EDGARD, La. (AP) - The St. John the Baptist Parish Housing Authority has received a “substandard” grade from the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development. That’s an improvement after more than a decade on the “troubled” list.
The latest assessment by gave the authority 60 of a possible 100 points, The New Orleans Advocate (https://bit.ly/1zGjgrt) reported.
Improvements included a perfect score on financial accounting and correction of several deficiencies cited repeatedly in previous years.
“When I came in, there was a lot of cleaning up that was taking place,” said Trina Henderson, who took over as the agency’s executive director in 2011. “Now, I would like to say that, for the last year or so, the Housing Authority’s actually managing.”
The report said the authority recently selected an Atlanta-based developer to plan the redevelopment of its 296-unit system, which consists of buildings in LaPlace, Reserve, Garyville and Edgard.
About half the units are currently vacant.
A 2013 study recommended tearing down most of the authority’s buildings and offering residents vouchers so they could relocate to privately owned apartments in the meantime.
“Overall, the (public) housing stock is dilapidated and obsolete,” said the report, paid for by HUD. “It no longer provides safe, sanitary and decent housing for its residents.”
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Information from: The Advocate, https://theadvocate.com
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