Housing authority writes off vacated accounts
As the Fayette County Housing Authority officially wrote off $25,190 in vacated accounts for a three-month period, board member the Rev. Howard E. Dantzler Sr. asked how it was possible that one woman’s delinquent account grew to $2,989. “How does that happen?” asked Dantzler, pursuing a line of questioning usually put forth by board member Angela M. Zimmerlink, who did not attend Friday’s meeting.
Department head Dennis Barclay responded, “I was ready for Angela (to ask that), but I’ll tell you.” Barclay proceeded to say that the woman’s monthly rent was $486 and the authority permitted her to enter into a payment plan, which allowed her debt to escalate before she finally absconded.
“She got behind and got on a payment plan. (Then) she skipped (out on us),” said Barclay. He cited a separate case in which a tenant left public housing owing the authority $3,089 in back rent because she didn’t properly report her income.
“She was working for a year and didn’t tell us,” said Barclay, who noted that the authority back-charged her for the due rent. He said tenants, who pay 30 percent of their income in rent, are supposed to notify the authority within 10 days of any change in income level.
Barclay said the authority at one time pursued evictions in a “zealous” fashion, which probably would cut down on situations like these two examples. But he said the authority had to soften that approach because it was causing its vacancy rate to soar even higher.
As of September the authority’s vacancy rate was 22 percent, meaning it had 387 vacant units, according to the executive director’s report distributed at Friday’s meeting. Barclay said the situation would be far worse if the authority vigorously pursued evictions for non-timely payment of rent.
“We can’t afford to be overly zealous in our evictions for rent,” said Barclay. He added that the authority’s computer “kicks out” a delinquency notice even if a tenant owes a penny. It makes sense for the authority to work out a payment plan with an otherwise good tenant if doing so keeps them on board, Barclay said.
Dantzler asked if the authority had any parameters on how much a tenant can rack up in debt before he or she is expelled from public housing. He also asked how long it takes to eject someone once that threshold has been reached.
Solicitor John M. “Jack” Purcell said it basically takes a couple of months to evict a tenant whenever that move requires action by a district justice. Barclay said the authority starts putting pressure on a tenant to ante up in the first month the account becomes delinquent.
According to the September executive director’s report, the authority sent 394 notices to evict to tenants for nonpayment of rent. Two weeks later, the authority initiated eviction proceedings against 15 of them, but only one tenant was evicted in September.
Dantzler asked if there were a way to approach people who are behind in their rent “to encourage them without frightening them.” Barclay said that tenants display the full gamut of emotions when the authority attempts to collect and that it depends on the individual’s temperament.
Board Chairman Kenneth L. Johnson recommended that the authority check with other authorities to see how they handle rent nonpayment. Barclay responded that he’s already done that and discovered that some other authorities go so far as to post the names of those tenants in the community hall.
“Believe me, a lot more housing authorities are even more draconian than we are,” said Barclay. “They put up signs that say (for example), ‘Rev. Dantzler didn’t pay his rent this month.’ We are the least onerous of some that I have seen (in that regard).”
Mary Wertz, a resident of South Hill Terrace who’s long been affiliated with the authority’s tenant council, said she supports the idea of posting names.
Wertz said she didn’t think the idea could hurt and that the majority of tenants, who pay on time, wouldn’t be offended.