Virginia legislators have introduced various measures to make home buying more attainable, both by helping buyers and incentivizing more home building.
Progress has been slow.
Virginia has an estimated housing shortage of about 105,000 homes, according to a 2022 study by Up for Growth, a housing advocacy group. The scarcity of housing has driven up home prices and rents to record levels in recent years, according to Pew researchers.
Meeting of the Commission to Study the History of the Uprooting of Black Communities by Public Institutions of Higher Education in the Commonwealth on Monday, December 2, 2024. The commission was spurred by reporting by VCIJ and ProPublica in 2023. Photo from Virginia House of Delegates.
A new state commission will seek documentation on campus expansions from dozens of Virginia public colleges and universities.
Read moreDetailed data on the 2024 general election in Virginia.
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Nonprofit newsroom claims Virginia Department of Criminal Justice Services improperly withheld names, records of law enforcement officers.
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Urban geographer Johnny Finn points to majority Black neighborhoods whose inhabitants' health are negatively impacted by living near interstates and major roads. Photo by Elizabeth McGowan // VCIJ at WHRO
On a Norfolk map, St. Paul’s Boulevard appears as a north-south arterial. But local urban geographer Johnny Finn views that same six-lane strip near Interstate 264 as a stark line of disparity.
Life expectancy is 85 years for people living downtown and in adjacent upscale, whiter west side neighborhoods, according to Finn’s research. It drops by more than two decades — to 61.5 — in poor majority-Black census tracts to the east dominated by three public housing complexes.
“This is the cumulative impact of a century of racist housing policies and practices,” said Finn, an associate professor at Christopher Newport University. He called the finding “one of the most shocking juxtapositions” in his study of southeastern Virginia, because it amounted to taking “literal years off of life.”
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Civil rights activist and local historian, Gary Flowers, points out how the construction of I-95 in the 1950’s demolished and separated the vibrant and bustling Black neighborhood of Jackson Ward in Richmond, VA, to travel magazine editors Leroy Adams and Marie Adams, at right, during a tour on Friday, July 12th. Photo by Christopher Tyree // VCIJ at WHRO
The historic Black neighborhood of Jackson Ward was intentionally split by highway development in the 1950s. Generations later, could a plan to reconnect the north and south sides renew a community?
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Vicki Lightfoot stands by the front door with Maurice and Marie while waiting for the other grandchildren, Alysha and Corey, to finish getting ready for school. The two youngest kids go to daycare while the two eldest attend elementary school, giving Lightfoot time to relax and study for her classes. File photo by Hadley Chittum // VCIJ
For decades, Virginia has ranked poorly among states for providing financial support for kinship carers — grandparents, aunts, uncles and other family members raising children who are their relatives. And a critical state report found many social services departments in Virginia have failed to provide enough oversight and protection for children in the care of their relatives.
Starting July 1, bipartisan legislation signed by Gov. Glenn Youngkin tackles some of these problems by establishing an aid program and protective guidelines for kinship care families.
Federal and state records show that Dollar Tree has a higher percentage of safety inspections that flag violations than retailers of similar size.
OSHA has issued $22.7 million in penalties to Dollar Tree from federal inspections between 2017 and April 2024.
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Christopher Newport University in Newport News, Virginia, for decades expanded into and disrupted a neighboring, predominantly Black community, sometimes acquiring property by eminent domain. Virginia lawmakers on May 13 approved a two-year study commission to probe the uprooting of Black communities by the state’s public colleges and universities. Photo by Christopher Tyree. // VCIJ at WHRO
Spurred by a VCIJ at WHRO and ProPublica investigation, the recently approved Virginia budget includes nearly $60,000 over the next two years for a commission to study the disruption public college and university expansions have had on Black communities.
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Zenobia Wilson stands outside of her apartment in Norfolk, Virginia. Her life has been disrupted by plans to reconnect her old, isolated community with the city. Photo by Christopher Tyree. // VCIJ
A $1.6 million federal grant could unscramble the I-264 ramps in downtown Norfolk. But would it reopen an isolated, Black community?
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Since 2020, changes to the disciplinary process for law enforcement officers have driven up decertifications of wayward cops and prison guards. But a new law may shield investigators’ records and hearings from the public
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Christopher Newport University’s campus displaced a Black neighborhood in Newport News, Virginia. Photo by Christopher Tyree/VCIJ at WHRO
The groundbreaking commission, which was proposed in response to our “Uprooted” series, would consider compensation for dislodged property owners and their descendants. Whether Gov. Glenn Youngkin will sign the bill is unclear.
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Vicki Lightfoot washes dishes while Maurice plays on the floor by her side early in the morning before school. Lightfoot was solely responsible for getting all four children ready for daycare and school.
A Richmond-area retiree raises four grandchildren, struggling to pay bills and navigate the tangled bureaucracy of kinship care
Relatives caring for children in Virginia are far less likely than caregivers in other states to have help from the foster care system for child care, counseling, grocery bills and other needs. About 12% of the children in Virginia’s foster care system live with relatives and receive support from the system, according to state data, far below the national rate of 33%.
A recruitment poster for the Norfolk, Virginia Police Department hangs inside a New York City subway train in July 2022. Photo by Dan Morisson // VCIJ at WHRO
In the wake of George Floyd’s murder by Minneapolis police, Virginia lawmakers took action on reports that state policing regulators failed to strip the police certifications from dozens of officers with criminal convictions ranging from embezzlement to possession of child pornography and sexual assault.
The Legislature passed a bill in October 2020 requiring police departments to complete internal investigations even if officers resign during them, and to provide any records of misconduct to new prospective employers for officers; strengthening the requirements for agencies to send reports of misconduct to state regulators; expanding the offenses for which officers can be stripped of their certifications; and requiring a state board to write a statewide standard of conduct for policing.
Three years later, barely anything has changed.
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Christopher Newport University's campus stands on the site of a once-thriving Black community. Photo by Christopher Tyree // VCIJ
Spurred by our “Uprooted” series, a task force created by the city of Newport News and Christopher Newport University will reexamine decades of city and university records shedding light on a Black neighborhood’s destruction.
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