Annual Report of the Brattleboro Housing Authority

2007

 

 

          Our major accomplishments for this year are:

 

·         Awarding of the first Thomas C. Yahn Housing Leadership Award to out-going 12 year Commission Chair, Thomas C. Yahn. The Award will be given annually to recognize a citizen of Windham County who has demonstrated a long term commitment to the preservation and development of affordable housing and/or to the lives of those who live in affordable housing. The recipient …will demonstrate through their actions that “Everything we do for citizens of our community must start with safe, decent and affordable housing.” (Tom Yahn, November 14, 2007.)  In recognition of Tom’s strong belief in collaboration in action, the Brattleboro Housing Authority and Windham Housing Trust have joined to create this Award. 

 

·         Receipt of the Agency of Human Services Secretary’s Community Award for the Pathways to Housing Program. This innovative housing support and case management transitional housing program was extended for another year and has been extremely successful.

 

·         Receipt of a large grant from the Agency of Human Services, Division of Aging and Disability Services, to study the feasibility of converting a portion of Hayes Court’s existing public housing to a fully licensed Assisted Living Facility.  

 

·         Retained the HUD status of High Performer in both the Public Housing and Section 8 Programs.

 

·        Celebrated the 25^th anniversary of the opening of the Samuel Elliot Apartments.

 

·        Served over 14,000 meals during the eight week Summer Food Program at 11 sites throughout Brattleboro.

 

Additional 2007 activities included:

 

·     Welcoming new  Board of Commission  members Ed Smith of Melrose Terrace to the resident representative seat and Janet Cramer to the seat vacated by Tom Yahn.

 

·    Congratulations to Bill Bedard elected Chair of the Board and Ed Smith, Vice Chair.

 

·    A very active year for our AmeriCorps Program under the direction of Carolyn Wesley over the summer and now Daisy Fredrick. The AmeriCorps activities were expanded this year to bring youth from our family housing together with our residents from housing for the elderly and persons with disabilities. Programs includedholiday music, Halloween parties and various arts and crafts.

 

• Heidi Flaherty, BHA Property Manager was a member of the founding group for Police/Community Study Circles. This initiative grew into a community wide dialog on poverty and establishment of small diverse groups of community members to create workable programs to address poverty in the community. 

Please click here to read more