Racquel Williams talks about issues to be discussed at a RADAR one-day boot camp for public housing resident leaders at the UTC Sim Center on Friday, April 8, 2016, in Chattanooga, Tenn. The training seminar was led by Williams and paid for by the housing authority.Chattanooga public housing residents met Friday for the biggest resident leadership training boot camp ever held in the city, and leaders from within their own ranks led the effort to make it happen.
Some of them came with lists of issues to discuss, including having better security, more communication with the Chattanooga Housing Authority and better treatment from property management.
Raquel Williams, founder of the RADAR (Realistic Approaches to Developing Active Residents) boot camp, listed their concerns and used them to teach the importance of understanding process, procedures and organizational structure of resident representation.
She asked the audience of more than 30 residents what issues they wanted to discuss during the day-long session and wrote them on a white board.
“I’m getting you into the process by which you respect one another’s opinion and into the process where we write goals down to see results,” said Williams.
The former public housing resident holds a master’s degree in public administration and is the board chairwoman of the Housing Authority of The County of Wake in North Carolina. She is the mother of four children and the founder of One Million Moms Off Welfare by 2025.
“I’m going to charge everyone here today with knowing who you are and what you are charged to do,” said Williams.
She displayed a chart that mapped the chain of command from resident councils to the resident advisory board and the public housing board of commissioners. The chart showed how representatives from the resident councils form the resident advisory board. She said at least one resident should sit on the board of commissioners.
However, most issues should be solved within the councils and the resident advisory board. Only very difficult cases should go to the board, she said.
She encouraged residents from all public housing sites to unite to get issues solved.
If Dogwood Manor residents are complaining because their windows don’t open, people in Gateway, Boynton and Mary Walker Towers should join them, she said, because what happens at one site could happen at the others.
A Gateway Towers resident complained of having to pay $22 to get into her apartment after maintenance changed her locks without telling her. She had asked for new locks but thought maintenance would give her notice and leave her a key when it was done. None of that happened.
The resident said she wrote a letter stating her grievance but stopped pushing the issue and paid the $22 when she saw no results.
Williams used the situation to explain how a resident council could handle such a complaint. A council representative would share it with the resident advisory board. And instead of the resident acting alone, the advisory board could write on behalf of all public housing residents. And that letter would ask for a policy of notifying residents before door locks are changed.
Working together, Williams said, will benefit all public housing residents. She encouraged residents to have people strong in diplomacy work to develop relationships with the housing authority and those more outspoken to be a voice for residents at city council and other public meetings.
And she encouraged all 30 residents present to participate in their resident councils and encourage other residents to join them.
Seven of CHA’s nine sites where represented at the meeting. There are more than 2,350 households in the nine sites, but only three resident councils.
Residents and housing authority officials said they appreciated the training.
“Every residential council should make sure each site has a resident council,” said Ellis Jones, of Cromwell Hills. He wants members of existing councils to help start a resident council at his site.
Said Boynton resident Joe Clark, “We feel like this is the training that will help you form a council.”
Carol Johnson, resident services director for CHA, said she hopes residents put the information into action.
“She is helping residents understand that there needs to be a strong working relationship between the housing authority and residents. And that there is a proper way to resolve problems,” said Johnson.
Contact staff writer Yolanda Putman at yputman@timesfreepress.com or 757-6431.