Housing 'Catch-22'
Gallup Housing: Few repairs, few units, few occupants

Peeling paint, exposed insulation and a broken screen door are evidence of the need for repairs to this vacant apartment at the corner of Arnold Drive and Aztec Avenue in Gallup. HUD is refusing to release funding needed to repair the units becuase of low occupancy, but the units cannot be repaired and made habitable until HUD releases the money. [Photo by Jeff Jones/Independent]

By Kevin Killough
Staff writer

A screen door hangs from its broken frame Friday afternoon at a vacant apartment on Arnold Drive in Gallup while another apartment building sits vacant across the street. HUD is refusing to release funding needed to repair the units becuase of low occupancy, but the units cannot be repaired and made habitable until HUD releases the money. [Photo by Jeff Jones/Independent]

GALLUP — Monica Wilson has been waiting since November for low-income housing to become available. She currently lives in a studio apartment with her 3-year-old son, which she pays about $450 a month for. She says she can barely afford the place, and waits month after month for a public housing unit to come available.

“I only put up with it because I have nothing else to fall back on,” Wilson said.

It’s a familiar situation in the city. Gallup has 267 low-income units. Of those, 42 need minor repairs, cleaning, and preventative maintenance. Another 51 need significant repairs and improvements, leaving only 174 units available to occupy. This can spell out long waiting lists.

According to Douglas Thorton, director of the Gallup Housing Authority, they don’t have the funds to do the work on the unoccupied units. And he said the Department of Housing and Urban Development is holding the funds, citing low occupancy rates. So, it becomes a “Catch-22.” They can’t fill the empty units without money, but they can’t get the money with so many empty units.

“It’s the case of the chicken and the egg. How do you rent a house if you don’t have the funding to get it ready?” Thorton said.

Thorton said that he’s tried to explain the problem to HUD to no avail. But according to Patricia Campbell, regional public affairs officer for HUD, the problem is that GHA is not meeting the terms of a memorandum of agreement between the two housing entities.

Campbell explained that the GHA had been “troubled” for more than two years. In response, last summer, the agency hired an independent contractor to make an assessment of GHA. It met with Thorton and the mayor about a proposed memorandum of agreement. The terms of the agreement stated that HUD would not release capital needs funds until GHA provided a needs assessment and a detailed plan for how it would go about making the units available.

“And that’s what we’re waiting for,” Campbell said.

She added that the Albuquerque HUD office sent a letter to GHA last week, again requesting that information. Calls were made to the GHA seeking comment about the agreement, but the office had already closed.

Thorton had said earlier that the held funds were exacerbating other problems for public housing. Federal subsidies have been reduced, dropping his budget $120,000 less than what it was previous years.

“When you lose $120,000 in operating funds, you need to make other cuts,” he said.

Thorton said the GHA has had to scale back maintenance, reduce staff, and reduce some employee’s hours. He said that Gallup hasn’t had a public housing complex built since the 1970s, meaning some units are in need of major renovations.

“After 30 years, they need to be repaired,” he said.