"Anyone who has ever experienced a breakup understands how a forced smile belies simmering resentment. At its meeting on Monday, August 26, Charlottesville's Redevelopment and Housing Authority Board bid farewell to Joy Johnson, a longtime public housing activist forced to resign her Board seat after her adult sons were caught in a drug bust. Johnson graciously accepted the Board's terse "thank yous," but vowed to continue her role as a thorn in the side of the CRHA establishment.

Johnson is well-known as one of the few public housing residents to participate in the messy fray of CRHA politics. She served a two-year term on the Board in the late '90s, and another that ended with her resignation in August. She also helped form the Public Housing Association of Residents, an extant activist group advocating resident empowerment.

PHAR often positions itself in opposition to CRHA administration, led by Executive Director Del Harvey. In particular, Johnson's fluency with federal housing regulations and her forthright demeanor have earned her equal parts admiration and disdain from tenants and CRHA staff alike.

"She took the time to educate herself," says Dave Norris, a PHAR activist who chairs the CRHA board. "She was perceived as threatening to people who aren't comfortable with poor people gaining power."

Norris says some public housing residents resented Johnson because she was perceived publicly as the lone spokesperson for public housing residents. But Johnson has done her share to groom new leaders from within public housing, PHAR coordinator Holly Hatcher said on Monday.

"She created PHAR's internship program, and because of her hard work, we're growing," said Hatcher.

Since police arrested Johnson's two adult sons for possession of drugs and a firearm at her Westhaven apartment last month, Johnson has resigned from the CRHA Board and is preparing to be evicted. In the meantime, her story has become a flashpoint.

On Monday, Johnson's friends and family spoke in her defense, intimating that her troubles stem from CHRA politics or the illogical extremes of the War on Drugs.

"I hope Joy doesn't have to move," said Westhaven tenant May Bell Kenny. "You can't help what your children do when they get grown."

Johnson's adult daughters, Eva and Janie, suggested their mother had been treated unfairly. "I can't understand why so many people want to see her put out," Eva said. "I don't know why you can take what her children did out on her."

Janie concurred. "The media have broken her down a lot," she said, articulating the family's frustration with coverage of Johnson's downfall in The Daily Progress.

On Friday, August 29, the Progress ran an editorial declaring: "The authority must now treat [Johnson] as it would any other tenant in a similar position: no special privileges."

In fact, in the past year, no tenant has faced eviction from City public housing because of a family member's transgressions, Norris told C-VILLE later.

"Joy is the only tenant in recent memory who has faced eviction for a drug crime in which she was not personally charged," he says. "That, to me, calls into question the fairness of the process."

Since the Supreme Court ruled in March that public housing residents could be legally evicted for a family member's drug activity, the federal Department of Housing and Urban Development has urged local authorities to use eviction only as a last resort.

"According to HUD, you have to do a lot more than we've done before you can evict Johnson's daughters and granddaughter. To evict them is an abuse of the system," Norris says.

He says people close to Johnson have urged her to fight the eviction in court, but Johnson has not done that.

"She would never stand for special treatment," says Norris.

Johnson's personal problems have made headlines, but the incident seems to be just another chapter in CHRA's ongoing internal drama. Also in August, for instance, Del Harvey suspended housing manager Fred Hunt for four weeks, a move Hunt says "was totally unwarranted." Hunt says his suspension stems from problems in the CHRA, which were articulated in an April report on the Authority released by the FOCUS Mediation Center.

According to the report, "Various respondents ... point to [Del Harvey] as the cause of a significant amount of staff turnover because she underappreciates her employees, is too controlling and makes unfounded accusations."

At the end of Monday's meeting, CHRA staffer Ann Anderson told the Board that the Authority's high turnover is a problem.

"I've worked at the Authority for three years, and in that time I've had four managers," she said. "You can't expect us to do a wonderful job if there's no consistency in our jobs.

"I just want you to take that home and go, 'Hmm,"' she said." (John Borgmeyer, C-VILLE Weekly, September 3, 2002)