Archive for June, 2009

Because of my dissatisfaction of how the Columbus GA Housing Authority manages and conducts itself and its apparent lack of customer service accountability, I have taken the step to launch ColumbusGAHousing.com to assist and provide information and editorials to local landlords in navigating the Section 8 Housing Voucher Program with the Columbus GA Housing Authority.

ColumbusGAHousing.com will give “street information” as to how they actually work, not the “official” public line they tell people. They always seem to have excuses as to why they fall short in their customer service performance but they have no problems holding anyone else accountable.

My business partner and I continue to work with them and have several rental homes under the Section 8 Housing Voucher Program but our complaints have largely gone ignored. However, that may change when they find out (through ColumbusGAHousing.com) that more landlords are dissatisfied with their customer service to landlords. It may also require escalation to higher levels of the HUD Agency to get some attention.

Since this post was made, I launched ColumbusGAHousing.com, a landlord’s guide to The Columbus GA Housing Authority. More information can be found there.

=====

It is pretty bad that our Public Housing Authority (PHA), The Housing Authority of Columbus GA, has no functional website or central source of information. So, I have decided to put together an informal source of information (and comments) that other local landlords can refer to. I would have preferred they put one together but I was told that it might be an indeterminate time when this might happen.

I have learned that putting things in writing is far more effective than simply complaining. Our PHA gets complaints all the time and I get the feeling they are numbed by the onslaught of people. So, I have chosen to simply collect and publicly report the information here.

Meanwhile, everyone has to pray and hope a phone call can be returned. Return phone calls by nearly everyone is either ignored or extremely slow because they are supposedly understaffed and underfunded. I have been hearing this excuse for years and it has tested my patience. I have been very respectful and tried to be understanding and accommodating but I am quickly coming to the conclusion that if you need attention and help, you have to be willing to complain insistently, loudly, and to many people.

We are private landlords that work within the Section 8 Voucher Program.  Because of my various attempts to investigate and gather information regarding the chain of command and who is accountable to who, this is what I have come up thus far:

• Executive Director: Len Williams
• Director of Housing: Carolyn LaValley (706) 571-2842
• Section 8 Coordinator: Bob Wade (706) 571-2870
• Inspector: Scott Johnson (706) 571-2873 x 2876
• Inspector: John Casteel (706) 571-2873 x 2875
• Inspector: Angie Suggs (706) 571-2873 x 2833

Their street address is: 1180 Martin Luther King Blvd. Columbus 31906.

The Board Chairman is: Franklin Douglass (706) 321-0015

The Housing Authority of Columbus GA works with the HUD office in Atlanta.

• Barry Troutman  – Regional Section 8 Expert (678) 732-2507.
• He reports to Ada Holloway – (678) 732-2334
• Susan Brooke is the HUD representative that works with our local PHA. (678) 732-2548

I had to call these folks to learn more about the working relationship of HUD and our local PHA. I was advised to HUD’s Housing Choice Voucher Program document. This is the master document from which our PHA sets their own administrative policies.

I have been told that this Administrative Guide is 600-pages long and only available if you are willing to pay to photocopy this manual. This is such an obsolete approach. They don’t seem to have an electronic version available.  However, I question this because someone had to type up this manual into a computer. I have to believe there is some electronic file saved somewhere within their computer systems. They simply need to make the file available. If it is a Microsoft Word or Corel Wordperfect file, it can be easily converted to a PDF file.

I really dislike calling our local PHA beyond what I minimally need because they are always trying to rush you off the phone and give quick answers.  More than once, I have had to politely tell them to not rush me off because I wanted my questions answered and issues taken cared of.

This post will be periodically updated as I get new information. If you are a landlord and would like to contribute information that I do not currently have here, please email me.

==========================

Since this post was made, I launched ColumbusGAHousing.com, a landlord’s guide to The Columbus GA Housing Authority. More information can be found there.