Occupancy rates need boost to get full funding

YOUNGSTOWN -- The Youngstown Metropolitan Housing Authority is looking for ways to increase the rate of occupancy in public housing units.
Recent rates of occupancy for the city's public housing have ranged from 80 percent to 87 percent, Authority Executive Director Eugenia Atkinson told YMHA board members at their Thursday meeting. Occupancy stood at about 81 percent through April, according to a report released at the meeting.
For full federal funding, the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development requires at least a 95 percent occupancy rate, Atkinson said.
"We haven't been able to get there in recent years," she said.
Increased occupancy is especially important in light of federal budget cuts which could trim up to 17 percent in HUD allocations to local housing authorities.
Deficit
According to statistics compiled by the authority through April, 310 public housing units have been vacated since the beginning of the current fiscal year on July 1. That compares to 292 move-ins, a deficit of 18.
Reasons for the shortfall have to do with, among other things, "public perception of the properties," Atkinson said. For example, she cited the location of some units near the construction of the 711 connector, where that activity has made access to some units more difficult.
"It's like anything else in selecting a place to live," Atkinson said. "It has to have curb appeal."
Plans for increasing the attractiveness of public housing include sprucing up the entrances or approaches to public housing projects and remodeling of some units.
Atkinson said that the authority also needs to see improvement in turnaround, shortening the time between when a unit is vacated and when a new tenant moves in.