By Brandi Kellam
Ridley Place, Newport News. Google Earth image
Lilian Echanerry said she had been struggling financially for nearly five months when she started having trouble making her rent payments last June. The mother of three had been using a Section 8 rental subsidy since 2020, when she was forced to move from her Newport News, Va., public housing at Ridley Place, a complex with more than 250 units that was torn down this past spring.
Until June, the voucher helped cover her costs, but then her rent rose beyond what she could afford.
"I'm trying to make it every day with my kids, with keeping my bills — trying to keep myself together," said Echanerry, who added that she had struggled to find anyone who could reliably help her solve her financial problems.
Under a neighborhood redevelopment program that required Ridley's residents to find other housing during the years-long construction of new mixed-income properties, Echanerry was supposed to have access to help navigating her relocation and other challenges that arose. But she said she was often promised assistance that never materialized.
"Every time I speak to people, they're like, 'Well, you have to wait,'" Echanerry said.
"People say they're going to help, but they're not helping because they're saying one thing and doing another," she added. Echanerry has been frustrated over the last few years by setbacks, like her inability to have a consistent case worker from the redevelopment program who would be accountable for helping her to figure out how to sign up for classes and find a job.
Echanerry's case illustrates the challenges faced by cities across the U.S. in managing and balancing the needs of the poorest communities, as the federal government tries to remake public housing and improve their standard of living.
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Brandi Kellam is a ProPublica local reporting network fellow with the Virginia Center for Investigative Journalism at WHRO. This story was first published by CBS News with the support of a fellowship from Columbia University's Ira A. Lipman Center for Journalism and Civil and Human Rights.