Personal experience set the course for where Penny Page is today.
Fifteen years ago, she was homeless after fleeing a violent relationship, motivating her to start working with victims of domestic violence. From there, she set her sights on politics and policy work. “The world is a tough place to get help,” Page says. “My experiences motivated me to want to change the world for other people.”
Through her job helping survivors of domestic and sexual violence, Page has helped thousands of people in Central Virginia through a variety of roles; from shelter staff to hospital advocate to helping patients in the ER minutes after they’ve been sexually assaulted or escaped an abusive situation.
She also began booking hip-hop shows as a means of elevating the genre, including Richmond’s first all LGBTQ+ rap shows and first multi-day rap festival. “I worked intentionally to help those genres get more exposure in Richmond’s art scene and that got me into policymaking,” she says. “I saw the results when you intentionally work on something as a way of fixing systems that are broken.”
Using the housing-first model of getting unhoused people into homes as quickly as possible, Page instituted a flourishing housing assistance program. While the former housing program provided less than $5,000 annually, Page increased that to over $60,000 a year in rent assistance using strategic approaches to landlord recruiting and helping increase the prospects of tenants by providing credit repair and expunging criminal records. “Most social problems are the result of economic issues, so helping someone cover their rent makes a huge difference in their lives,” she says.
As the first transgender candidate for public office in Henrico County, she raised more money than any Democrat ever in an election for the Three Chopt district seat she ran for and motivated a historic voter turnout resulting in the closest election contest in the history of the district. She has since become chair of the advocacy committee of the LGBTQ+ Chamber of Commerce and the housing chair of the Henrico NAACP.
After successfully getting two different localities to agree to adopt law enforcement reform related to violence prevention, she was invited to the White House so the Biden administration could hear from her as they considered their own approach to domestic violence and gun violence on the national level.
Page believes not staying busy is contributing passively to the world’s problems.
“If you get too hung up on long-term goals, you might miss something right in front of you,” she says. “I have to stay open to whatever best serves the community.”
