The Importance of Amplifying the Voice of Public Housing Residents

Public housing residents, despite facing numerous challenges such as maintenance issues, community violence, and social isolation, have shown remarkable resilience. For many years, public housing authorities (PHA) were solely responsible for addressing these challenges without the input of the residents themselves. However, due to evolving regulations, residents have stepped up, taking on more prominent roles within their communities as advocates and leaders. Since 1999, HUD has mandated that residents be members of Boards of Commissioners or a similar governing body (24 CFR Part 964) and Resident Advisory Boards (24 CFR Part 903) since 2002. These requirements align with HUD's goal of 'creating and maintaining a positive living environment' and 'partnerships with residents.' Similarly, HUD regulations state the role of residents to include being 'actively involved in a PHA's decision-making process and give advice on matters such as modernization, security, maintenance, resident screening and selection, and recreation.'

Our research team was interested in learning more about the grassroots experiences of resident leaders as they take on challenges within their communities and partner with their local PHAs and HUD. The research sought to understand how resident commissioners, resident advisory board members, and resident council members see their contributions and their views of improving their effectiveness and the identification of training programs that help prepare them for leadership roles. The goal was to connect with the work resident leaders have already done, while also assessing what remains, specifically in terms of building resident leadership and ascertaining the HUD stated goals. A survey instrument and focus groups were utilized to gather information. Residents exuded enthusiasm to participate in the research, expressing gratitude that their voices would be heard and fostering more solidarity among resident leaders. Participants were representatives of 17 states and numerous PHAs and communities.

Data gathered from the surveys and focus groups was rich with insight into the experiences of resident leaders. First, by and large, resident leaders rated their overall experience as good or very good. Likewise, they strongly felt that housing authority staff would rate their contributions as good or very good. This tells us that resident leaders have a general sense of being effective contributors to their community’s well-being. Second, resident leaders primarily perceive their role as advocates, spokespersons, and intermediaries between residents and management. There was an overwhelming response from the participants that how they see themselves is a "voice for the people." They saw their role as an opportunity to teach residents their rights while developing resources and partnerships. "I am a tenant first" was the overarching theme, where leaders conceptualized themselves as having a dual responsibility but holding primary positionality as a tenant.

Regarding leadership development and HUD involvement, resident leaders identified a disconnect between HUD regulations and housing authority compliance as an obstacle to their jobs. They also perceive that HUD supports resident leadership with limited financial resources, but resident leaders desire more training. The findings clearly show that the need to empower resident leaders remains great. While they perceive themselves to be overall effective, their desire for more training and identification of specific obstacles to their effectiveness speaks to their ability to foster and anticipate what is necessary to elicit change—the social isolation and marginalization after living in public housing often silence residents' voices. However, resident leadership offers the opportunity to honor residents' humanity within public housing, empower their voices, and build more positive communities for such vulnerable populations.