The Housing Authority of the City of Austin is the best housing authority in the state and one of the second-highest rated housing authorities in the nation, according to scores awarded to its programs by the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development.
Service in public housing is judged upon an authority's performance in a wide range of criteria, including finances, resident satisfaction and management. The Austin housing authority scored well in every category.
These high scores show a marked change for a housing authority that was given failing scores by HUD in 1997. The new scores place the Austin authority first among similar agencies in Texas and give it a share of the No. 2 spot in the United States.
The authority is responsible for the operation of Austin's public housing developments and the distribution of housing vouchers, or Section 8 vouchers. Additionally, it administers community programs for its clients.
It received a Public Housing Assessment System score of 97 out of a possible 100 and a Section 8 Management Assessment Program score of 104 percent of 140. Section 8 provides housing assistance in the form of rent vouchers to qualified participants.
"[The rating system] helps us assess how they're performing, and if someone's not performing well, that red-lights for us, and we can provide assistance to help them get back on track," said Patricia Campbell, HUD's regional public affairs officer. The authority's high scores represent the quality of work it is doing, Campbell added.
The Austin authority has improved greatly, said Karen Paup, chair of the city's Community Development Commission's Housing Sub-committee and co-director of the Texas Low Income Housing Information Service.
"I think that they've been doing pretty well in the last couple of years. There have been a lot of improvements at the properties," she said. Formerly, public housing units would sit vacant for long periods of time before being made ready for tenants, Paup said.
The improvement the authority has seen can be attributed to changes made after the 1996 audit, said Veronica Wood, director of community development for the Housing Authority.
"The changes have a lot to do with the changes in leadership. [Executive director] James Hargrove came on board and looked at the style in which we managed our properties," Wood said. "He looked at decentralizing the management."
Decentralizing property management helped get the city's public housing into better shape, Wood added.
"There's better control within each of the properties, having a personal touch as well, looking at the communities and making sure windows aren't boarded up," she said.
While the authority is doing well with the properties they have, there is still a great need for more available housing for Austin's low-income residents, said Paup.
"According to HUD, there's more than 21,000 low-income renters in Austin who are paying more than half of their income for housing, so we definitely need more low-income housing."
The existing programs that the authority is responsible for are important resources, said Paup.
"Public housing is an extremely useful tool. For people who are working in minimum-wage jobs, [or] are disabled or elderly, public housing and Section 8 are the only resources that really work for them."
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