In the News

A new report from Virginia Poverty Law Center and VCU’s Eviction Lab shows how attorney fees are worsening Virginia’s eviction crisis — with courts awarding nearly $20 million in fees last year alone. Michael Pope reports.

Jay Speer and Amanda Gago Silcox walk listeners to the “Arm and a Leg” podcast through Virginia’s newly-enacted protections against medical debt.

This report from NCLC focuses on steps that governments and advocates can take to address junk fees. State and local governments play a central role in landlord-tenant law in the United States, as they have traditionally been the entities regulating rental housing. Picking up where the federal government left off, they can and should fully protect vulnerable renters from widespread and abusive junk fees.

VPLC’s Dana Wiggins told lawmakers the numbers only tell part of the story—many families skip food or medicine to keep the lights on, a “silent problem” hidden behind the statistics.

House of Delegates candidates discussed housing, rent protections, and energy affordability at a VPLC public forum. With rising costs and limited affordable housing across the state, candidates shared ideas for keeping families stably housed and curbing displacement.

Data from VPLC show that lower-income ZIP codes in Norfolk and Portsmouth shoulder the heaviest electricity burdens, while extreme-heat days and pending rate hikes threaten to push bills even higher.