Richmond must do a lot of work to solve its eviction problem that gives it the second highest eviction rate per capita in the nation.

That was the takeaway as housing advocates, city officials and Richmond area residents gathered Tuesday evening at The Valentine in Downtown to discuss the state of housing in the city.

The two-hour panel and discussion, “Who’s Putting Our House in Order?” was part of The Valentine’s Controversy/History series. The audience of about 80 people included Kelly King Horne, executive director of Homeward, a coordinating agency for homeless services in Metro Richmond, and Robert J. Adams, a member of the Richmond Redevelopment and Housing Authority’s board of commissioners.

RRHA manages nearly 4,000 apartment units and serves more than 10,000 residents in public housing in the city.

Richmond, with a poverty rate of 21.9 percent, remains second in evictions in the United States, with an eviction rate double the state average and quadruple the national average, according to data provided by the Central Virginia Legal Aid Society.

RRHA recently froze all evictions from public housing until May 1 following a recent public outcry from housing justice advocates and residents over the large number of people being taken to court and evicted for not making timely rent payments.

The root causes of Richmond’s housing issues were a great concern for many attending the panel discussion. Willie Hilliard, president of the Brookland Park Area Business Association, noted that the city’s high rents make it impossible for families to afford to move into Richmond in 2020.

He criticized how developers who promise a number of affordable housing units in their plans are getting tax breaks “on the backs” of residents even if the resulting units aren’t really affordable.

“The city is using poor people as prey,” Mr. Hilliard said. “We need to find another way.”

William J. “Bill” Martin, director of The Valentine, and Kelli S. Lemon, host of Coffee With Strangers, guided the audience through a century of Richmond housing history marked by conflict and racial animus, from the influ- ence of segregation in urban planning in the early 20th century, the flight of the city’s white residents to the suburbs to efforts to create a public housing authority.

“This has been a crisis for the city since the very beginning,” Mr. Martin said.

When Gilpin Court was built in 1943 as the newly created RRHA’s first housing project, only 25 applicants from 576 former Jackson Ward residents were accepted.

Problems have persisted and metastasized into new forms of injustice over the decades, including redlining to keep African-Americans out of certain neighborhoods and predatory lending practices, said Jovan Burton, director of implementation with the Partnership for Housing Affordability.

The number of African-American homeowners in Richmond has dropped by 3,600 since 2000, he said, as rising utility bills and increas- ing housing prices compared to the rest of the region contribute to housing instability.

Mr. Burton and other speakers pointed to potential solutions in the rising public inter- est in housing issues, the growing number of advocates and legislation under consideration in the General Assembly.

However, speakers also stressed the need for advocates to support and educate the affected communities and to hold state and city officials accountable when it comes to housing policy and priorities.

“We can solve these problems,” said Monica L. Jefferson, vice president and chief operat- ing officer for Housing Opportunities Made Equal.

“Richmond has all of the resources. We have all of the tools. We have the activists. We have the developers. We’ve got the funding and we’ve got the philanthropists. But it’s about us trying to get together and figuring out how you can truly deal with this crisis,” she said.

Another housing panel is set for 6 p.m. Feb. 19 at Gallery5, 200 W. Marshall St.