Vivian Bryant, President & CEO, Orlando Housing Authority
In an interview with Invest:, Vivian Bryant, president and CEO of Orlando Housing Authority, talked about how Orlando continues to face a significant demand for affordable housing, why innovative partnerships and creative financing methods are needed, and how they aim to provide decent, safe, and affordable housing.
What have been some major highlights over the past 12 months?
We have been selected to be the co-lead on the Choice Neighborhood Initiative Planning Grant, which is a $500,000 grant from the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) to do neighborhood revitalization with a focus on improving distressed public housing. That is what we have achieved in Orlando. Additionally, the Orlando Housing Authority manages the day-to-day operations of the Sanford Housing Authority. We have developed three housing properties in Sanford. When we first went into Sanford, there were six public housing properties. In the time we have been there, we have developed more housing to replace the ones we demolished and have elevated the Sanford Housing Authority to a high-performing status. We also completed the Choice Neighborhood Planning Grant there prior to receiving the award in Orlando. It has been good in terms of our efforts to do revitalization in both communities, Orlando and Sanford.
How would you describe the current state of affordable and public housing in Orlando?
The demand is great. Orlando is a destination of choice for many young households, particularly those between 25 and 40. These households are coming to Orlando because there are opportunities, significant investment, and innovation. Both Mayor Demings and Congresswoman Demings have been very aggressive about putting Orlando on the map as a place where you can raise kids, have job opportunities, and thrive.
However, there is not enough housing to meet the needs of all the households moving here. In terms of affordable housing, some of the households moving here have higher incomes than the existing residents, causing rents to rise. Many locals cannot meet these increased rents. We also have a substantial disabled and elderly population.
What are some specific neighborhoods in Orlando where you have seen a higher demand for affordable housing?
In terms of fair housing, the Fair Housing Act encourages households to move to areas of opportunity. We try to ensure mobility among our residents. If they move to a neighborhood with a higher demand due to better school ratings, we subsidize their rents to make it affordable. Public housing units are stationary, and we have about 1,300 public housing units and 4,000 Section 8 vouchers. Section 8 voucher holders can move to other areas, and we assist them in paying the higher rent so they can take advantage of those opportunities. The downtown area is currently in demand due to the city and county’s efforts to build housing there, and the Housing Authority is a partner in making it affordable.
How do you balance the demand for public housing with the number of residential units available?
We do our best and work with the elderly, disabled, and working poor. We have a requirement that our households work, and we provide services such as job recruitment to assist them in obtaining employment. On a weekly basis, we have a list of currently available job opportunities. We also offer case management services for our households. The households we serve are primarily public housing residents and Section 8 recipients. They are either elderly, disabled, or working and contributing to Orlando’s success.
What are some local and federal partnerships that will have an impact on the types of services you provide?
We have been getting more special-purpose assistance from HUD recently. We have assistance to serve households who are non-elderly and disabled. We have 100 vouchers that we can provide for them, but they have to be in that category, non-elderly and disabled, and they must be on our Section 8 waiting list. We also have the Mainstream Program, which is about 42 vouchers, and they must come from referral agencies and be disabled. Everything we are getting now is for a specific population. In terms of our regular Section 8 waiting list of households who are not in that special category, we do not have anything to offer because everything we get must be authorized by Congress. Essentially, if the Congress does not give, we do not have to give forward.
What ways do you see the local government being able to address the need for affordable housing going forward?
We want to encourage more opportunities to get tax credits from the state, as these help finance affordable housing. We are looking at creative opportunities to blend financing from the Housing Finance Agency and the State Housing Finance Agency. Additionally, we hope to do more with the federal HOME program to generate or finance more affordable housing. It costs the same to build a market-rate unit as it does to build an affordable unit if you aim for quality. The problem arises when it comes to repaying the debt, as lower-income households cannot support the debt with their payments. Incomes for local households have not increased as much as the rents have.
What have been some of the major challenges you have encountered over the past year?
Insurance is a big issue. The insurance rates are a part of the debt we have to pay to operate a quality product, and these rates have increased significantly. We need support from the state or other entities to bring insurance rates down. The cost of living has also increased, which affects our ability to stay on top of expenses. Additionally, inflation has made it challenging to provide affordable housing products, as we cannot raise rents to match rising costs. Our households pay 30% of their income toward housing, and we rely on funds from HUD and grants to cover the rest. Unlike private market owners, we cannot simply increase rents to cover higher expenses.
What would you say is your outlook for the Orlando housing market in the near term?
We have to be creative, innovative, and form more partnerships to be able to provide housing. We have been working with the city to do more rental housing. We are not a city agency, so the city does not have us in their budget. We have to form partnerships with them. We are not a county agency, so we are not in the county’s budget either. However, we need to work with them to look at our specific needs and how we can support what they are doing and how they can support what we are doing.
We have a property that we plan to demolish as it is the oldest public housing property in Orlando, Griffin Park. We plan to rebuild on that site and contribute to the housing market by rebuilding housing that is affordable. It is in a downtown location, a very desirable location, and we want to make sure our housing is as good as or better than anything that surrounds it.
What are your top priorities for the next two or three years as the president and CEO of the Orlando Housing Authority?
Our priority is to ensure that we provide decent, safe, and affordable housing that anyone would want to live in, that I would want to live in, and that I would want my offspring to live in. We have to be creative and play the hand we are dealt. Orlando Housing Authority is a Moving to Work agency. Of the 3,400 housing authorities across the United States, only 39 are Moving to Work agencies, and we are the only one in the state of Florida. This designation allows us to be innovative, creative, and to change HUD rules to meet local needs.
We are exploring opportunities to provide vouchers for teachers who live in this area to ensure they can teach in some of the Title One schools with lower income populations. We want to raise those scores and attract teachers by providing affordable housing for them. That is just one of the initiatives we are looking at. We are also looking at how we can use HUD funds to create more money for affordable housing. The Faircloth Amendment allows housing authorities to replace public housing that has been demolished. We would like to see Faircloth provide funds to provide Section 8 vouchers instead of just replacing the public housing. HUD has already said that they do not have enough funds to meet the maintenance needs of the public housing program. Therefore, we are looking at creative ways to use the funds they give us differently to meet affordable housing needs.
