Public housing is something which this country has relied on for generations and something which professionals in the industry such as Martin LaMar and the fantastic head of the board here in St. Louis Missouri Mr. Grefe, have dedicated their lives to continuing. With this being said there are many challenges that come with heading up a public housing group, and it is not an easy task that these men and women have. We spoke to Mr. LaMar to find out more about what they key challenges are in as manager of a public housing group, especially here in the metropolitan area of St. Louis Missouri.

Funding

Naturally in order to create affordable housing, someone has to be paying for the privilege and whilst there are federal funds available for this, they are not always forthcoming. In terms of these funds, they are of course available and they do find their way to the housing groups, unfortunately however there are man requirements which the public housing group need to carry out before the money is deposited. This could be anything from writing a letter to the appropriate person, having meetings or filing paperwork to cover their compliance. public housing groups can also be funded by donations so seeing those out is also a large part of the job.

Managing Volunteers

There are volunteers throughout the public housing group who deal with all manner of operations. For example volunteers are the ones who make sure that each hedge and blade of grass in the housing project is maintained, volunteers also cover outreach and care, as well as being the nucleus to the admin section of the group. Volunteers unfortunately cannot be locked down to a contract so there is a lot of turnover of staff here, this is why it takes up so much time and attention for a manager within a public housing group. Volunteers must be found, trained and managed and this is a regular challenge for any housing group, and more so here in St. Louis Missouri.

Legal Challenges

One of the most challenging aspects of the job are when legal action is being taken either for or against the housing group. For example if there is an area of land which the group has been given the OK to build upon, a private developer may have other ideas and actually take the group to court in order to settle the differences. In most cases the courts do side with the housing group, but there is still the legal process to go through which can present an obstacle to any father development, as well as causing stress and adding pressure to the team, who will need to do all that they can to support the legal team dealing with the case.

These are just the toughest challenges among many which someone who manages a public housing group must face.