Housing Authority cutting ties with CEO
The Houston Housing Authority on Thursday voted not to extend the contract of longtime CEO Tory Gunsolley, a spokesperson said Friday.
Gunsolley, who referred questions to the authority, has led the organization for nearly a decade and will remain in his position through the summer, according to a letter he emailed to colleagues.
The Housing Authority is a public agency that oversees low-income and affordable housing vouchers for tens of thousands of Houstonians, and it has played a key role in the city’s efforts to recover from Hurricane Harvey and other storms.
In the letter, Gunsolley said the decision shocked him. He also defended the Housing Authority’s work under his leadership, writing that the agency has “accomplished tremendous things” for the city’s “most vulnerable residents.”
Among the accomplishments he cited were declines in local homelessness and a 24 percent increase in housing vouchers issued by the agency during his tenure.
Tim Kaiser, executive director of the Public Housing Authorities Directors Association, called Gunsolley “one of the most respected professionals in the industry” and said the board “made a mistake” by not keeping him on. The handling of the decision, he added, could make potential successors reluctant to apply for the post.
“I don’t see how they’re going to find anyone better than Tory Gunsolley, quite frankly,” Kaiser said. “People of his caliber are far and few between. When we have a policy issue that we want to develop on a national level, he’s one of the go-to people.”
Gunsolley’s time at the agency’s helm has not always been smooth, and he has clashed with Mayor Sylvester Turner, who appoints a majority of the authority’s board.
Chiefly, Gunsolley had been at odds with the mayor over a proposed Galleriaarea housing project that would have been the city’s first in a so-called “high opportunity” area with highly rated schools.
Facing intense opposition from residents near the site of the Fountain View project, Turner in 2017 blocked the proposal, prompting the U.S. Housing and Urban Development Department to say Houston’s subsidized housing procedures promoted segregation in violation of the Civil Rights Act by giving too much weight to “racially motivated opposition.”
In rejecting the development, HUD’s letter on the matter stated, Turner had asked the prior board chair to resign and instructed the board not to renew Gunsolley’s
contract.
Turner, through a spokesman, declined comment Friday on the board’s decision to end Gunsolley’s tenure.
The authority has faced other controversies under Gunsolley.
Last year, HHA’s former general counsel was awarded nearly $1.9 million after she filed a federal lawsuit accusing Housing Authority
leaders of firing her after she investigated suspected fraud in the agency’s voucher program for veterans.
Another lawsuit, filed by a local developer in November, accused the Housing Authority of failing to notify the public before it voted on two affordable housing developments in the East End. A judge put the projects on hold after finding that the agency may have violated the Texas Open Meetings Act.
Lalou Davies-Yemitran, an affordable housing developer and consultant who participates in the Houston Housing Collaborative, said he has heard signs of “discontentment” among some board members over time.
“Maybe not collectively by the board, but you’ve heard echoes of discontentment of the delivery on the objectives of the authority,” he said. “That’s something I was aware of.”