Policy & Legislation

The Municipal Housing Authority for the City of Yonkers (MHACY) Executive Director Joseph Shuldiner and Yonkers Mayor Mike Spano showed off the first completed phase of MHACY’s Schlobohm Houses revitalization on a tour with the press and New York State Sen. Andrea Stewart-Cousins. With mixed financing made possible by the RAD program, MHACY will renovate 411 units across eight buildings at a cost of $50 million. The work is part of MHACY’s three-year plan to renovate more than 1,700 units of affordable housing across the city.

Next City covered the Housing Authority of the City of Austin’s (HACA) recent, unusual purchase of a 308-unit luxury apartment building on the open market in partnership with a real estate investment trust (REIT). HACA’s new property, on Austin’s Wells Branch Parkway, is the second apartment complex HACA acquired in partnership with a REIT, the Community Development Trust, in order to provide more affordable housing.

Anthony Scott, CEO of Durham Housing Authority (left) and A. Fulton Meachem, President & CEO of Charlotte Housing Authority (right) in Durham, NC.

CLPHA is pleased to see that our members are visiting each other’s communities to share knowledge, ideas, and best practices for preserving and strengthening their public housing portfolios and resident services.

In August, the Charlotte Housing Authority (CHA) hosted the Durham Housing Authority (DHA) and Durham city officials on a bus tour of Charlotte public housing properties. The Durham delegation also met with CHA staff, board members, and residents to discuss how Charlotte is transforming its housing portfolio and resident services through entrepreneurial efforts in real estate development, bond programs, property management, and family self-sufficiency programs. You can watch a video slideshow of the Charlotte & Durham meeting here.

In October, residents, staff, and board members from the Minneapolis Public Housing Authority (MPHA) traveled to Cambridge, MA to meet with Cambridge Housing Authority staff and tour public housing communities. MPHA learned from Cambridge about their ongoing, comprehensive public housing transformation financed through the RAD program, Low-Income Housing Tax Credits, and other funding tools. In a post-trip recap, MPHA said their residents expressed the importance of seeing and hearing for themselves that these programs did not result in displacement. In fact, said MPHA, “CHA residents were often able to simply move units and continue living in their building even as the work proceeded around them.” You can watch a video about MPHA’s trip to Cambridge here.

Representatives from the Minneapolis Public Housing Authority on a bus tour of Cambridge Housing Authority properties.