New homes and apartments could begin to rise in Creighton Court within one to two years, if the financing can be arranged, according to the Richmond Redevelopment and Housing Authority.

Brushing off housing advocates who came to raise issues, RRHA’s board took another step Jan. 15 to fulfilling the long-standing goal of replacing the 504-unit public housing community located off Nine Mile Road in the East End with a mixed-income community that could include 750 to 1,000 modern residences.

After sharply limiting public comment, the six members of the board who were present voted unanimously at the Jan. 15 meeting to authorize RRHAChief Executive Officer Damon Duncan to submit a formal application to the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development to redevelop the public housing community situated at the city’s border with Henrico County.

The approved resolution backed Mr. Duncan’s submission of an application two days before the meeting for HUD approval to demolish and dispose of 192 housing units in Creighton Court and cleared him to later submit an application to deal with the remaining 312 units.

“Some things don’t need to continue to be re-vetted over and over and over,” Mr. Duncan said. “This is just a step along the way in the process.”

Still, the action came with apparently little warning for residents and housing advocates, with RRHA listing it on its agenda only one day before the short but contentious meeting.

The application is required because HUD owns the property and must approve any changes.

The board, led by Veronica G. Blount, a city Health District community advocate, allowed only a few people attending the meeting to speak by imposing a rule permitting individuals to address the board once every 90 days. That enabled Ms. Blount to block some people who had spoken at past meetings.

HUD previously found RRHA in violation of regulations requiring it to receive comments from residents and the public before submitting applications and plans.

With RRHA optimistic of gaining approval for the redevelopment based on informal discussions with HUD, “revi- talization efforts are anticipated to begin in Creighton Court in 2020, with new construction activities in 2021 and 2022,” RRHA spokeswoman Angela Fountain stated in a fact sheet distributed at the meeting.

Ms. Fountain stated that HUD’s Office of Fair Housing and Equal Opportunity would guide RRHA’s efforts to transform the community. She also stated that RRHA would “offer a range of housing options” to affected residents.

One potential roadblock to approval is RRHA’s apparent violation of HUD regulations governing submission of such an application. The includes failure to hold a public hearing and failure to include any notice of its plan to seek a “demolition and disposal” permit for Creighton Court from HUD in its 2020 annual plan, which has yet to be approved.

RRHA’s 2020 annual plan was rejected by HUD in September for failure to ad- equately consult with residents. The housing authority has not publicly announced any steps to secure approval.

Omari Al-Qadaffi, a community organizer who has been advocating for RRHA to be more transparent and to engage more with the community, criticized the authority for the one-day notice.

Mr. Al-Qadaffi called that evidence of a continuing “crisis of democracy” involving RRHA’s failure to allow people to participate and be fully informed.

“Nobody wanted to stop the demolition because that’s something that’s been talked about for years,” Mr. Al-Qadaffi said after the meeting.“The main thing is whether residents are being meaningfully included. You can’t just keep excusing the intentional suppression of the people’s voice.”

However, Ms. Fountain disputed his claim that tenants are not being kept abreast. She noted in the fact sheet that the authority has held six meetings with Creighton residents and listed five meetings in 2019 and the sixth on Jan. 14.

One of the absent board members was Marilyn Olds, president of the Creighton Court Tenants Council. Mr. Duncan said Ms. Olds supported the board’s action.

Eight years ago, the RRHA, with City Council approval and support from then-Mayor Dwight C. Jones, put Creighton Court at the top of the list for redevelopment. RRHA has since been making plans to redevelop the city’s five other major public housing complexes, Fairfield Court, Gilpin Court, Hillside Court, Mosby Court and Whitcomb Court, along with 11 smaller complexes. But progress has been slow.

The redevelopment of Creighton Court is expected to be done in phases and, based on RRHA’s past redevelopment, would take years to complete. RRHA has yet to finish a 30-year-old effort to revitalize the northern portion of Jackson Ward and is still seeking to wrap up an urban renewal program in the Blackwell area nearly 25 years later.

The Jan. 15 vote follows the completion of the first new units in Armstrong Renais- sance across Nine Mile Road where some seniors and families from Creighton Court are being relocated. That development, in the 1600 block of North 31st Street, is on the site of the former Armstrong High School building, which was razed to make way for the project.

Creighton residents have begun moving into some of the new apartments, with others being marketed to the larger community in a bid to make it a mixed-income community.

The board’s vote also provided approval for Mr. Duncan’s decision last June to stop renting vacant units in Creighton Court, to the dismay of Legal Aid Justice Center lawyers who had threatened to sue RRHA for doing so.

“This is a continual pattern of creat- ing blight to justify demolition,” said Art Burton, founder and leader of Kinfolk Community, in criticizing the policy of not renting vacant Creighton Court apartments.

“And this is at a time where we’ve got thousands of people” who have applied for public housing units and are on a waiting list, Mr. Burton said. “I’m not sure there is any justification for demolition at this point.”