After one year of rebuilding Alexandria’s public housing authority following a leadership overhaul, Mayor Alyia Gaskins says much work remains.
In a recent two-hour work session, the Alexandria Redevelopment and Housing Authority‘s new leadership told City Council that rent ledgers are now correct, resident maintenance issues are being handled, and that their year-over-year budget will get approved in December.
Gaskins, joined by every member of City Council at the meeting, asked for a list of each type of inspection ARHA conducts on its properties, as well as creating an annual residential survey, creating an annual report on the status of residential maintenance work orders and a “larger look at the real estate portfolio and ARHA’s holdings.”
“At the end of the day, we all share the same goal,” Gaskins said, “which is that we know how important ARHA is within our city, and we want it to be a well-functioning organization that provides the highest quality housing experience and services for all of our residents.”
Last fall, City Council demanded that ARHA’s nine-member Board of Commissioners resign, following news that then-CEO Erik Johnson was fired for living in a public housing unit. Former City Manager Mark Jinks was installed as the new board chair, the board was fully replaced, and then ARHA spent the next several months struggling to get its budget approved while sorting out inaccurate rent ledgers and a growing backlog of residential repairs.
ARHA residents have long complained their landlord doesn’t respond to their complaints, leading to unsafe living situations.
Interim CEO Roy Priest told City Council that 100% of ARHA’s more than 1,100 public housing properties in the city have been inspected. When asked by Gaskins how he plans on tracking improved customer service, Priest said it’s as simple as looking at the number of community resident requests about service quality.
“So, we track those kinds of things on a regular basis, and I don’t know what the standard was before, what was happening,” Priest said.
“I don’t think there was a [standard],” Gaskins added.
Earlier this year, Gaskins led a fundraising effort with Alfred Street Baptist Church to pay off more than $1 million in outstanding ARHA tenant back rent.
Jinks said that the Board of Commissioners now meets 11 times a year and has created a number of committees that meet upward to 40 times a year. He also said that ARHA’s staff are under a hiring freeze and saw five CEOs over the last five years, four chief financial officers and a number of human resources directors.
“They’ve been through a lot over the last few years,” Jinks said. “I think we’re at that point we hopefully have staff stability in the leadership of the organization.”
Priest was ARHA’s CEO from 2006 to 2017 and agreed to return after interim CEO Rickie Maddox resigned. In a recent interview with ALXnow, Priest said that he will be helping the board select a new CEO in a national search and expects to be in the role until the permanent position is filled this spring.
Activist Loren Depina has led efforts to improve living conditions for ARHA residents. She pointed to ARHA’s customer satisfaction survey on its website as proof that the organization’s leadership is still out of touch.
“I was extremely bothered that with all the ARHA staff that was in the room, none of them know that their surveys are on their website,” Depina said. “Me and the tenants fill it out all the time. That was very telling.”
Jinks and Priest will next make a budget presentation on ARHA’s new Capital Improvement Program budget at City Council’s annual budget retreat on Saturday, Nov. 7.
