Authority adopts council measures

Most contentious item discussed was contract selling Willow Heights

FAYETTEVILLE — The Housing Authority will adopt a series of City Council recommendations regarding its plans, including a provision to void a contract to sell one of its properties.

The authority’s board discussed each recommendation during its meeting Thursday, but decided it would vote on all of the items as a whole. A 4-0 vote to adopt the recommendations came about 9:15 p.m. The rest of the meeting went past 10 p.m.

Exchanges between board members, staff and the public were heated. At one point, two of the authority’s administrators and a board member got up and left, but shortly thereafter came back. Conversations went into the realm of personal feelings. Members of the public interjected in discussion multiple times.

The most contentious item was whether to void a contract selling Willow Heights, 10 S. Willow Ave.

Members of the public and authority officials have been at odds for more than a year about what to do with Willow Heights. The property is under contract to be sold to a private landowner for $1.25 million, and residents there would move to an expanded property the authority operates, Morgan Manor, 324 E. 12th Place.

Morgan Manor operates under a form of Section 8 called the Rental Assistance Demonstration program, which enables private investment in public housing properties.

The investor gets a tax credit and the property reverts back to a housing authority over a period of several years.

The prospective buyer, Vlad Tatter, sat in the audience Thursday. Board Commissioner Melissa Terry

asked him to speak, but he declined.

Before Thursday’s meeting, about 30 people spoke during a nearly five- hour special City Council meeting Tuesday. Mayor Lioneld Jordan called the meeting because he wanted to hear from council members, Housing Authority officials, public housing residents and their neighbors before signing off on the plans.

The plans need to be submitted to the U. S. Department of Housing and Urban Development by the end of the month in order for the authority to get the $281,425 it’s slated to receive for capital improvement this coming fiscal year.

The council gave the authority six recommendations to consider — prioritize homeless people in order to obtain housing vouchers; reduce consultant fees and use savings for repairs and maintenance; get out of the contract to sell Willow Heights; end any Rental Assistance Demonstration conversion plans for the coming fiscal year; apply for Community Development Block Grant money; and adopt the recommendations of the University of Arkansas’ Community Design Center for Willow Heights.

The design center completed a livability improvement study last month with a grant from the Endeavor Foundation.

Its recommendations include pursuing a low-income tax credit to revitalize Willow Heights rather than expand Morgan Manor; partner with public agencies and nonprofit groups; hold workshops for operational plans; and pursue grants.

The board nearly reached a middle ground during Thursday’s meeting about Willow Heights. Commissioner Lucky McMahon suggested language expressing the board’s intent to withdraw the contract pending advice from its attorney, Jim Crouch.

Crouch is out of town this week. Chairman Mike Emery said he wanted to hear from Crouch about the contract before committing to a position.

A fire storm of debate set off from there. One member of the public challenged each board member to say, from a personal point of view, whether they would support getting out of the contract. McMahon and Terry said they would. Emery and Commissioner Debra Humphrey declined to comment.

After three hours, Emery made a motion to accept the council’s recommendations.

“I still think it’s in our best interest to consult first, but for the sake of moving forward, we should keep it as is in the language,” he said.

The first recommendation the board discussed will have the authority put homeless applicants in the front of the line for Section 8 housing vouchers, as a policy.

Now, vouchers are awarded on a first- come, firstserved basis.

Adopting the policy will create a larger pool of vouchers than what’s available, said Angela Belford, board chairwoman of the Continuum of Care, a regional organization coordinating a community response to homelessness.

The continuum also is working on a plan to get more landlords to accept the vouchers, Belford said.

Now, vouchers have about a 75 percent success rate, said Laura Higgins, Section 8 director.

The board also adopted a revised budget shifting about half of the money allotted for consultant fees to maintenance and repair.

The allotted amount went down to about $20,000 over five years from $40,000, Executive Director Deniece Smiley said. The question came up during the City Council meeting Tuesday, particularly regarding what the authority pays for its Rental Assistance Demonstration consultants.

A large part of the discussion centered around ways for the authority to get money.

A neighbor-led effort to buy air- conditioning units for Willow Heights residents raised more than $16,000 in six days.

Residents there have to supply their own units. A community task force formed during the July 9 meeting.