Time for change in NL public housing

In the case of the New London Public Housing Authority, the good report card may have arrived too late.

On the same night last week that the long-troubled authority announced it is anticipating a passing grade on its federally funded housing units, the first in years, commissioners unanimously voted to establish a committee to review proposals from private property managers interested in assuming control of five authority holdings.

The federal Department of Housing and Urban Development is forcing the authority to consider privatization. HUD helps fund two of the authority's low-income projects: the 124-unit Thames River apartments on Crystal Avenue and the 99-unit Williams Park apartments for the elderly and disabled at 127 Hempstead St.

In addition, the housing authority manages five other complexes in concert with the state Department of Economic and Community Development and the Connecticut Housing Finance Authority. Those developments include elderly and disabled housing at 202 Colman St. (130 units), Gordon Court (38 units off Williams Street) and Riozzi Court (42 units off Colman Street), as well as the moderate-income rentals called Briarcliff (142 units off Colman Street) and Bates Woods (160 units off Jefferson Avenue).

The authority collaborated with The Carabetta Organization of Meriden in 2007 in an agreement that has Carabetta fully renovating and then managing the Bates Woods and Briarcliff units. Although the project has stalled because of the recession, Carabetta expects to soon move forward and ultimately improve not only the quality of the housing, but also the lives of people who live in it.

For the same reasons, HUD recommended the authority contract out management of its federal properties. In an Aug. 7, 2009, audit report that led to the ouster of then-executive director Joseph A. Abrams (he was found to have improperly administered federal monies), HUD reasserted pressure on the authority to replace itself with a more qualified property manager, a move the authority had resisted.

But after more than a decade of problems and its inability to shake HUD's May 2004 designation of it as "overall troubled," the authority reluctantly began the process of seeking proposals for private property managers. The housing authority announced at its meeting last week that three proposals had come in and it created a committee to review them. It will be best for the city, the authority and its tenants if a deal can be struck.

True, there are signs of recent improvement. After years of poor scores, the acting executive director announced that preliminary reports from a Jan. 22 HUD inspection of the two federal housing properties are encouraging. Last year NLHA scored a 44 of 100 possible points on health, safety and physical quality issues, another failing grade in a string of them. But the acting executive, Sue Shontell, said although unofficial, early word is that the authority will garner a grade in the mid to low 70s this year.

Finally responding to HUD's criticisms, the authority has been addressing problems such as broken locks, inoperable smoke detectors, electrical deficiencies and crumbling retaining walls. Enough improvements, perhaps, to thwart a class-action lawsuit brought on behalf of tenants at the Thames River high-rise by the Readron Law Firm.

But in our opinion it is too little and too late to deter the effort to turn over management of the public housing to the private sector. Benefitting from tax credits, business people are better qualified to maintain properties, lease them, collect the rents and handle tenant problems.

The authority should strive to find capable, qualified managers for all 735 units of public housing.

A little success doesn't undo a decade of problems.