Courtlyn Roser-Jones is a law professor living in Columbus. She and her partner own and manage a rental property in the Southside.
I am outraged by Columbus Metropolitan Housing Authority CEO Charles Hillman’s $858,000 salary, and my outrage has nothing to do with Hillman’s race.
I am outraged because, to save money, CMHA laid off dozens of employees in 2022 and chose to outsource local management of the more than 13,000 Housing Choice Vouchers it issued to a Canadian IT company.
I am outraged because this outsourcing did not end up saving CMHA money, but did, predictably, dramatically decrease the quality of services voucher recipients received and the number of landlords willing to partner with the organization.
I am outraged because, for years, renters and landlords, myself included, complained to CMHA about administrative errors, hours-long wait times, late payments, missed inspections and wrongfully terminated vouchers and were ignored.
I am outraged that CMHA did not end this disastrous experiment and return to managing its issued vouchers in-house until last year.
CMHA has been impossible to work with
And I am outraged that it did so only after a federal audit concluded that CMHA and its contractor had failed to meet Section 8 housing standards for the very same reasons community members had expressed for years, which had fallen on deaf ears.
I am outraged because the public trust in CMHA has been so eroded that roughly half of the people who receive new Section 8 vouchers cannot find a landlord willing to accept them.
I am outraged that I myself have become one of these landlords, now knowingly flouting the city’s source-of-income discrimination law, which I once wholeheartedly supported, because, after years of trying, I simply could not work with CMHA anymore.
I am outraged that, despite having front-row seats to this debacle, five board members have, year after year, increased Hillman’s salary and the salaries of other CMHA executives who also make well into the six figures.
I am outraged that this board that once embraced market comparisons, commissioning an independent compensation study of housing authority leaders to set Hillman’s salary in 2018, now ostensibly acts as if no market rate or position comparators exists — allowing Hillman to become the highest paid leader of a public housing authority in the country, his salary hundreds of thousands of dollars more than housing authority leaders’ in cities five times Columbus’s size.
This is not absolutely selective outrage
And I am outraged that, despite this abandonment of oversight and duty, some of these board members have been appointed to second, third, even fourth five-year terms by the mayor, county commissioners and Franklin County courts.
I am outraged, but not “selectively outraged” as Melissa Crum’s June 11 guest column, “Why is everyone suddenly fixated with Hillman’s salary?” suggests.
My outrage is pointed and specifically tied to CMHA’s failure to administer its share of the country’s largest rental assistance program under Hillman’s helm.
To suggest otherwise diminishes the seriousness of legitimate attacks on diverse candidates’ credentials amid anti-DEI initiatives and distracts from the important issues that are really underlying the strong response to Hillman’s salary.
These issues concern the role of our public housing authority in addressing the low-income housing crisis of today and the housing shortages of tomorrow.
While under Hillman’s leadership, CMHA has indeed been innovative in its acquisition and redevelopment of property, this innovation has come at a cost. CMHA now owns and manages over 6,500 units, but while acquiring and renovating these units for the future, it has mismanaged twice this number of Section 8 vouchers that house our lowest-income residents right now.
How many more people could be housed?
And having amassed an impressive 6,500+ unit portfolio, CMHA now generates its own revenue, unlike over 30% of public housing authorities nationwide that operate at a deficit due to inadequate federal funding and surging maintenance and utility costs. But CMHA doesn’t just generate its own revenue; it generates enough revenue to accommodate Hillman’s $800,000 salary and the extravagant salaries of the rest of its leadership team.
To do this, a staggering number of CMHA’s acquired units (about 1,700) aren’t even rented to low-income individuals but rather to renters at market rate.
Last year, over 2,000 housing choice voucher recipients — community members whose total household income was considered “very low” or “extremely low” by federal standards — could not find a landlord willing to accept their voucher.
These individuals were left without safe, affordable housing options — yet our local public housing authority has 1,700 units for rent at market rates? I don’t doubt that with 1,700 market-rate units, CMHA makes enough to reinvest some of its profits into future housing initiatives. But how many low-income individuals could be housed right now if CMHA prioritized servicing their needs, rather than profit-generating and portfolio-building?
Or, for that matter, how many more could be housed if Hillman’s salary were commensurate with the market?
There are plenty of positions in the private sector that I’m sure would be glad to reward Hillman’s investment strategy with an $800,000 salary, if not a larger one. But CMHA is a public housing authority meant to serve the public interest, not its own profits.
Courtlyn Roser-Jones is a law professor living in Columbus. She and her partner own and manage a rental property in the Southside.
This article originally appeared on The Columbus Dispatch: My outrage over CMHA head’s 858K pay isn’t about race. Saying so a betrayal | Opinion
Reporting by Courtlyn Roser-Jones, Guest Columnist / The Columbus Dispatch
USA TODAY Network via Reuters Connect
By Courtlyn Roser-Jones, Guest Columnist | USA TODAY Network
