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Virgin Islands Housing Authority details repairs, demolitions and voucher shortfalls
Summary
Housing Authority leaders told the Legislature they completed thousands of work orders and are pursuing demolition and redevelopment at multiple sites while the housing choice voucher program remains underfunded; contractors, vacant units and rising construction costs were recurring concerns.
The Virgin Islands Housing Authority told the Legislature on Tuesday that it has ramped up repairs and modernization across the public housing portfolio while preparing to demolish some units in hazardous zones and manage a constrained voucher budget.
At a hearing in front of the House committee on housing, testifying authority staff described an operational push to address interior unit conditions, a demolition plan for units in danger zones, and a shortfall in voucher budget authority that left hundreds of issued vouchers unused.
"We completed about 3,000 work orders for that month," said Edie Alexander, the authority's testifier representing the agency, referencing recent monthly figures. She added that emergency work orders (129) were addressed within 24 hours, with average turnaround times of about 2.3 days in St. Thomas and 5.3 days in St. Croix.
Why it matters: the authority manages more than 2,400 public housing units and a voucher caseload that local officials say is essential to preventing homelessness. At the same time, the authority faces high renovation and…
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