ERIK SANZENBACH / L’Observateur / December 18, 1999

LAPLACE – The St. John Parish Housing Authority said that despite a yearmarred by scandal and the firing of it’s executive director, it is making slow but sure progress to fix its financial and maintenance problems.

Sheila Morris, Chairperson of the Housing Authority Board of Commissioners told the Parish Council in a year-end report, “Most importantly, the board firmly believes it has made significant strides toward convincing residents that it intends to be more sensitive and responsive to their needs than the previous administration.”Back in May, residents of the St. John Parish Housing Authority made avideo tape showing the deplorable living conditions in several of the housing units in the parish. The residents claimed that Executive DirectorPatrena Ester was not being honest with the Department of Housing and Urban Development because she was sending HUD reports that everything was fine with the St. John Housing Authority. Angry residents claimed Ester refused to repair any of the housing units and was ruling the Housing Authority through fear and intimidation.

The tape was sent to the New Orleans office of HUD, which resulted in the Parish Council and HUD running two separate investigations into the allegations. HUD’s investigation found no real wrong doing, and the reportsaid the Parish Council was interfering with the Housing Authority’s affairs.

The council disagreed, and in August it fired the entire Board of Commissioners. The new board then proceeded to fire Ester, her assistantand the Housing Authority lawyer, William O’Regan.

Since that time, the Board of Commissioners and the Housing Authority have been operating without an executive director, which Morris told the council on Tuesday evening will be remedied next week. Morris said theboard has whittled the number of applicants for the job down to five prospects, and the board will make its final decision at a special meeting on Dec. 21.”We will begin the new millennium with a new executive director,” stated Morris.

At this time, the Housing Authority is being run by Interim Director Earl White. The Housing Authority has also hired a new lawyer Walter Willard,who helped the council in its investigation earlier in the summer.

Morris said the biggest problem they are working on is the Housing Authority’s financial status. When Ester and her assistant were fired lastsummer, all the financial records of the Housing Authority were purged from the computers.

“We believe that this was done deliberately to undermine the agency’s ability to function,” said Morris.

However, the board and White have taken several steps to find out the exact financial status of the Housing Authority.

They include: Under the auspices of Parish Financial Director Claudette Raphael, board members and parish staffers are trying to reconcile the destroyed records.

The staff also took care of all invoices and made payments to vendors.

White has hired a temporary accountant to handle the day-to-day accounts payable office.

The bulk of the Housing Authority’s finances are being handled by the accounting firm of Miller and Associates. They have asked HUD for anextension in closing out fiscal year 1999 because Miller and Associates are still looking for the missing records.

The board has hired a certified public accounting firm that specializes in accounting for housing. It is attempting to reconstruct the financialrecords from May 1999 forward. The firm also negotiated with HUD to helpthe St. John Housing Authority get a subsidy approved based on last year’sbudget figures.

HUD has approved the Housing Authority’s 1999-2000 budget so that the board can still have funds to pay vendors and landlords.

Morris said they have re-directed the maintenance department so it is not centralized in LaPlace, and each housing unit in Edgard, Garyville, Reserve and LaPlace will have maintenance crews. Because of this, the HousingAuthority now has 38 habitable units available.

To help fill these vacancies, the interim director has put a freeze on evictions, except for drugs and criminal behavior. The board is updatingthe waiting list and the bar list because they were way out-of-date and, according to members of the board, arbitrary and unfair.

Rent collection has also been changed. Residents have told the boardhorror stories of how they were evicted because they were one minute late with the rent and how the housing office would close 15 minutes before the deadline. Now, rent will be collected on the sixth day of everymonth, and the time has been extended from 4 p.m. to 5 p.m. to make iteasier for working tenants to get their rent money into the office.

The St. John Housing Authority has been informed by HUD that $452,000has been approved to use in renovating and rebuilding deteriorating housing units, Morris also said.

The Housing Authority has also received a $69,000 grant to combat drugs in the housing units. The Sheriff’s Office also has a substation on theLaPlace development with three officers on duty.

Morris told the council the continuing audit of the Housing Authority showed paying the Sheriff’s Office $100,000 a year for routine police patrols.

“While we believe it is important that a strong partnership should exist with our sheriff’s department, this outlay will probably have to be reduced.” said Morris.She believes residents of Housing Authority developments are citizens of St. John Parish and shouldn’t have to pay extra to have routine patrols thatare afforded to other citizens of the parish. Besides, Morris added, thereis no written agreement with the Sheriff’s Office.

Finally, the board has brought in a consultant to help it straighten out the financial and maintenance mess left by the previous administration.

Thomas Golsen has had plenty of experience in housing. He was raised inpublic housing in Oakland, Calif., has worked for the San Francisco and LasVegas housing authorities and was brought in by HUD to help overhaul the Housing Authority of New Orleans.

Golsen addressed the council with words of caution.

“The St. John Housing Authority is the smallest I have ever worked with,”he said, “but it is the most daunting because of all the missing records.” He was the one who suggested the changes in the eviction and rent collecting processes. His biggest aim is to get the residents to manage theproperties themselves.

“The St. John Housing Authority can be turned around,” Golsen assured thecouncil, “but not just with the Board of Commissioners. We will need theParish Council’s help, the community’s help and HUD’s help.”Getting HUD’s help could be a problem. Morris said HUD has not reallyhelped the St. John Housing Authority during the past couple of months.”HUD has not extended an olive branch,” Morris said, “and we really need their help. If they had helped us earlier, we would be much further along ingetting the Housing Authority back in shape.”

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