New management at the Pasco County Housing Authority is hoping to turn a new leaf. It announced that employees won’t be getting raises until it sees some results.
Maintenance crews are checking off one thing at a time trying to update homes all over the county.
“We want to patch all the holes in the walls, check fire extinguishers, make sure there’s no electrical problems,” said housing authority maintenance supervisor, Justin Bartlett.
One example is the apartments at Dade Oaks Elderly. They were built 30 years ago and haven’t been updated in at least a decade.
Recently the housing authority increased the amount of maintenance crews out doing the work. It is trying to update at least three to four homes a week.
Right now the housing authority has 538 homes in the county and is looking at each one as people move out. The goal is to raise the current occupancy rate of 87 percent, which is below the standard of 95 percent set by the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development.
Pasco leaders hope to exceed the standard and hit 98 percent. Employees pay raises depend on it.
“So that we can reexamine the cash flow of the agency to be fiscally responsible not only to the employees but to the residents,” said new Executive Director, Nancy Wesoff.
The housing authority says its hitting the ground running. Just last month it announced that one of its old complexes, Dade Oaks will be replaced after years of flooding.
“You couldn’t drive out here, the kids couldn’t play,” said Dade Oaks resident Tianna Coleman.
“It’s been like this since I was their age, so it’s well overdue I can tell you that much,” said Dade Oaks resident Whitley Thomas.
Right now the housing authority has a waiting list of 3,000. It hopes to significantly decrease that number by May.