Decatur Housing Authority director receives contract extension with raise

Jun. 21—Executive Director Taura Denmon received a new three-year contract with a 5% pay raise recently from the Decatur Housing Authority board after a positive performance evaluation.

The board voted unanimously to approve the new contract with the $6,200 increase, which DHA board chairman Miles Wright said raises her annual salary to $124,000.

The board held an executive session June 6 to discuss Denmon's annual performance evaluation and came out praising her.

"Taura has done an amazing job with the amount of challenges that she's had throughout the year," board member Jerry Baker said.

Board member Seddrick Williams pointed out the entire board except Wright changed in the three years since Denmon became executive director. He said new board members face a learning curve, and he appreciates how patient Denmon has been in explaining the issues.

"She presents the information in a way that's easily understood and makes it easier for all of us to make decisions," Williams said.

He said he appreciates that Denmon's "relationship with the mayor (Tab Bowling), and the rest of the city has greatly improved."

Wright said he thinks Denmon "is doing a tremendous job" since coming from Alexandria, Louisiana, to became Decatur Housing Authority's executive director on May 1, 2021.

She replaced Chief Financial Officer Andy Hollaway and Director of Housing Jeff Snead. The two were co-executive directors until retiring in early 2021.

"Our board meetings run really efficiently," Wright said. "She has everything prepared and ready to go, and very seldom do we see a mistake in the board packets."

Wright said he likes that Denmon spends a lot of time with employees while running the authority.

"I happened to run into a property manager the other day, and she told me Taura is one of the most fair persons she's ever dealt with," Wright said. "As leadership, she's right on top of things."

Denmon joined the Housing Authority at a time when it was under federal scrutiny. It received a score of 72 in a 2019 evaluation by the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development. HUD designated Decatur Housing Authority as having "substandard management."

The substandard rating means the authority must prepare and adopt a recovery plan. The authority is working with a HUD-assigned consultant on the plan.

A compliance review letter issued in March 2020 from HUD charged the Decatur authority with violations of the Civil Rights Act.

The federal agency accused DHA of racial discrimination involving tenant assignments to its three apartment buildings for low-income senior adults: Summer Manor, Jordan-Neill and Westgate Gardens.

DHA resolved the claim by entering into a voluntary compliance agreement (VCA).

Wright said Denmon has been a key force behind the work to complete the actions required by the compliance agreement by "being a real leader and following up on all of the detail to make sure it happens."

DHA started 2024 with one remaining issue to complete under the agreement, renovating Westgate Gardens in Northwest Decatur.

"That's our main priority now," Wright said. "To my knowledge, it's the last item of the VCA."

The authority had trouble finding a contractor for the Westgate renovations. They sought bids multiple times and received only one or no bids. HUD does not allow housing authorities to award a contract unless it receives multiple bids.

DHA finally got multiple bids and contracted with Ryzec Building Group LLC to renovate Westgate's 48 units.

Work began this spring on the Westgate renovations and continues. Each monthly meeting Denmon has been updating the board on how the authority is moving tenants temporarily to vacant apartments at Westgate, Summer Manor and Jordan-Neill until their Westgate apartment is ready.

"With the constraint of contractors and the navigation of so many things coming from so many ways, there were a lot of challenges from many of our issues," Baker said. "I love the leadership and the 360-degree teamwork and support."

Wright said the board set a list of goals for Denmon as she begins her new contract. One is improving the Housing Authority's occupancy rate to 97% or higher.

Mechelle Dowdy, director of housing management, reported in the June meeting that the rate was 95% in May with 20 vacancies among the roughly 584 apartments in DHA.

"Overall, we're in good shape," Wright said. "We're in the process of renovating the Westgate apartments, and we need all of those properties done so we can move tenants into them. We have a couple of units damaged by fire, and we hired HD Supply to redo them."

Wright said another goal is increasing the Section 8 vouchers from 580 to 600. Section 8 vouchers help low-income residents with rent on an apartment in the private sector, provided landlords agree to enter the program.

Wright said the goals set for Denmon lead to the overriding goal of improving from a "standard-performing" to a "high-performing" housing authority classification by HUD.

"If we meet the occupancy goal and the Public Housing Assistance score, HUD will come in and do a review that we hope it becomes a high-performing rating," he said.

In response to the new contract, Denmon said in an email that she is excited about the opportunity "to continue to lead Decatur Housing Authority in its mission to serve the city as the largest affordable housing provider."

"As executive director, I will continue to set and establish very aggressive goals that help to improve the quality of life for our residents," she said. "In addition, I am thankful to the Board of Commissioners for the support and latitude they provide in helping to move the Decatur Housing Authority forward."

Denmon says she feels her biggest accomplishment so far is the hiring of a "dynamic team" capable of addressing challenges facing affordable housing providers.

"Building and growing a cohesive team has been incredibly important to this agency, and also very rewarding to me personally," she said.

She said an example of their success is the contract for renovations and remodeling at Westgate Gardens.

"The public should be very pleased with the end result once the renovations at Westgate are completed," she said.

As she looks forward to the next three years, Denmon said the biggest challenge is compliance with HUD regulations.

"A great deal of the successes of public housing agencies are measured by keeping in compliance with HUD's ever-changing requirements," Denmon said. "As an agency, we want to make sure that we are staying abreast of HUD's regulations and taking advantage of the latest initiatives in order to continue carrying out DHA's mission of providing sustainable affordable housing opportunities to assist in improving the quality of life for those we serve."

— bayne.hughes@decaturdaily.com or 256-340-2432