Under One Roof

1021 housing authorities members discover how industry organizing makes a difference

by Randy Lyman

In the 1990s, Congress mandated that housing authorities improve efficiency by modeling themselves after private property management firms. On the surface that might sound good. In reality, the policy is taking a wrecking ball to public housing services nationwide.

“The problem with managing public housing this way is that it’s costing way more money than the funding Congress is providing,” said Lonetta Evans, chair of 1021’s Oakland Housing Authority chapter.

The Big Squeeze

Privately managed housing typically draws high rents that pay for management services, but that’s not the case with low-rent public housing, she explained. That’s why housing authorities need funding from the federal Housing and Urban Development (HUD) agency. But the Bush Administration has been cutting HUD’s funding, causing reductions in service and the amount of available housing.

“HUD is being treated like a stepchild,” Evans said. “This year we’re at 78 percent of last year’s funding, which was 80 percent of the year before. It’s been going on like this for 10 years.”

Stronger Bargaining

Trends like this are why Evans and other housing authority activists are banding together as a caucus under the new 1021 Special Districts industry group. SEIU 1021 represents five local housing authorities plagued by funding cuts and mismanagement.

“The industry group is bringing us together for the first time so that we can compare contracts,” Evans said. The Oakland HA contract expired June 30, while the bargaining teams were still setting ground rules.

Outsourcing is expected to be a big fight at the table. Reductions in HUD funding mean that property management is increasingly being outsourced to private firms that don’t hire union labor. At the same time, OHA vacancies are not being backfilled, creating a vicious circle that’s decimating the union workforce and ushering in the elimination of public housing as a public service.

“Comparing contracts means we can draft stronger contract language going into bargaining,” Evans said. “Coming together as an industry group also means we can foresee problems and prepare for management negotiating tactics because we have the experience of other housing authorities that have already gone through the same thing.”