Housing Authority cites staff vacancies and high waitlists; will use temporary contracts to speed unit turnarounds

Adriana, the Housing Authority operations lead, told the board the agency is short two field employees and three administrative staff, which has slowed unit turnaround. "We are currently short 2 field employees," she said, and staff are pursuing temp services for the inspector position while continuing recruitment for permanent hires.

Adriana reported the housing choice voucher combined utilization rate at 97% and public housing utilization at 95% for June. She also said the authority has nine physical vacancies across three sites and eight units offline for mold remediation at Camino De Jacovo; staff are working on turning over three units at a time to move tenants and clear backlog. The board discussed contracting larger repairs to speed turnarounds and balancing contracting costs against in-house staffing.

Why it matters: High utilization with persistent vacancies and units offline complicates placement of applicants from large waitlists; Adriana said the HCV wait list had 1,719 applicants and the public housing wait list 1,684, and staff are analyzing demand by bedroom size to inform development priorities and operations.