Executive Director's Message

2010 was filled with spotlight moments that had a positive impact on our operation. As we inch closer to the completion of both the Father Panik Village Replacement Consent Decree and the Pequonnock court settlement, we opened The Eleanor and The Franklin, a 110 unit project that provides housing for two very distinct groups of Bridgeport’s population, the elderly and the homeless, both underserved in this city. Although it took nearly a decade to complete, the opening was timely providing service-supported housing in this very difficult economic time. The Housing Authority also rented Presidential Village, a 19 unit scattered site in the east side, and Hanover/ Norman Streets, a 27 unit acquisition in the south end, both fulfilling replacement commitments for Father Panik. When Maplewood and Brooks went into construction in 2010, they represented the last 10 units of the Pequonnock court settlement. These two sites in the east side will rent-up next year.

In 2010, the Housing Authority achieved an LIPH occupancy rate of 99%, a major accomplishment made much more significant as the Authority struggled with staff vacancies in five key senior positions. And, of course, we lost the inspirational leadership of Kathleen Vila, our chairperson, when she passed away in January.
Programmatically, we witnessed the implementation of our Stable Families’ initiative, operating at full capacity. This eviction-prevention program served over 250 families last year. The TANF funded back-to-school program, provided backpacks and school uniforms for our 1,000 of the children we serve. The Section 8 voucher program increased occupancy rentals to nearly 2,700 rentals. It is a difficult task to maximize utilization as the cost of each voucher increases when the family income is lost or decreased forcing a higher per unit subsidy.
In a continuing effort, the Housing Authority meets obligation deadlines for ARRA projects and expects to complete all projects either ahead of schedule or on time. The Energy Performance Contract has successfully installed virtually all of the cost-saving modernization measures just as the crucial heating season approaches.

Looking forward to next year, the Housing Authority has to maintain its focus on the aforementioned strategic initiatives. We are expecting a construction start within a few weeks at Albion Street, a 35 unit development with a full-service community medical facility on the ground floor. This partnership with Southwest Community Health Center will not only add Father Panik Replacement units, but will afford our residents a state-of-the-art medical facility within walking distance from P.T. Barnum Apartments.

We are also finalizing our Father Panik Village replacement commitment by offering over 100 vouchers in project- based units throughout the city. Dependent upon securing additional funding, we will expand Stable Families by bringing a social service office to a specific site and target “at risk” families through early intervention and continued support services. Hopefully, we will realize our first year of true energy savings since conservation measures will be completed. We are also planning to step up a resident conservation program to increase awareness and energy savings, and, if possible, create incentive awards to families that maximize savings on reduced energy consumption.

We will continue to strive for full utilization of our housing choice vouchers by closely monitoring funding and increasing accuracy and efficiency. We want to do all of this while strengthening customer relations.
The Housing Authority is committed to increasing customer services and resident relations. In this difficult economic time, we need to be more patient with our applicants, residents and participants and at the same time, move quickly to address their concerns and their issues.

From an operational perspective, all of our staff can improve on the delivery of our services. We all need to improve on our engagement skills with clients as well as each other and the general public. To further this effort, we will continue our training programs, enhance our resident programs and attempt to increase our strategic partnerships, all of which will hopefully yield better service delivery to the populations we serve.

Nicholas Calace, Executive Director