Finding clean and safe housing is especially difficult when a family or elderly person falls below the poverty line.
That’s where the Housing Authority of the City of Picayune comes in.
Currently the agency provides clean and affordable housing to 190 families and 92 elderly or disabled citizens, said Executive Director Toni Watts. In order to qualify for the housing, applicants must undergo a background check for things such as convictions and have an income in the range of 30 percent of the area median income.
The oldest of the units were built in the 1950s when the program started in Picayune, said former Executive Director Mary Davis. Those units are still used today due to the authority’s diligence in conducting preventive maintenance, she said.
Davis was the executive director for 60 years, retiring from the position in 2012. She now serves as the Picayune Housing Authority Board of Commissioners Chair.
Watts was hired on as Davis’s replacement as the executive director in 2013.
One of the programs Watts has planned, provided grant funding is approved, would be to connect residents with job finding opportunities with the WIN Job Center.
As a way to garner participation with the residents there is a Resident Advisory Board, and an upcoming contest will allow children who live within public housing to create a poster under the theme, “What Home Means to Me,” Watts said. Those submissions will be judged locally to select a total of 9 through three categories to be sent to the regional competition. Those that make it past regionals will be sent to the national competition.
All of the housing under the program is being reviewed through a green physical needs assessment. Watts estimates it will cost about $19 million to conduct all of the work required, such as new windows, doors and roofs.
Currently, 113 HVAC units are being replaced throughout the Housing Authority’s fold, with $800 in refunds per unit being provided by Mississippi Power, Watts said.
HUD provides funding to help keep the program going. Watts said of every dollar used to run the program, HUD is currently providing 85 cents. The rest is paid for through rent collected from the residents.
The Housing Authority also oversees the units at the Pines Apartments, which currently entails 92 units that house the elderly and disabled.
In March of 2014 the Housing Authority purchased the old Health Department building on Sixth Avenue, which now serves as their central office.
The old central office will be torn down to make way for as many new units as can be built on the lot, Watts said.
Beechwood Apartments used to be part of the Housing Authority. Back in the 1970s about $1 million was spent to rehabilitate the apartment buildings. But a few years after Hurricane Katrina when the cost to upgrade them to modern standards became too costly, HUD decided to have them torn down, Davis said.