By Lizzie Stone, city council reporter
City council members on Tuesday warned of the effects of racism they see in national politics and how it contributes to fear and harm for the Harrisonburg community.
The meeting’s discussion was prompted by a controversial video posted by President Donald Trump last Thursday that included a clip of former President Barack Obama and former First Lady Michelle Obama as primates in a jungle. The video received backlash from across political parties, and has since been deleted from the president’s social media accounts.
Mayor Deanna Reed said she wanted to talk about it because it felt very personal to her that the president would post a “disturbing, racist video” of the Obamas during Black History Month.
“I can’t sit here as a Black woman, as a Black elected official, as a mayor, and not call that out,” Reed said.
Reed and council member Monica Robinson said the video didn’t surprise them, but it did hurt them. They said it also hurt because it added to a growing pattern of hate that affects the whole community.
“We should be protesting about this because it’s all related,” Reed said. “I’m supporting all of our different communities. Our diversity is what makes us strong here in Harrisonburg.”
University students protested against I.C.E. on Tuesday, and council members addressed them directly during their conversation about hate. They said all the recent incidents of hatred and racism nationally are related to each other, and spoke passionately against all of it.
“I feel ashamed today that this happened, and I have not been screaming from the rooftop, ‘What is wrong with you people, what is wrong with you, President Trump?” Robinson said. “They say how the president acts reflects the moral fabric of the country. Well, I’m not accepting that, because I’m not a part of a hate filled moral fabric. So that’s not me.”
Reed said she wasn’t asking the council to do anything specific because she knows they all feel the same way about what they are hearing and seeing from national politics.
“It’s been an open conversation for us as a council,” Reed said. “We have sent letters to our elected officials asking for responses about what they are going to do as leaders to support people who are in our community and who are living in fear.”
The city council recently sent a joint message to state and national representatives about their concerns with immigration enforcement actions. Reed said more still needs to be done.
“We can write all the statements we want, but does that really effect change?” Reed said. “That’s what we need to…to make that impact that’s going to effect change.”
Reed said people in the community are dealing with fear and racism as a result of hateful or violent comments. Despite how supportive local leaders and much of the community is, she said they still need to speak up against harmful comments.
“The idea that you have to say that, to be vulnerable in today’s age, is not surprising to you, I know,” council member Dany Fleming said. “But [it’s] harmful and disgusting that we have to do it. The racism that we see connected with I.C.E. activities, you know, it is connected to what we saw from the President recently.”
The entire council spoke in support of Reed and Robinson for sharing their personal feelings and experiences and bringing the rest of the community into the discussion.
“Thank you for bringing this up to the Harrisonburg community,” council member Nasser Alsaadun said. “I want to believe that we are together in this…We are living together, and we feel how harmful it is for you and for others, because we share it.”
Council members said harmful comments they opposed are both part of a long history of hatred and discrimination in the country, and fuel for current divisions, nationally.
“It’s not right for I.C.E to be here,” Robinson said. “It’s not right for people to feel fear that they could be yanked out. And then it’s not right for people to be homophobic… It’s not right for people to be homeless. But it’s also not right to keep just instilling fear and racism on a group of folks who basically never asked to be here in the first place.”
Council member Laura Dent, echoing the others, said the hatred does not reflect them or Harrisonburg.
“I certainly share the horrified reaction to that kind of racism and hatred coming from the top of our country, historically the beacon of light and democracy,” she said. “What has happened to us?”
Open Doors assesses Navigation Center’s first year of operation
Open Doors, the nonprofit organization that has partnered with the city to operate Harrisonburg’s homeless shelter, presented to the council a summary of its resources and impact since the Navigation Center opened in December 2024.
The Navigation Center describes its two main functions as a low-barrier emergency shelter and a public daytime drop-in center. Adults experiencing homelessness can check in to the overnight shelter and receive case management services and other resources while they stay.
Open Doors Executive Director Nate Riddle said the city heard community concerns that the center would attract unhoused people from other areas. Data from the first year shows this wasn’t the case, with
A majority of people who stayed in the shelter listed a Harrisonburg or Rockingham County zip code as their last permanent residence, with 57% and 24% respectively of the 392 individuals who stayed there. The remaining 19% were from other parts of Virginia or other states, which Riddle said was mostly West Virginia.
The regular overnight shelter has a capacity of 80 beds, but in circumstances where unhoused people are unsafe outdoors, the Navigation Center can add an additional 20 beds and remain open during the day.
Riddle said a future challenge for the center is to provide on-site meal services in the center. Open Doors offers “nutritional support” to shelter guests, but they have to leave and get full meals elsewhere.
Reed said her main concern is the “beautiful, full service kitchen” in the center which she “thought was going to be used.”
There was a full meal program early in 2025 when the center was opened, but Riddle said the program overly relied on volunteers and ultimately became unsustainable. Open Doors lacks necessary funding to operate even a three-day-a-week meal program, which including staff, operations, and food sourcing would cost $200,000, he said.
Council members asked about other funding sources such as grants for resources like a meal program. Riddle said Open Doors is not currently receiving federal funding for its operations, and it is “hard to imagine” any being available federally in the near future.
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