LOUISVILLE, Ky. — The Louisville Metro Housing Authority (LMHA) has new leadership, and their new director presented important findings on Wednesday about the state of public housing in Louisville.
The outlook wasn't positive. But Director Elizabeth Strojan said she has plans to fix it.
As she hits 100 days on the job, she said a new leadership structure is underway. Strojan's deputy director has only been on the job for about a month.
She said she's been on listening tours of some of their properties like Beecher Terrace, Park Duvall and Liberty Green.
They narrowed down a list of priorities to include understaffing on many levels, low morale among employees and figuring out what to do with old, out-of-date buildings like Dosker Manor.
The complex is one of the largest affordable housing complexes in Louisville and has been plagued by poor living conditions and security issues that have been highlighted even more so in recent months.
Strojan gave two options for Dosker Manor: demolish or renovate.
"It's also very high density in one city block," she said. "There's over 650 units in those buildings. And we would have to look not only at, it's not just the apartments; it's the building systems, it's common spaces, it's the fact that there's two elevators, serving a building, but 232 people, and if one of the elevators goes out, that's, that's an emergency. So it is again, not ideal to substantially rehabilitate. Our best option we believe is to demolish the existing buildings."
But she added that regardless of whether the agency chooses to demolish the buildings or rehabilitate them, residents will need to be relocated.
The Louisville Metro and the Federal Housing and Urban Development agency would have to agree.
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Additionally, Strojan said their findings don't reflect the work of the staff they do have.
"We have a great number of very smart and very dedicated experts and professionals that have dedicated their life, to making things better for people," she said. "So I don't feel defeated or overwhelmed by any of these challenges, because we have so many people who are here to help and we're committed to doing things better."
And she's already started the work.
She hired a different deputy director to oversee Section 8 housing, and a resident relations coordinator to help directly reach people who live in public housing.
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