At the council's public comment period, Cindy Bell described losing her home after what she said was an illegal "self-help eviction" by her landlord and urged Richmond City Council to place housing enforcement, tenant protections and the city's homeless crisis on a future public agenda.

Bell, who identified herself as a former Richmond resident and a career educator, said she became homeless after missing a single paycheck and that her landlord issued a summary eviction without providing a five-day notice or following lawful procedures. She said she had reported mold, lighting hazards and vandalism to her landlord and asked for the locks to be changed; she said the landlord did not follow the Virginia Residential Landlord and Tenant Act until she asked him to read it.

"Tenant rights are not optional," Bell told the council, and she urged the body to "stop criminalizing displacement, help our constituents in need, and hold those in power accountable." Bell also said her son was now classified as "doubled up homeless" under the McKinney-Vento Act and that Richmond Public Schools are bearing transportation costs to keep him enrolled in the city's schools.

Bell said she contacted the YWCA and shelter providers but encountered long waiting lists. She described the experience as "a failure of enforcement, compassion, and leadership" and asked council to act on landlord enforcement and tenant protections.

The council acknowledged Bell's testimony and said her comments were "duly noted"; no formal action on enforcement or a tenant-protection ordinance was taken at the meeting. The record shows Bell cited a provision of state landlord-tenant law in describing the eviction; she identified the statute in her remarks as "Virginia code section 55.11245 subsection f."