Housing agency adds online payment option
Members of the Forrest City Housing Authority Board on Thursday heard reports of upgrades taking place throughout the agency.
One of those is the addition of an online payment portal for residents.
FCHA Administrative Assistant and Turner Circle Public Housing Manager Shonveay Phillips told board members that tenants may now sign up to make online payments to the agency.
"It is easy to register for online payments," said Phillips. "The tenant would go to www.housingmanager.com, type in their first and last names as well as the last four digits of their Social Security number and the full amount of the rent. It is very easy to register. Our tenants can come in and pay or they can pay online. If they are having trouble online, they can call us and we will walk them through it. We have made just over $12,000 in online payments since January. This has been a great success for the Housing Authority."
Dawson Homes Public Housing Manager Rita Meredith explained to board members how work orders are placed into the system in order to keep track of what needs to be done within the facilities.
According to Meredith, equipment that gets repaired is filed as a fixed asset and any material that is purchased for repairs is filed as inventory.
Public Housing Manager Katrina Brown told board members that recently, some apartments had been upgraded with painting and new appliances.
"We changed the wall colors from beige to gray and replaced the appliances," said Brown. "We changed the color of the appliances from white to black and also put in new ceiling fans.
Now everyone is requesting these updated units.
“We are also thinking about adding some more parking spaces in Grobmyer Circle because of how congested it has gotten on some areas,” Brown continued.
FCHA Maintenance Supervisor Anthony Bean told the board that big changes are coming to some apartment complexes throughout the city.
“We are working on siding in Turner Circle," said Bean. "The new siding is done with a concrete board because the problem we have had is when people push barbecue grills too close to the buildings, the heat melts the siding. Weed eating around the buildings also knocks holes in the siding. These new pieces of siding will not have that issue.
Bean continued, “We are also going to put new cabinets in some of our one-bedroom residences. The biggest thing we are going to do is take two, two-story, two-bedroom apartments and make one, twostory, three-bedroom apartment. There would be three bedrooms with the bathroom upstairs."
"This project was already in motion before I became the director," explained FCHA Executive Director Denise Grady. "This project is to turn two-bedroom apartments into three-bedroom apartments with the bedrooms and bathroom upstairs. The most common issue we are being faced with lately is that people don't want stairs. There isn't even a bathroom downstairs. We also discussed if we could have a bathroom somewhere downstairs.”
Grady shared concerns regarding this project with board members. “One of the main issues for me is that we took Cope Cove away and it was all three-bedroom apartments. We are talking about turning these 10, two-bedroom units into five, three-bedroom units, which is what we got rid of with Cope Cove,” she said. “This is just my opinion, but we tore it down and now I feel like we are coming back with what we got rid of. I am very concerned about this project, and I didn't want to make any decisions without the board."
No action was taken by the board regarding the demolition and renovation of these units.
In other business, according to Grady, terms are expiring for board member Emily Holley and board chairman Arthur Bean.
"Mr. Bean's term on this board is set to expire on March 31 and Mrs. Holley's term is set to expire on April 1," said Grady. "I would like to see the board stay the same. We have 45 days from the day the term expires before having to decide to reappoint or to find a new member. I don't want to talk about this without Mrs. Holley being present. If we need to call a special meeting in April to speak about this more, we can."
The board agreed to try and call a special meeting in April to discuss the expiring terms.