Housing Authority trying to lower cost for tenants

At the Ville Platte Housing Authority’s quarterly meeting, the board spent time discussing financial gains and issues with increased rent.
During the Monday night meeting, vice chairman David Ortego informed the board that their total income from operations was $21,978.40 for the five month period that ended on November 30, 2015.
This amount however is slightly down compared to the income from operations the housing authority received during the same months in 2014.
Ortego said, “The housing authority’s income from operations was approximately $22,000.00 for the five month period that ended on November 30, 2015. This is about $7,000.00 less than the year before, which had a total income from operations of $29,486.68. This isn’t bad, because we still overall have a net gain.”
The drop in income from operations comes from the housing authority having higher operating expenses for the five month period in 2015, as well as from the increase in number of vacancies the housing authority has been experiencing.
The uptick in vacancies began when the US Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) forced all housing authorities to increase their rent.
Ville Platte Housing Authority Housing Supervisor Shelia Ben said, “A lot of people can’t afford the rent now, especially working individuals. The cost for some units are around $630.00 a month.”
Executive Director Grant Soileau said, “We had one individual recently who decided to just go purchase a home, after learning what the rent would be here. They realized that they could pay that monthly on something that they own.”
This issue was concerning to board member Grace Sibley, who said, “I have received a few calls from people about the increase of rent.”
Ben then explained, “HUD determines what the rent will be. They unfortunately have set the price based on urban areas like New Orleans, which is too high for the people living here.”
Sibley then asked, “What are we doing to address this, because $630.00 is to much?”
The executive director informed the board of actions that the housing authority has taken to decrease the amount individuals are paying for rent.
“We have spoken to the director of HUD, and have sent them paperwork,” said Soileau. “We are trying to get a needs assessment done, and they will come look at our inventory so that we can try to get the rent dropped by 30 percent.”
If the price of rent dropped by 30 pct. tenants paying $630.00 a month would now be looking at paying $441.00.
The efforts being made to lower the cost of rent, according to Ben, have been on-going for the last “two years.”
Sibley said, “I just want the people to know that we are looking into this matter, and we are asking HUD to make a difference, and allow us to lower our cost of rent.”
Other items discussed at the meeting were:
•Election of Daniel Arvie as the Ville Platte Housing Authority Chairman.
•Election of David Ortego as the Ville Platte Housing Authority Vice Chairman.
•Approval of the engineers report, which included receiving bids on Tuesday for the installation of central heating and cooling in 25 of the housing authorities apartments.
•Approval of charge offs.
•Renewal of part time employees.
•Approval to hire an off duty police officer at $15 an hour to patrol the housing authority area.
•Acceptance of the Capital Fund Program (CFP) 2016 funds in the amount of $238,140.00.
•Acceptance of one year plan to install central air and heat in units.
•Acceptance of purchase of refrigerators from CFP 2014 fund.
•Discussion of a new trash policy that could involve purchasing uniform trash cans for each apartment at the request of Ville Platte Mayor Jennifer Vidrine.