A new day has dawned at the Kingston Housing Authority (KHA). Responsible for the management of 438 apartments spread out among six properties in the City of Kingston, the authority, Kingston’s largest landlord, has chosen Harolda Wilcox as its new executive director.
A board subcommittee winnowed down 20 applicants for the consideration of the full seven-member board. After an interview process, Wilcox won out.
She comes to the authority after 27 years with the Rochester Housing Authority, where she began as a receptionist-typist and ended as director of the compliance department. Leaving the fourth most populous city in New York State for the Hudson Valley, she arrived in-county on June 10 and attended her first board meeting as director on June 26.
The first order of business for Wilcox was to offer the board a raft of policies to be voted in which addressed conflicts of interest, a code of ethics, confidentiality and standards of professional behavior.
There were three informational presentations. Greene County Bank officials spoke about expanded worksite self-sufficiency programs. Representatives from Ulster County Savings, which handles the authority’s insurance, talked with the board. And John Madeo of Mountco, a developer KHA has partnered with on apartment rehabilitation, addressed the board about various projects.
Getting everything reconciled
Of note, Wilcox opted not to sign off on unreconciled numbers within the financials presented at that meeting. “Not that I think there’s anything wrong,” said Wilcox, “but when it comes to putting my name down on something, I want to be absolutely, positively sure the numbers are right.”
The unreconciled balance for the KHA’s federal account as of May 31 was $4.15 million. The unreconciled balance for the KHA’s state account as of May 31 was $974,845.31.
“I just wanted to inform the board that Sherry [Shultis] and I sat down and she’s going to be doing a little bit of overtime to get these records out. I’m not comfortable with not knowing what we actually have in the bank and where it’s going. We’ve worked out a plan that by the end of July we should have everything reconciled.”
In February 2021 the state comptroller’s office released a report of examination that found among other issues that board members of the KHA’s oversight of their disbursements, bank transfers and bank reconciliations had been inadequate, noting that $6.51 million in disbursements and bank transfers had been made without review or approval.
Self-sufficiency and insurance
That day of the board meeting, Greene County Bank officials spoke. Wilcox expressed enthusiasm for pursuing self-sufficiency programs through the bank.
“So a person comes to me and says, ‘Hey, I want to get my degree.’ That’s a five-year goal. During that five-year goal, they have to be working. And then by working with HUD and the bank, any increase of their pay — say they make $15 an hour and they go up to $20 an hour — it’ll be matched as long as they meet their goals. And that extra money is built up for five years. As long as they’re successful in completing that five-year goal, they get a check.”
With the October 1 renewal time approaching for insurance, Dan Southard and Kelly Maroney, representatives from the entity that handles the authority’s insurance, Ulster County Savings, also spoke to the board.
“Basically what we cover here for the housing authority is your property and capital,” said Southard. “So your liability, your slip-and-fall type things and the buildings themselves.”
Southard explained that coverage had to be spread out among separate carriers because no one carrier would pick up such a large amount with one policy. “We have about $61 million worth of property coverage,” said Southard.
Spotting the cost of the premium, Wilcox expressed disbelief. “I’m just looking at this number,” she said. “I’m thinking there’s an extra comma or something in here.…”
“We’re really starting this process early,” Southard acknowledged, “because we want to get ahead of the curve, make sure we hit all of the right carriers. If there is an opportunity to get a lower premium, we want to do it.”
The reasons for the high premium were various. Southard identified a $345,000 claim in 2019 which he hoped would soon be coming off the Experian report.
“That’s going to make our job a little bit easier selling your group to the carriers,” he said, “but it’s not so much that you have one large claim. It’s the number of claims also. Since that large claim, I believe there were two smaller claims, two buyout property claims, a couple of the trip-and-falls. Even this year we had another trip-and-fall. So, you know, it’s hard to get ahead of it when they keep happening.”
The number which had focused Wilcox’s attention was over one million dollars. The specifics of the policy hadn’t yet been finalized. “We are hoping to get a decreased dollar amount,” Wilcox said.
The renovation of old properties within the HRA portfolio and the construction of new properties also affects coverage,
Delivering additional units
John Madeo of Mountco, the developer KHA first partnered with to rehabilitate the Stuyvesant Charter Apartments (since renamed the Leonard and Vera Van Dyke Apartments), also spoke to the board about various projects.
Renovating the apartments not only makes the rental units more attractive risks to insurance providers but also brings additional units onto the market, It also provide opportunities for Mountco to seek tax incentives, which is the underlying reason for the KHA’s partnership with the private developer.
“On Van Dyke we’ve working on the last 20 units now,” Madeo reported. “We can have TCOs [Temporary Certificates of Occupancy] by the middle of July, and final CoS [Certificates of Occupancy] probably a month after that. Basically, the work on the units will be done within the next two weeks, plus or minus.”
Madeo said that the housing authority put together a marketing plan that was advertised, and that a lottery would be held for the units in August.
“By the end of August, we should have those 20 units occupied,” he said. “We have an obligation, collectively, the housing authority and Mountco, to the investor to deliver units occupied by income certified households by certain dates that affects the money that comes in from the investor.”
The need to create additional housing has also been on the mind of the KHA.
“I know there’s been a lot of different iterations, but the last plan that we talked about before the state for consideration is 227 units of rehab and 60 plus or minus units of new construction,” he continued. “So that includes rehab of Colonial Gardens, rehab of Wilkwood Gardens, rehab of half of Rondout, the north side of Rondout, and new construction, at Penn Court for Colonial Gardens additions.”
Madeo wants to take the buildings at the south end of Rondout Gardens down, and to replace them with from 30 units to as many as 140 to 160 units, which would be a major increase to KHA’s portfolio.
Everything continues affordable
Madeo also referred to the state’s interest in getting certain properties off its own books. “Colonial Gardens and Penn Court in the Van Dyke Apartments and Wiltwyck are state-assisted projects,” he explained, “So when we do this project, they will no longer be state-assisted public housing, they will be privately owned. Our partnership will own them.
Board chair Ward 3 alder Rennie Scott-Childress asked for clarification.
“It›ll be the same type of restrictions,” Madeo assured Scott-Childress. “Everything›s affordable, We›re going to model the deal after the Van Dyck deal, but definitely this is going to be an affordable development. Nothing’s going to change with that.”
Madeo also responded to a troubling perception voiced among many residents of the KHA apartment complexes that they would need to move to alternative housing units. “Yeah, the idea of they’re going to throw everybody out, bring in a higher income, that’s not the case,” said Madeo. “Once the residents really understood that we weren’t trying to get people out, the residents at Van Dyck have been terrific to work with. But it takes a while to get that trust and we’ll go through the similar process here.”
Just reappointed by mayor Steve Noble, Scott-Childress has been on the board of the KHA for the last five years. It’s his first term as chair of the KHA.
Wilcox says she is ready to get everything in working order.
“For my first 30 days, I’m just trying to make sure that we’re all on the same page, we’re communicating, policies that are implemented, staff is on board … making sure that we’re all on the same boat, and we’re all a part of the shared vision of KHA growing.”
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