50 houses remain empty; Brunswick Housing Authority says it’s due to its own mishaps

The community housing group Hand in Hand of Glynn is facing a logjam — 50 tiny homes in Brunswick sit vacant almost 18 months after completion due to continued bureaucratic complications and disjointed communication with the Brunswick Housing Authority .

Hand in Hand of Glynn, which has raised more than $6 million to provide housing as well as medical and social services in one location for dozens of Glynn County’s chronically homeless, has not gotten approval so far for specific federal subsidies to realize the goal of filling out the vacant homes.

But the state of Georgia might have an opportunity that could help.

The Department of Community Affairs (DCA) has opened negotiations with the Brunswick agency that could provide some of the project vouchers from a quota managed by the state body, rather than the local authority. These vouchers, one of two types of assistance offered for housing subsidies, have to be tied to a service. They provide federal money for the holistic services Hand in Hand wants to provide — but attaining them is the problem.

Housing administrators need to confirm the services that the vouchers will subsidize, which means that community organizations or landlords need to prove they have providers lined up to provide care before the money starts flowing.

The previous head of the Brunswick Housing Authority had originally promised 60 project vouchers to Hand in Hand, which the group took as the green light to complete the complex off Altama Avenue. The former director, however, was fired, and the new administrator, Chris Baisden, says he’s been cleaning up what he calls mismanagement ever since.

Baisden, a former tax lawyer who worked as assistant attorney general at the Florida Attorney General’s office , has approved ten vouchers for individuals on Hand in Hand’s pre-approved tenant list which subsidize housing, but nothing else.

He says his predecessor was wrong to promise project vouchers, and that there are good reasons for slowing down Hand in Hand’s application process. Assessing residents’ satisfaction is the next step necessary to confirm that the nonprofit can fulfill their needs, he said.

“One of the things we want to do is ensure that the tenants are utilizing these vouchers and are receiving their services and that the accommodations are as presented. [We want to see] the program is working to their satisfaction, because they’re the ones that really matter, not you, not me, not the people running the program, but the individuals who are housed there,” he said.

The about-face has frustrated people like Linda Heagy, a board member of Hand in Hand, one of the few private organizations filling the gap of services for those experiencing homelessness or housing insecurity in Glynn County.

The group sees some hope from the negotiations underway since the spring between the DCA and the Brunswick agency. The BHA has sent a draft memorandum of understanding to community groups helping the homeless for comment and approval.

Brunswick Housing Authority is still debating the potential agreement. The office declined to comment on when it would decide the MOU. If the BHA does sign the agreement, then Hand in Hand could be eligible to apply for state-administered vouchers in January.

What’s holding up the agreement

Public Housing Authorities are limited by the federal government on the amount of project-based vouchers that they can disburse. That number is usually up to 20 percent of its authorized voucher numbers, but in certain cases can project-base additional units that exceed this cap.

In late August, the state body presented a draft Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) to the BHA that would allow the larger authority to distribute some of their 17,000 allocated vouchers to the Coastal Georgia community. DCA says between 20% to 30% of that total could be used as project-based vouchers.

Laura Ann Holland, the policy and special projects director at DCA, told her Brunswick counterparts that competition is fierce for the extra vouchers, but that the state agency would welcome Brunswick’s participation, alongside other municipal partners such as Fulton, Cobb and Dekalb counties.

“Compared to last year, we’ve received a more than 500% increase in our project-based voucher applications, and our new construction deadline is not hasn’t even hit yet. And so we’ve received more than 70 applications, and they’re still coming in,” said Holland.

Baisden previously told The Current that discussions between BHA and DCA halted earlier this summer after the state body made clear that Brunswick would receive no administration fee for any potential vouchers given through the MOU. The DCA would take over the responsibility of distributing vouchers and inspecting properties that receive them.

But at the end of the summer, DCA returned and talks started up again. Baisden, however, said that he has taken issue with some of the “language” that specifically addresses how services had to be attached to any organization that receives project-based vouchers

“When I went through the DCA’s MOU I didn’t see that language that I know, if we didn’t follow, and HUD came down for an inspection, and the service was not matching the kind of voucher that the resident was receiving then we would be in trouble. And so it’s like, OK, well, DCA, if you’re going to do this, then where is that language about these particular services,” he said.

The BHA offered some revised language that outlined how they are going to evaluate if someone is complying with the services that are supposed to be tied to the project-based vouchers.

Baisden said he is in the process of allowing the board as well as other organizations that provide services to homeless people to review the MOU. He said if everyone is in agreement, then the MOU will be signed.

Looking forward

Hand in Hand is eager to see that happen.

Heagy says she is excited to build partnerships with the DCA, after a rocky experience with the BHA.

Communication between the Brunswick agency and the nonprofit broke down earlier this year. Heagy said that her group was told at a Brunswick Housing Authority meeting in January that they would receive the 60 project-based that they had been promised.

Yet she also acknowledges that Hand in Hand has not set up the services that they feature on their website. She chalks it up to not having critical mass which she says makes it difficult for the group to pitch to partners to come in and provide the services.

For now, the nonprofit and the BHA both are conducting surveys of the tenants who are currently housed at the Hand in Hand complex.

DCA also says supportive services will need to be in place for the state agency to provide project-based vouchers to Hand in Hand.

The human element

As the bureaucratic issues have increased, the people on Hand in Hand’s list of pre-approved clients has dwindled, with three confirmed to have passed away.

One of the deceased individuals was supposed to be on the initial move-in list of tenants but was beaten to death at one of the motels in the county.

At least 30 people remain on the list

One hopeful is Kenneth Mitchell, who grew up on south Brunswick’s Hopkin Homes — a Brunswick Housing Authority property — where his parents lived next door to each other.

Mitchell, a Type-1 diabetic, has been experiencing housing insecurity for most of his life. However, about three years ago, his situation worsened, he became chronically homeless. After being hospitalized, he lost his job as a cook at the Jekyll Island Convention Center .

That put his $600 monthly rent at McGarvey Efficiencies , a low-cost extended stay option, out of reach, especially because of the high cost of insulin.

Faced with a no-win situation between paying for shelter and sacrificing his health or paying to live and trying to survive on the streets, he chose the latter.

“It was just overwhelming, I didn’t have any insurance, so I didn’t have a choice. I needed the medicine. Therefore, I had to pay for the medicine. I couldn’t not. I don’t, I don’t drink, I don’t smoke, I don’t do any of that. You know when people see me on when the sugar bottoms out. It’s just, oh, he’s drunk. It’s like, no, my sugar is low,” he said.

Since then for about three years, Mitchell has been living on the streets doing odd jobs. He has become a regular at The Well, the day shelter in Brunswick. That’s where he met  Sheila Howard, a volunteer there and now resident coordinator for Hand in Hand.

Mitchell filled out an application to live at Hand in Hand 2½  years ago.

Mitchell says he welcomes the opportunity to be placed in one of the tiny homes. He’s afraid to keep hoping, however.

“If I had a tiny home. I wouldn’t have to be so tired. Run myself tired. I’m saying tired because that’s how I be feeling sometimes….It’s just like, ‘Yo, man, I’m tired.’  All I want to do is sit and just maybe lay back for a second. But you, you know, if I’m with the tiny home I’ll be able to put something together. I can’t put anything together and put in some kind of order to things on how I would like for them to go because I can’t. I don’t have that time. I can’t sit still enough comfortably,” he said.

The search for a place to lay his head is a constant most days, he said.

After speaking to The Current , Mitchell set off for a doctor’s appointment. Time spent traveling to the Coastal Community Health Center, though that might mean his preferred places to sleep in the city will be taken by others in Glynn County’s homeless population.

“After we finish this interview and I go over here to the Coastal Community [Health], I’m going to be already looking for me a place, it’s daylight. I don’t wait until the nighttime. Yeah, I’m already on that right now. So when you guys leave, that’s what I’m gonna be doing. I’m gonna be looking for me a spot where I can say yeah, I’ll come back, or I might even leave a bag,” he sighed.