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RRHA head T.K. Somanath Resigns

Many of you have written about this issue. The Richmond Redevelopment and Housing Authority lead for the last three years has resigned effective immediately. No replacement has been named yet. This latest controversy (read: fiasco, unacceptable) with the heating issues in Creighton Court is possibly a big factor in his resignation.

From CBS 6

“Yes, there has been some lapses. I am the first one to admit we are not perfect,” Somanath said.

Somanath said RRHA site maintenance at Creighton learned roughly a year ago they would have to shut off the heat in four buildings, but senior management was not informed.
Then in October 2017, as temperatures turned colder, senior management learned those four buildings and three more had the heat turned off –with that number eventually growing to 12.

Somanath said the capital needs facing RRHA far exceed what HUD provides, and while he understands activists and residents’ concerns, he said he doesn’t believe ousting him will fix the problem.

We wonder, will the repairs to the heating really start next week and will they be enough? What’s going to happen with the redevelopment of the East Lawn Shopping Center? How long will it take to find a replacement? Will it make any changes?

Photo by Richmond Times Dispatch

24 comments

K 01/22/2018 at 12:08 PM

Good Riddance

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SA Chaplin 01/22/2018 at 8:24 PM

Government should not be in the housing business. Taxpayers should urge their representatives to begin the process of ending this failed experiment. The “projects” do way more harm than good.

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Bill Hartsock 01/22/2018 at 8:30 PM

T. K. is a good man and did a tremendous job at Better Housing Coalition. RRDH is an impossible entity that cannot be tamed by any mortal. The business plan and the goals of the organization are not sustainable. We all know that the idea of housing the people in poverty in these housing units has not worked for years. I’m sorry to see that he was thrown under the bus for issues that have been festering for years. When you have housing units that date from the 1940’s and have not had proper maintenance you are going to get what you have now. The City is the real culprit, here, not T. K. He is the scapegoat. I wish him well.

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Tanya Zebroski 01/22/2018 at 11:26 PM

About time

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Leslie Moore 01/23/2018 at 10:44 AM

Thank you, Bill Hartsock, for stating the housing project leadership issues more clearly. T.K. Somanath was given an impossible job. He will be very hard to replace. The City as a whole, and we as residents, need to take responsibility for seeking real solutions to this. Being asked to maintain old dwellings with insufficient funds is a thankless job, and residents of those dwellings have thus far been the only ones paying the price.

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clint 01/23/2018 at 10:46 AM

Maybe the whole idea of RRHH needs to be reviewed. For the money being spent folks are really living in poor conditions. My simple math may be wrong but RRHA appears to have a budget of 65.5 million, about 4000 units under management- that is $1365 per month per unit. That is not measuring the indirect costs arising from these government run ghetto like neighborhoods. There has got to be a better way with less bureaucracy eating up the money.

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mary 01/23/2018 at 1:29 PM

#4 and #7 – Right on – kudos to you both.

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Sad sad situation 01/23/2018 at 2:58 PM

I can not imagine that any competent person would be willing to step in and fill his shoes. How can we attract someone to fill this position? TK had a long successful career in affordable housing. So much so that we have buildings named in his honor. As an incredible sacrifice he came out of retirement to try and resurrect one of the least competent organizations in Richmond history. During his tenure he was berated and protested against to the point that it just wasn’t worth it anymore. How many people in public housing (who are broke) do we demand perfection from in short order? How on earth can anyone fix RRHA’s problems in a couple years? His vision was to entirely redo and restructure the system in Richmond. To try and move past the systemic problems that have existed since the inception of the housing projects. His focus was on high level macro changes that take time and he was making good progress. But the people of Richmond sent him a message. We want the scarce time and resources we have to make the bad slightly less bad. We want it all and we want it now. We are not willing to wait for change or acknowledge the reality of economic principals like scarcity. So now who takes over? Who can step up to the plate and say yes to those who want it all and want it now? The obvious answer is no one, the logical answer is someone who is way under qualified who is willing to say whatever we want to hear for a significant career boost. (Think of most any coach who agreed to coach the Cleveland Browns)
This was a very very foolish thing we have done. We have almost guaranteed years of continued failure. Those who pray should do so.

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Richard R 01/23/2018 at 3:07 PM

Bill Hartsock,
Thank you for your comments about Somanath, that was some pretty succinct writing, and all done without trying to put anyone down.

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Dubois2 01/23/2018 at 7:50 PM

Can y’all at CHPN reprint the total expected investment in the old Armstrong development, divided by the number of units? I feel like we ought to be paying some attention to how much we are getting for what we are paying

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Gustavo 01/23/2018 at 11:57 PM

Reading these comments makes me realize, as a young writer and an avid and enthusiastic member of this community how nuanced this issue really is. We expect our officials to solve complex problems and for leaders to step up not fully realizing how difficult their jobs must be. I’m humbled by some of the comments here. I refuse to be discouraged but I do pledge to make a bigger effort to see all sides. Not convinced that this was a good idea, for T. K to step down, for I don’t believe a new head will effect change as quickly as some may think. But I am hopeful that not just one person but many are ready at the RRHA and the city to see these projects go through.

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