SHA in the News

SARASOTA -- This city's Housing Authority may as well post a "no vacancy" sign.

This week, for the first time in years, the authority that manages public housing had just one of its 563 apartments vacant and being prepared for a new tenant.

A year ago, when the federal government took over the troubled agency, it had 49 vacancies.

Getting the vacancy rate down has been "a huge priority," William Russell, the authority's executive director, said.

Apartments were not empty and in disrepair because of a lack of need. More than 300 households, mostly families with children, tend to be on the projects' waiting lists.

Yet the previous authority had let apartments remain vacant for months before getting repairs completed and moving in new low-income tenants, Russell said.

This is from Dale White's recent story about this weeks Housing Authority board meeting.

The Sarasota Housing Authority has indeed done an excellent job in making need repairs to occupied units as well as dramatically reducing the turn around time to prepare recently vacated units for the next occupants. With many people on the waiting lists for public housing, it is nice to know that in Sarasota the vacated units are re-occupied as fast as possible.