Larry Woods, who became the head of the Housing Authority of Winston-Salem in 2006, says his agency has had "an image problem that was legendary."
"We're not going to run from it. We're not hiding. We know that we are better than that."
Under Woods' predecessor, Reid Lawrence, there had been revelation after revelation of mismanagement. Federal officials took over major purchasing decisions for the authority for a while.
Lawrence resigned under fire, and an expanded board made solid progress in improving financial accountability, but much work remained to be done when Woods was hired for the top job. There have been some bumps along the way. But with his board, Woods has hammered away at big problems, helping the authority to provide better affordable housing.
Woods has personal experience with public housing.
He grew up in public housing in Manhattan in the 1950s and '60s. He paints a better picture of it than some might imagine. "Families looked out for each other," Woods said. "It was an intact community."
"There were very strict rules in terms of noise level, behavior, working requirements. It was a different era."
Woods used grants and loans to go to State University of New York at Stony Brook. He worked in community and economic development before becoming the vice president of a small construction company that renovated blighted buildings in New York.
In 1994, he had two heart attacks that he terms "a wakeup call." He started looking for a less-stressful job, and landed in housing-authority work. Despite all the headaches that work can entail, Woods really does seem to find it less stressful than helping to lead construction jobs.
He held high-level positions at housing agencies in New York, Philadelphia and Delaware before coming to Winston-Salem. This is his first time leading a housing authority.
He noted when he started that the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development is sending less money to housing authorities, and they have to become more self-sufficient. Toward that end, he and the board decided to charge authority tenants minimum rents, except in special cases.
"Last year, our operating subsidy was reduced by about 17 to 18 percent," Woods said. "Without additional tenant contributions or tenant-rent payments, we would be in serious financial straits."
"The majority of the tenants applauded. They thought it was unfair for people not working to take advantage of the system," Woods said.
This past winter, Woods and his board ended the authority's Section 8 unit contract with Maryland Avenue apartments, which had been plagued with problems. "I just think we need to take a stand sometimes," Woods said at the time.
And Woods is working with the board on efforts to sell the authority's Lansing Ridge property, a failed development that's a symbol of financial mismanagement from the authority's bad old days.
He'll be the first to admit that he's not perfect. When some employees said that ample opportunity wasn't given to apply for new positions in the agency soon after he was hired, Woods said, he went before the staff and said, "As we came out of the gate, we stumbled."
Last week, he said that "I had made a promise that we would try to make promotions from within. It didn't work at first, but it's been almost flawless since."
He keeps pounding away, trying to help build a better housing authority. As he does so, he'll need to listen closely to his board. He indicates that he will:
"We know with the right leadership from the board of directors and the administration that we can be an agency that the city and community can be proud of, not one that they're ashamed of."
■ John Railey writes local editorials for the Journal. He can be reached at jrailey@wsjournal.com.
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