Using ARPA Funding to Address Housing in Worcester

Part 5/9 from our mini-season: ARPA Funding in Worcester

We are back with another episode of our ARPA Funding in Worcester on Public Hearing! During this episode, our guest, Alex Corrales, the Chief Executive Officer of the Worcester Housing Authority, and Josh talk about ARPA funding will be used to create and maintain affordable housing in Worcester. They discuss the importance of having affordable housing available within the city and how this creates and promotes equity in Worcester as well as helping address the systemic failures that are the root causes of homelessness and access to housing. 

Learn more about how Worcester plans to spend ARPA dollars on the City website.

Public Hearing is a podcast from Action! by Design about our home city of Worcester, Massachusetts and the people we should be listening to—residents, artists, activists, community leaders, storytellers, and those most impacted by issues facing our city. Our mission is to cultivate community through equity, inclusion, and design, and that work starts at home.

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Transcript for this episode

Joshua Croke (00:01):

Hello Worcester and the world, Joshua Croke here, host of Public Hearing a podcast and radio show about Worcester, Mass, engaging community members, addressing social problems in a way that centers, equity, justice and the pursuit of joy-filled futures for everyone you're listening to WICN 90.5 FM Worcester's only NPR affiliate station or wherever you get your podcast. You can find our show @publichearing.co and Wednesday evenings at 6:00 PM on WICN 90.5 FM. This is Public Hearing. We're continuing our conversations about the approximately 146 million in funding the city of Worcester is receiving from the American Rescue Plan Act. Also known as ARPA. Today, we'll be talking about housing, a loudly voice need for many residents and groups in the city, including Worcester Together. And also there was a survey that the city ran at the end of 2021 that asked folks what the priorities for this money should be and could look like.

Joshua Croke (00:57):

And housing was at the top of that list. We're talking today with Alex Corrales, CEO of the Worcester Housing Authority, the second largest housing authority in New England, which sounds right considering Worcester is the second largest city in new England, which many people still don't know? Alex has been in the public housing industry for over 25 years, moved to Worcester at the age of six from Costa Rica and as in a graduate of our Worcester public schools. Alex moved from temporary employee at the Housing Authority to Property Manager, then Director of Property Management to Deputy Director of Development, and then Assistant Executive Director before his appointment as CEO in 2016. Alex also sits as the VP of Large Housing Authorities for the Massachusetts Chapter of The National Association of Housing and Redevelopment Officials and on multiple boards in the city, including the Health Foundation of Central Mass, he's a committee member on the city's Task Force for Sustaining Housing for Solutions, the Mayor's Youth Violence Prevention Committee and the ad hoc search committee for the next superintendent of the Worcester public schools. Alex, welcome. I like to invite folks to share a bit more about themselves with our listeners before we dive in. So any affiliations or parts of your social location background experience that you think is important for people to know about you and thanks again for coming on the show?

Alex Corrales (02:12):

Well, Josh, thank you so much for having me you know, really for me, I am truly a Worcester resident came here from Costa Rica at a young age and was able to grow up in subsidized housing, grew up in Plumley Village. I had two parents who did not have high school degrees, did not speak English, worked their life in factories. And I look back on that and think about our, my brother, my two sisters, and the fact that four of us all got out of subsidized housing and went on to college and now hold professional careers. I think back on it and I thank my parents for that because it really was their insistence on education, the key to getting out of poverty. And so I share this story because it's the way that I run the Housing Authority today.

Alex Corrales (03:06):

Every single family that we work with, regardless of their background, we can help them get to the next step. We can help them become homeowners. We can help their child go to college and never returned back to housing. As a matter of fact, I'm the only one that came back to housing out of my family. You know, and kind of jokingly say that, but the point of it is I love what I do because I'm able to see it on both sides of that coin, being a tenant, being a resident of housing and subsidized housing. And then at the same hand now being on the other side and having an opportunity to assist folks. And so I am with the residents that I serve. It's one of those two areas that we look at is I tell residents, you can do it. There's nothing holding you back. I'm living proof of that as many, many other hundreds and thousands of folks in the city of Worcester have done the same, but in the same hand, we have an obligation as a Housing Authority to provide all the necessary resources to our residents in order for them to better themselves. So it is with that passion and that experience that I hope allows me to bring a different perspective, but also remain committed to the needs of our residents. Day in, day out.

Joshua Croke (04:23):

For listeners who might be unfamiliar with the Housing Authority, I pulled some stuff from the website. So I'm gonna introduce the mission of the Housing Authority is to enhance the Worcester ommunity by creating and sustaining decent, safe, and affordable housing, that champions stability and self sufficiency for our residents. We also nerd out a little bit on this show about the structure of these bodies and so the housing authorities governed by a five member board of commissioners, which is made up of a Housing Authority resident, as well as member appointed by the governor of Massachusetts and four members who are appointed by the Worcester city manager and confirmed by the Worcester city council. Additionally, and as directed by the city council, one member must be a representative of an Organized Labor Union. And so the five member board of commissioners oversees the list, housing author's overall direction.

Joshua Croke (05:12):

Board members approve all significant contracts toward budget decisions, formal submissions to state and federal funding agencies, planning and reporting documents, major policy decisions, and many other important matters. The commissioners meet monthly on the third Thursday of each month, board meetings are held in the conference room at the Housing Authority on Plantation Street and commissioners are appointed to five year terms and the city councils determined that no commissioners shall be appointed to serve more than two terms or 10 years. So as we're introducing folks to things going on in the city, I always like to set the expectation of like, here's where folks are coming from and how they're being appointed into this work. One of the things I wanna maybe first start with and draw attention to is your comment about education and the importance of access to education. Every conversation that we have with guests on the show, we look at how is equity centered in the accessibility to things that help people succeed and thrive and have access to things that allow them to have like joylled lives and futures.

Joshua Croke (06:17):

And so education is a space that I'm very personally passionate about. And I think it's such a critical component for, like you say, allowing folks to continue to grow both economically and pursue the passions in which they hold. And there's also that intersection point of access to education and the opportunities that provides and things like housing. So jumping into housing, you know, a lot of people have a lot of things to say about homelessness in Worcester often is very unkind. When you hear kind of folks talking and some of the things I've reviewed surveys that folks say like solve the homelessness problem, like remove people from the streets, right. As like that is the solution, but it's really removing people instead of acknowledging that systemic failures by decision makers at local state and federal levels over decades has led people to becoming unhoused. So can you share a bit more about some of the challenges related to housing and some of the work that the Housing Authority's doing

Alex Corrales (07:18):

And you've unpacked a lot of layers there that I'm gonna try to tackle one by one. When we talk about housing and the housing needs, the easy answer that I'm sure will come up today in our discussion is build more, right, build more, build, more, build more, the more housing you build, our problem is solved and we can all go home. The problem is that when you put individuals inside a house and you don't provide the resources to assist that individual, that family, in order for them to continue to thrive and be able to get out of their need for housing assistance, then I don't think you've done everything you can taking a person and moving them into an apartment in Shrewsbury I can do tomorrow. That family does not, or that individual may not have the tools and the skills to survive and then end up possibly returning back to housing.

Alex Corrales (08:14):

So when we look at housing, we look at it as a two-prong approach. First thing I'm gonna throw you're a data individual. So I'm gonna throw a couple of data things for you that really come to mind. Right? Number one is if you apply for section eight with the Worcester Housing Authority today, I will get to your application in about 10 years. So think about that and let that digest for a minute. If a person applies because they need our help today, I have to tell them, wait, 10 years. And hopefully you still have that need. That really is crushing to someone when they need help today in public housing, it's about a three to five year wait. And so what the reason for that is twofold. One is you have a need. We have a lot of folks that need housing, but two, what are we doing about helping folks move out because they are at self sufficiency.

Alex Corrales (09:08):

So now they can go either into the private sector or they've purchased their own home. And then now this apartment is open for the next needy family or the next needy resident that we can assist. So creating some kind of system where it's not a bottleneck is the way we've looked at it for twofold. That's where our selfsufficiency programs come into play. When you think about our Better Life Program you look at a development like Curtis apartments that most folks were referred to as great Brook valley in 2016, 30% of the people that live there were employed. Let me repeat that again. So it's clear 30%. Think of all the neighborhoods that are thriving, not just in Worcester, but even outside of Worcester, if only 30% of the folks living in those neighborhoods worked, that neighborhood is not thriving in the five years that we've implemented that program.

Alex Corrales (10:00):

We're in our sixth year, we have flipped that number. Now, 70% of the folks living there are employed, and the other 30 are involved in other educational activities, or they're building their employment readiness skills. And they're not sitting still, they're moving forward. That's why it's a Better Life Program. That's really necessary. We've helped over a hundred families in the last five years, graduate our program and move out successfully on their own to either purchasing their own home or to private market and during COVID that continues to occur. So those are important things to keep in mind that we have to think about the programs we provide folks because the building of the units is not simply enough. However, to address the other point is we serve a multitude of our population. When people think of public housing, a lot of times they think families only, you know, moms, dads, and kids, but we serve the elders.

Alex Corrales (10:59):

We have over 2000 apartments for 1500 apartments that are strictly for elders that are gonna age in place. They have their own set of needs that we have to make sure that we provide for them. We also have folks that required accessible units. Right now today, Josh, if you were in a wheelchair and you applied for the Worcester Housing Authority, and you said, I need a wheelchair apartment, I may not get to you for 15 years. Think about that. The fact that you have to wait 15 years to have a wheelchair accessible unit that becomes a major problem for us. So it's certainly developing more of those apartments, you know, creating those apartments will help that. Absolutely. And we are at the Worcester Housing Authority. We're doing a lot to try to put our energy and our focus on that. But we also, the programs have to be part of in place.

Alex Corrales (11:52):

The last piece, I'll say, you know, as you jump into your next question is our section eight program. Most folks don't understand the difference. They say, well, public housing, section eight. What's the difference? I don't get it. The easiest way I can tell folks is public housing are properties that we own. We manage them. We maintain them their physical properties. When you think of the great Brook valley neighborhood, or you think about 40 Belmont street tower, those are properties that we own, and we manage that's public housing. If you leave there, you don't take the subsidy with you. You know, you leave on your own. Section eight is a voucher that you receive it's assistance that you receive. So you might have a private landlord that maybe lives in a three decker. And the landlord is willing to, you know, rent to you.

Alex Corrales (12:40):

And then the voucher provides rental assistance for you in terms of, instead of paying, you know a thousand dollars, maybe you pay $300 and the, and the Housing Authority pays the other 700. So it's a way to make the apartment more affordable for you. And the nice thing about that voucher is that you can move from one point to the next, not just locally, but if you have a federal voucher, you can move to any state in the us and take the voucher with you. The problem is this. I'm gonna throw some more data at you, which I think is depressing information. But again, it's what we're up against today. Four years ago, when I put a voucher in someone's hand, 94% of the folks I handed vouchers to were successful in finding an apartment within their allotted time that the federal government allows them to find, which is up to six months today, that number is less than 70%.

Alex Corrales (13:38):

So think about the numbers I shared with you earlier, you just waited 10 years to get a voucher. You're thrilled. You finally have one, you go out looking for an apartment. You six months searching. You can't find an apartment, you lose your voucher. You're back to the bottom of the list that is so demoralizing to someone who needs assistance. And so why is that happening? Well, cause we see the rents are Chief Executive Officer going up, right? We, you know, that affordability comes into play. So what can we do as a Housing Authority to provide assistance? And one of the things we've done in our section eight program as an example is I created a position called a community housing specialist. What I was finding out was that a lot of our residents didn't know where to go. We gave them a voucher and said, good luck.

Alex Corrales (14:30):

They are asking a friend, do you know any landlords that have an apartment they're going on Facebook? They check a couple places and then they stop because they don't know where else to look. And then time runs out. So by creating this position, we said, this individual now is going to go out and build relationships with landlords and really try to understand what's available out there at the same time, the resident's gonna have a chance to call this individual and say, I need help. I can't find an apartment. I'm looking for a two bedroom and here's what I can afford. And now that connection begins, hopefully with the connections with the landlords, they're able to find the match since that person began, we've been able. And that they've only, they've only been with us for about three months. We've already helped house over 30 families with this individual connecting the dots and finding landlords out there. That's the kind of things we need to do. We need to start thinking outside the box and really utilizing those, those community partnerships in order to try to deal with the housing crisis, because there is not one single answer. Building more units is important, but that's one small piece of the pie. In my opinion,

Joshua Croke (15:37):

There's a lot that I wanna unpack there.

Alex Corrales (15:39):

Yes, I gave you the more, yes.

Joshua Croke (15:41):

The first, the first being. So we actually had Giselle Rivera Flores who's a local entrepreneur, mm-hmm <affirmative> on a special round table episode where we had other voices talking about some of the challenges in how we show up to influence or participate in or challenge the existence of like circles of power in the city. Like the groups that are invite only that make a lot of decisions sure. For on behalf of the city, which isn't always reflective of the community in this. I read article <laugh>. Yeah. So, you know, we're, you know, we're talking about yes, but in that conversation, Giselle talked about how there's some confusion, similar to how you're talking about public housing and section eight and like the voucher system how people talk about the need for like low income housing or affordable housing. And some people use those like interchangeably.

Joshua Croke (16:31):

And really maybe my question in there is like clarifying some of the need, which you've talked about, which is there's a diversity of need and a diversity of solutions. I think one of the questions that I have as it relates to like development and, you know, our landlords and people who are making decisions in many instances of like who is moving in and out of spaces in our, in our community. And also with the acknowledgement of the, you know, the Worcester Renaissance effort that people continue try and push. And I challenge the terminology around that a lot, because I ask who is the city growing for and who is being prioritized in the growth of the city, as you mentioned, like housing rates rising and increasing, which make it even more difficult for people to access housing. Right? So what are some of the mechanisms in which, or maybe some of those solutions that you see or foresee for the future of how we build a community that has like a housing first priority for like people who need housing, get housing and they don't have to move outside of their community to access it.

Joshua Croke (17:35):

You mentioned being able to place someone in Shrewsbury. One of the other like intersectional pieces that I think we've, we've talked to folks about before is like, then transportation becomes an issue, of course, right? So if you maybe have a job or have an access to an opportunity, but require a car in order to get there, if you have to commute from Shrewsbury to Worcester, there's a barrier that means you're either gonna lose your housing, you're gonna lose your job. Right. So there's a lot of nuance here. Mm. So maybe the first question is like, what does equitable development? What does equitable housing development look like? And how are you working to implement that? And what are some possible solutions? And as we talk about ARPA, what could that money support, cuz there's a good amount of money on the table. What would you like to see us use that for?

Alex Corrales (18:22):

No, it's a great question. And the, you know, the point of the shrewbury apartment that you made for me is that simply putting someone in another place doesn't address the barriers they may face. We have a section eight individual recently that could not find an apartment. Her world is Worcester. Her employers in Worcester, her family support is in Worcester. Her kids go to school in Worcester and she was so desperate. She took an apartment in Barry. She has no transportation. And so when we had conversations with, with her, we said, how are you gonna get to Worcester back and forth? She hadn't figured it out. And but she was so desperate to not lose her voucher. She took the first thing she could get her hands on. Those are the kind of things that we need to tackle. And we do tackle day to day to assist folks in, matching them up with an apartment that is going to not only provide them what they need inside the four walls, but also it's within the community that they wanna be part of Worcester, as big as it is.

Alex Corrales (19:28):

It's a small place as well. And when I talk to folks, for example, at Curtis apartments, they don't wanna move to the other side of the city of Worcester. They don't wanna go to Lakeside or because their, all their roots are in that neighborhood. And so the question becomes, how do we help in keep keeping folks in the neighborhood they want to be in their kids have settled into schools, maybe mom and dad work at UMass and its easy location. Those are the challenges we're up fenced. We're up against one of the most recent projects that we're working on, which talks about the equitable housing, you know, and you mentioned the different types of housing. Let me back, let me take a step back. Worcester Housing Authority. In my opinion, I think over the last 20 years has been mislabeled when it comes to development.

Alex Corrales (20:19):

When it, and this is by the city, by the state. And I think by other developers you wanna build for the poorest of the poor. Oh yeah, go talk, go talk to the Housing Authority. But if you wanna build for folks who may be working or, or starting to make some strides, go hire a private developer for that. And so one of the things that we've been working really hard is to say, we can do all that housing. We can develop all that type of housing and who better than someone who's in the community who serves the populations that we're talking about and who has a distinct knowledge of their needs, but also what kind of services we want to implement. And also is keenly aware of the fact that a lot of our residents don't want to elders included. By the way, I have a very large Albanian elderly resident population at 4 25 pleasant street, I could offer them an apartment at 11 lake Ave on the lake, overseeing the lake.

Alex Corrales (21:20):

They will reject it 99% of the time because they wanna be with their friends at 4 25, that's their community. They share food, they share dive the the culture. They that's just there that's their family. And regardless of what we offer, we, we wanna make sure that we are continue to build those communities. One of the things that we're working on over at Curtis apartments is we've. We are working on a redevelopment of our properties. Josh, we own 3000 apartments of public housing. Most of them were built in the fifties and sixties. Talk about equitable housing there. These are apartments that are old. We've done a good job over the years, not just my administration, but, but the ones before us, they've done a very good job of band dating it, right? Fixing it as you go along, but over time, they're just not sustainable.

Alex Corrales (22:15):

So one of the things that, where our strategy has been is let's take a look at all of our properties and let's start a property like Curtis, and let's make this look like a community. One of the things that I really don't like is when folks drive by Tacoma street, and the first thing they say is, oh, this looks like public housing. What does that mean? I mean, it certainly has a negative connotation when they say it, oh, this looks like public housing. Well, the asphalt and the brick buildings and the reality is we, what I, my vision is how do we make this community? First of all, just look like a regular neighborhood. That's what you want. This should be a regular neighborhood. The kids riding their bikes lots of trees, landscape and services that folks, you know, can go to receive for whatever it is, employment, riding, employment, readiness, maybe it's educational services.

Alex Corrales (23:13):

Maybe someone just needs to have help on their benefits. They don't know how to get snap benefits. They don't, they have childcare issues. There should be a place there that folks can stop to receive all that level of assistance. And we're working on that. We're building a brand new economic opportunity center, right in the heart of great Brook valley in order to be able to accomplish all this. And the city has partnered with us to also build a branch library because of that educational piece that we've talked to about. And I have a lot to say about education as well, Josh the areas that I think our residents have not received you know, the services they need. But when you talk about housing we shouldn't just be serving the poorest of the poor. I have residents to live at Curtis is who, by the way, can afford market rate apartments.

Alex Corrales (24:06):

They're thriving at their jobs and they're working and they're making good money. They just can't find any market rate apartments to move out. And they actually like living there because it's their roots, it's their neighborhood. So when we are looking at redeveloping, this area, we're taking 372 apartments, and we wanna completely re redevelop that area and maybe even add a couple, a few more extra apartments that all new, the residents that are living there can continue to stay there. You know, no one's gonna be this place. That's always the first question I get asked is, well, what happens to me? You know, you might have to temporarily move cuz we're gonna demolish the building. And we certainly don't want anybody inside of it when that happens. But when that apartment is done, you get to come back to your apartment, it'll be a brand new unit.

Alex Corrales (24:52):

And you get to stay in your community. If you want to. Sometimes folks don't, they would like to move. But but'll have 30% AMI folks living there 60%, 80%. And you, we will have those market rate folks because they're making enough money. They, they couldn't find an apartment there, but maybe they can stay there to me. That's, that's a start to an equitable one. When you have just a community and you have different income folks, status folks living there you're not just throwing the unemployed, poorest folks in a neighborhood. I think that's the old way and it hasn't worked. And then when we're done there, we're gonna move on to other properties and saying, how do we do something similar to provide our folks better housing, housing that they can afford and be able to then surround those services? Those services are key. You're gonna hear me repeat that an awful lot of time, because we're the only Housing Authority Boston included. We're the only Housing Authority that does these wraparound services, hand hold residents from the beginning, they enter a program to the very end. There's no other Housing Authority in the state of Massachusetts that does that. And our results have shown that when we do that, we help people be able to purchase homes and move out of housing.

Joshua Croke (26:08):

Well, thank you for all the work that you're doing and we definitely need to have you back, cuz we are almost at the end of time, we have about like UN chatter under a minute left here and we definitely will, would love to have you back in about 30 seconds.

Alex Corrales (26:22):

Yes.

Joshua Croke (26:23):

What do you hope is prioritized for the ARPA money supporting housing?

Alex Corrales (26:30):

I think there's the major thing is to making sure that the housing that we are developing are for folks that as you said, are folks that live in Worcester have been in Worcester and cannot afford the 2020 $500 apartments that you talk about that when we talk about affordable housing, we're talking about those individuals that are probably making minimum wage and cannot get a private market apartment though. That's the type of housing we need to look at that has the amenities. Our folks require as well. Some wheelchair accessible units will be a major plus cuz there's a huge need in this city for that as well.

Joshua Croke (27:11):

Well thank you for coming on the show. We are definitely gonna follow up and talk more housing, more development. I appreciate your attention to the multiple need areas that people have. It's not just housing, it's food, it's transportation, it's education, it's accessibility at every level. So thank you Alex Corrales from the Worcester Housing Authority for coming on Public Hearing our podcast and radio show that airs Wednesdays at 6:00 PM on WICN 90.5 FM Worcester's only NPR affiliate station and can be heard wherever you get your podcast. I am your host. Joshua Croke. Our audio producer is Giuliano D’Orazio, who also made our show music. Thank you to Molly Gammon and Kelly Kosiorek for also supporting the production of the show. The work continues Worcester and as always, thanks for listening.