The Housing Authority of the City of Lakeland LHA Announces That It Has Achieved High Performer Status for FY 2024
The Housing Authority of the City of Lakeland (LHA) announces that it has achieved “High Performer” status for FY 2024 from the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) following an annual performance assessment of its Housing Choice Voucher program. This marks the twelfth consecutive year LHA has been awarded a high performer status and this year LHA received a perfect score of 100 points.
The “High Performer” status is the highest rating HUD can award to a public housing authority (PHA) for financial management, operations, and regulatory compliance. This designation ranks LHA among the top public housing authorities across the country. The
performance score is determined from 14 indicators that measure a PHA’s effectiveness and ability to assist eligible families to afford decent rental units at a reasonable cost as intended by federal housing legislation.
HUD has three performance grades in the Section 8 Management Assessment Program (SEMAP):
- “High Performers” (overall score of 90%+)
- “Standard” (60-89%)
- “Troubled” (0-59%)
LHA achieved a score of 100% by securing all the possible points across the 14 key measures.
The key indicators of performance are:
- Achieve proper selection of applicants from the housing choice voucher waiting list
- Execute sound determination of reasonable rent for each unit leased
- Institute payment standards within the required range of the HUD fair market rent
- Ensure accurate verification of family income
- Execute timely annual reexaminations of family income
- Generate correct calculation of the tenant share of the rent and the housing assistance payment
- Perform maintenance of a current schedule of allowances for tenant utility costs
- Ensure units comply with the housing quality standards before families enter into leases and PHAs enter into housing assistance contracts
- Perform timely annual housing quality inspections
- Perform quality control inspections to ensure housing quality
- Ensure that landlords and tenants promptly correct housing quality deficiencies
- Ensure that all available housing choice vouchers are used
- Expand housing choice outside areas of poverty or minority concentration
- Enroll families in the family self-sufficiency (FSS) program as required and help FSSfamilies achieve increases in employment income
LHA is the largest Section 8 public housing authority (PHA) in Polk County. The agency provides affordable housing opportunities for over 7,000 families and individuals through public housing, private developments, and the Housing Choice Voucher (HCV) program, which includes more than $22 million contributed to the local economy each year.
“We are honored to receive a “High Performer” status from HUD for the twelfth consecutive year,” says Carlos R. Pizarro AN, Senior Vice President and Chief Operating Officer of LHA.
“We commend the diligent work of our dedicated staff as our agency continues to provide affordable, quality housing and access to supportive resources across Polk County, Florida.”
He continues, “maintaining the highest level of compliance and delivery of quality customer service on behalf of our clients makes our community stronger, as we continue to innovate and incorporate process improvements into our daily operations to develop more inclusive, sustainable housing solutions.”
We want to thank our President/CEO, Benjamin Stevenson, and the LHA Board of Commissioners for their leadership and support:
- David Samples, Chairman
- Annie Gibson, Vice-Chairman
- Michael Konen, Commissioner
- Stacy Campbell-Domineck, Commissioner
- Curtisha James, Commissioner
- Charles Welch, Commissioner
- Dewey Chancey, Commissioner
- Rev. Richard Richardson, Commissioner Emeritus
Documents for Download
| Name | File Size |
|---|---|
| HUD Letter High Performance Denomination | 383 KB |
