Reflector Award presented to Joy Johnson at Jefferson School 10 Year Anniversary
Joy Amarylis Johnson is the Founder and Chair of the Board of Directors for the Public Housing Association of Residents (PHAR) in Charlottesville, VA. PHAR was established in 1998 as a citywide residents’ association for public housing and section 8 residents. She is employed as a Section 3 Coordinator for the Charlottesville Redevelopment and Housing Authority (CRHA). A native of Kingston, Jamaica, Joy became an American citizen in 2000, and is a Public Housing Resident.
Prior to her work with CRHA, Joy served for 22 years as an Outreach Coordinator for the Westhaven Nursing Clinic in Charlottesville, Virginia assisting her neighbors in accessing preventative healthcare provided by parish nurses and organizing the legendary Annual West haven Community Day. As a founder of Charlottesville’s Public Housing Association of Residents (PHAR), Joy put the rights and needs of low-income residents front and center in the city’s housing policies and priorities. Founded as an advocacy organization in 1998, Charlottesville PHAR, where Joy continues to serve as board chair, is today a major force in Charlottesville, giving residents of low-income and affordable housing extraordinary influence in the planning and policy decisions impacting their lives and the lives of many others.
Under Joy’s leadership, PHAR has significantly reformed the landscape for low-income and affordable housing residents in Charlottesville. The organization led key initiatives such as a 2012 class-action lawsuit against the Charlottesville Redevelopment and Housing Authority (CRHA) combatting excessive utility fees, formed crucial partnerships with local and national housing advocacy networks, produced the Positive Vision for Resident-Directed Redevelopment publication to guide the work of the CRHA, and secured employment opportunities for low-income residents. Joy’s most enduring legacy lives in others. Through its innovative six-month internship program, PHAR provides the leadership and advocacy skills necessary for residents to become changemakers in their communities. Graduates of the program have gone on to well-paying jobs, work as housing advocates, and serve on city boards and commissions, including the board of the CRHA.
Joy began her community service as a member of the Head Start Policy Council. She has since served on or chaired a number of boards and commissions at the local and national levels including the Charlottesville Redevelopment and Housing Authority Board of Commissioners, University of Virginia Employee Council, Virginia Association of Neighborhoods, Offender Aid and Restoration Board, west haven Tenant Association, Everywhere and Now Public Housing Residents Organizing Nationally Together (ENPHRONT), Monticello Area Agency Community Action (MACAA), Connecting People to Jobs, Quality Community Council, Charlottesville CBDG Task Force, Charlottesville Social Services Advisory Board, and the City of Charlottesville’s Housing Advisory Committee. In the early 2000s, Joy also served on the board of directors of NLIHC, bringing her phenomenal activist- leadership to shape the work of the Coalition.
Currently, Joy serves as Chair for the Public Housing Association of Residents (PHAR), Vice-President of the Board of Legal Aid Justice Center, and sits on the Local Steering Committee of the Equity Center at the University of Virginia, UVA Housing Committee, the Charlottesville Redevelopment and Housing Authority’s Redevelopment Committee, the University of Virginia’s Billing and Collections Advisory Council, and PHAR’s Residents for Respectful Research Advisory Committee and Charlottesville Housing Advisory Committee.
Joy has successfully completed numerous workshops and training with HUD, NHLIC, LAOSHAC, Mary Reynolds Babcock Foundation, and the Legal Aid Justice Center, and has completed CITI certification. Not one to keep all this knowledge to herself, Joy has presented workshops at National Low Income Housing Coalition, NLADA, Virginia Legal Aid’s Statewide, Pennsylvania Legal Aid’s State wide, and the Virginia Governor’s Conferences. She also works with J.r. Fleming of Chicago Anti-Eviction Campaign.
Since childhood, Joy has been a member of Mt. Zion First African Baptist Church. In her spare time, she enjoys gardening, dancing, spending time with friends who are supportive, but most of all, spending time with her grandchildren. Joy Johnson is an example of how we must all live our lives: in service of improving the lives of others.
Photograph: Mike Kropf/Charlottesville Tomorrow