When most people think of Section 8 housing in Henderson, they lump all money that is spent on assisted living into one pot.
However, there are many pots of subsidized housing on the stove, and they are boiling up all over our community.
Here’s a link that shows who is managing subsidized property in Henderson.
There is much about this housing business in Henderson that is allowed to brew in the shadows, and there is much about subsidized housing in Henderson and Vance County that is stewing in misconceptions. There is a lot about subsidized housing in Henderson and Vance County that needs to follow a better recipe. Here’s a part of what’s cooking.
Lincoln Heights is not a Section 8 housing project. It is a public housing project that began operation in 1979. There is no debt on the property and they pay no taxes. They have 75 family units, and some are reserved for the elderly or disabled. They presently have a waiting list of 25 to 30, and they have 300-plus people living in the units. They are a non-profit and operate entirely from subsidies given to the Vance County Housing Authority by HUD and some rent that the residents pay. Neither the Henderson City government nor Vance County government has any authority over this group except the members that the county commissioners appoint their governing board.
Now, who oversees the money that the federal government sends to the Vance County Housing Authority? According to the State Treasurer’s Office, Lonnie Davis is the Board Chairman, and the Executive Director is Tamara Whitfield. They have to follow the laws of North Carolina that control Public Housing Authorities. Part of their responsibility is to file and publish their budget.
I went to their office on Monday and was told they would send the budget by e-mail to me on Tuesday. On Tuesday, I received a call from Ms. Whitfield saying that the Greensboro office stated I had to file a Freedom of Information request before they could give me their budget and audits. The law in North Carolina states the following about housing authorities:
§ 159‑12. Filing and publication of the budget; budget hearings.
(a) On the same day that he submits the budget to the governing board, the budget officer shall file a copy of it in the office of the clerk to the board where it shall remain available for public inspection until the budget ordinance is adopted. The clerk shall make a copy of the budget available to all news media in the county. He shall also publish a statement that the budget has been submitted to the governing board, and is available for public inspection in the office of the clerk to the board. The statement shall also give notice of the time and place of the budget hearing required by subsection (b) of this section.
(b) Before adopting the budget ordinance, the board shall hold a public hearing at which time any persons who wish to be heard on the budget may appear. (1927, c. 146, s. 7; 1955, cc. 698, 724; 1971, c. 780, s. 1.)
The Vance County Housing Authority’s proposed budget is required to be open to the public for inspection; so, they must require a different procedure after the budget is adopted. I called the State Treasurer’s Office and they were most helpful in e-mailing me their audit for 2008 which they received on August 28, 2009 and have not yet officially approved. The audit is here for you to read.
Franklin Vance Opportunity has another pot in which rent subsidies are cooking. They oversee the Section 8 tenant-based rental vouchers. (Granville and Warren counties operate their Section 8 through the North Carolina Commission of Indian Affairs.) There are 579 vouchers available for both Vance and Franklin counties. Presently, there are 287 vouchers in Vance and 242 in Franklin County. Fifty vouchers are not being utilized due to budget shortfalls. A tenant can take a voucher and rent an apartment, a mobile home, or a single family dwelling. There are roughly 710 people on the waiting list in Vance and 390 people on the waiting list in Franklin, but all vouchers have been closed since April 2008. All these numbers refer only to one named applicant. The applicant could have as many as ten people in their family who will reside in the dwelling. There are thirteen real estate agents and landlords on the Vance County Housing listing that provide dwellings for rental vouchers.
Franklin-Vance-Warren Opportunity checks income, birth certificates, social security and criminal records. An applicant cannot have had a felony in the last seven years, and registered sex offenders are not allowed. Every year HUD sets the income eligibility. Every year the houses in the rental voucher program are inspected by Franklin-Vance-Warren Opportunity. This rental subsidy allows a voucher holder to rent a dwelling that costs more than the voucher pays so long as their income will make up the difference. Franklin-Vance-Warren Opportunity submits to a yearly audit, and the dwellings are subject to unannounced audit inspections much like what occurred in High Point recently.
There are other subsidies that come under a designated “New Construction” heading. Here the owners usually use tax credits to build the facility, and they are then are paid the rent by the government after completion. The facilities can all fall under Section 8 or there can be a combination of subsidizes. It is my understanding that new construction does not necessarily mean that today the facility is “new.”
In our community we have subsidized apartment complexes where rental subsidy is provided. These are Cedarhurst, Highland Green, Hillcrest, North Henderson Heights, Springwood, and CourtYard/Woods.
There is yet another category called “Low-Income Housing” where the applicant must be income eligible for rent and all tenants must pay a flat monthly rate. These are Foxborough Pines, Quail Ridge, and Wickford.
Finally, there is housing for the elderly and disabled only. CourtYard II, Garden Walk Villas, Heritage Homes, Lula’s Landing, Maria Parham, Oakhill, and Vance Senior Housing comprise this list.
So, if we wanted to know how many residents in our city receive rent subsides from HUD, it would be difficult, if not impossible, to find out. There are pots boiling all over our area, and no single cook is in charge of them all. With all of these different chefs, we have cooked ourselves into a stew. Before we put any more pots of subsidized housing on the stove, we need to ask HUD to audit the entire picture to find out how much is cooking in this small area of Henderson and Vance County. Maybe we will find out that we have done our part for low-income housing, and now it is time to get into the kitchen and start cooking for the middle income folks.
Stay tuned and I’ll let you know what HUD has to say.