NORFOLK, Va. – Residents of Tidewater Gardens - do you have any questions about the Right to Return Policy? The Norfolk Redevelopment and Housing Authority (NRHA) is here to answer them.
The NHRA will host two information sessions on Thursday, April 29 and Friday, April 30, exclusively for current residents of the Tidewater Gardens neighborhood and Tidewater Gardens residents who have been relocated.
NRHA’s pledge is that each resident who wants a home in the new community will have one. The Right to Return policy memorializes this pledge and outlines the criteria that governs your right to return to the newly developed community.
Details on the information sessions can be found below:
Phone-in Q&A session
- When: Thursday, April 29 from 6:30-7:30 p.m.
- Dial +1 (657) 220-3242, Conference room 837-780-428
Walke Street information fair
- When: Friday, April 30 from 2-4 p.m.
- Where: Outdoors on Walke Street
- Please wear your masks and follow social distancing best practices.
News 3 reported a massive redevelopment began in late Decemberas construction equipment began demolishing a six-unit public housing building in Tidewater Gardens.
It was the first building to be taken down in the multi-million dollar St. Paul's Area Transformation, a plan to tear down three public housing neighborhoods around Downtown Norfolk and replace them with mixed-income housing.
City housing officials said Tidewater Gardens, Young Terrace and Calvert Square are areas with high crime and poverty rates, and the aging structures are no longer suitable to house low-income families.
People who lived in the six-unit structure were moved to public housing of their choice, the city said, with the help of an organization called People First.
Norfolk received a $30 million grant to help with the redevelopment effort.
In January, a group filed a federal lawsuit over concerns the plan unfairly targeted poor, Black families, alleging it didn't do enough to look out for the future of the people who live in the targeted neighborhoods.
The full Right to Return Policy can be found at the Tidewater Gardens Property Management Office, People First Office and online here.
