No resident from Birmingham’s affordable housing communities sits at the table where millions in redevelopment and investment are planned.
The Board of Commissioners for the Housing Authority of the Birmingham District is required by federal regulation to have at least one public housing resident as a voting member, said Shannon Watkins, public affairs specialist for the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development.
“Yes, the resident board member is a requirement of HUD regulations, and we are aware of the current vacancy,” Watkins wrote in response to an Al.com inquiry.
The position has remained vacant for nearly a year, as Birmingham Mayor Randall Woodfin has not named a replacement for Willie Jean Lewis, the previous resident to serve on the five-member board overseeing the housing authority.
Rick Journey, the mayor’s director of communications, said the process is underway to name a resident to the board, as the mayor’s office seeks input from the housing authority.
“Candidates have been interviewed,” Journey told AL.com. “An appointee will be selected before the end of spring.”
Advocates and residents said the vacancy silences the voices of people most affected by the board’s decisions during a significant period of development in Birmingham.
The housing authority serves about 22,000 residents and manages 4,000 public housing apartments in addition to overseeing Birmingham’s Section 8 housing voucher program.
“There is supposed to be somebody sitting up there and we need somebody up there,” said Eldridge Knighton, president of the resident council at Morrell Todd Homes in the Kingston community. “They can speak on behalf of the residents and what the residents need for their community. They are that advocate.”
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The seat was vacated when Lewis resigned to take another position as president of the housing authority’s residents advisory board.
“Clearly congress created this role for residents to have residents at the table so that they could have their say in policymaking,” said Sarah Saadian, senior vice president of public policy and field organizing at the National Low Income Housing Coalition, an advocacy organization based in Washington D.C.
“The fact that it has been vacant for so long raises really significant concern about your city’s commitment to residents and their needs, and raises concerns that they are undermining the spirit of these requirements.”
Major initiatives are underway and will come before the housing authority board. For example, the housing authority and the city jointly received a $50 million Choice Neighborhoods grant from HUD last summer to help revitalize communities just west of downtown in Graymont, Smithfield and College Hills neighborhoods. Officials said the money will help leverage $294 million in total investment.
Knighton, who has long lobbied for an overhaul of his community, said he would lobby city leaders to fill the empty seat. A promise of major renovations at his community were made in 2018 but have not materialized.
“I’m pushing for that and I’m pushing really hard,” he said.
The HUD spokeswoman referred additional questions to the mayor and the housing authority.
AL.com questions about the vacant board position sent Friday to Meagan Holland, the housing authority’s director of public relations, were not answered.