Housing authority to leave HUD's 'troubled' list soon

There's a hole inside a sink cabinet that Lyndell Wilson said allows vermin into her LaPlace Oaks apartment.

And a heater cover that's falling off, and a hole in her daughter's bedroom wall that exposes insulation.

"That's been reported many times," said Wilson, 28, who lives with her four children in a three-bedroom apartment in the LaPlace Oaks public housing complex. "I'm afraid and I don't want her to get sick. We all stay in one room."

The St. John Housing Authority has been considered "troubled" for years because the agency earned low scores on its annual U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development assessments, which include inspections of apartments and financial management.

But at Monday night's commission meeting, Executive Director Lawand Johnson announced to the authority's commissioners and tenants that the agency is in the process of being removed from the list.

But tenants, like Wilson, say much work is still needed, not just on the outside but on the inside of the authority's four apartment complexes.

"I want to see something different," Wilson said. "I want to see our homes made better. It's trash and we live like trash."

One commissioner agrees.

During the meeting, commissioner Art Smith, who voted earlier to give Johnson a $10,000 raise, said the current apartments are "atrocious."

"It's a big difference from where it is and where it should be," Smith said Tuesday. "We've got people living like animals."

Johnson, who inspected Wilson's apartment Tuesday, said she was unaware of the damage in the apartment and plans to hold a meeting today with her maintenance staff.

Some of the repairs in Wilson's apartment were listed as complete when the repairs were not made, while other repairs were not reported to the agency by the tenant, Johnson said.

Johnson, who has been the authority's executive director for a year and instituted monthly tenant meetings, said her vision is to have the agency off HUD's troubled list....