Aerial shot of the Louis E. Brown Housing Community on St. Croix, managed by the V.I. Housing Authority. Photo Credit: ERNICE GILBERT, V.I. CONSORTIUM
During Wednesday’s meeting of the V.I. Housing Authority Board, commissioners learned that the current occupancy rate of VIHA housing stock stood at record high of 90 percent, a long-coveted achievement for acting Executive Director Lydia Pelle. However, with the national goal set at 96 percent by HUD, the agency must grapple with several challenges to reach par by the end of the year.
“This is something for the 29 years they tell me I’ve been at VIHA, I have never seen. It’s been a goal all this time, and we finally met the 90 percent,” Ms. Pelle told commissioners as she provided a brief update at the start of the meeting.
A short while later Jimmy Farmer, director of asset management, told commissioners that the agency was hoping to increase the occupancy rate from 90 percent to 94 percent by mid-year, before finishing 2024 at the national standard of 95.5 percent. This, he said, would allow VIHA to achieve the maximum score in that regard in HUD’s evaluation of similar agencies across the nation.
However, getting to 96 percent will prove to be a challenge for the agency, especially as some vacant units are unable to be leased due to needed refurbishments. “The challenge still continues to be being able to have an adequate amount of supplies and materials on hand,” Mr. Farmer noted, informing commissioners that “we currently have about four units within the territory that are just simply about 95 percent complete. The only element that’s left to complete those units is floor tile.” VIHA is currently working to register new vendors, including several in Puerto Rico, from whom they can purchase in bulk, Mr. Farmer said. Meanwhile, a total of 958 people across the territory are on the waitlist – 446 on St. Thomas and 512 on St. Croix.
VIHA’s Housing Choice Voucher program also struggled to match supply with demand. “We weren’t as successful as we hoped to be,” said Akala Anthony, the program’s director, referring to the rollout of a landlord incentive program during the latter half of 2023. Nevertheless, Ms. Anthony adopted a positive perspective and announced that a late-2023 shift in strategy may yield fruit in the near future.
“We were able to grab some new landlords,” she said, before pivoting to the change in approach. “One of the things that we did late last year was we focused on getting our project-based sites occupied. So we try to send our families to all of our projects these days, hoping that they will be able to find a unit.”
Even with more families being added to the list of voucher recipients, Ms. Anthony acknowledged that finding enough units was an ongoing challenge. “We know that there’s a shortage in housing in the territory. We’re praying and fasting and hoping that units come online during 2024.”
Director of Modernization Shawn Hicks provided an upbeat report on the Hodge Development, which she said was originally scheduled for completion in August or September of this year. However, at the current pace of work, Ms. Hicks estimated that it might be finished well before then. “Maybe the end of June, July, fingers crossed.”
Meanwhile, VIHA is in the process of moving through the financial process in order to get several developments off the ground, including securing additional disaster recovery funds from the Office of Disaster Recovery for the 84-unit Estate Donoe project. Other transactions pending include multiple phases of renovation, demolition, and revitalization in the Estate Tutu area, and the revitalization of the D. Hamilton Terrace and Alphonso “Piggy” Gerard housing Communities, which are all expected to close this year.
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