New director looks to further connect Whitefish Housing Authority with community

In January, Dwarne Hawkins became the new executive director of the Whitefish Housing Authority (WHA). One of his first tasks is to reintroduce the organization to the community.

He is planning to host a town hall meeting toward the end of summer, as well as a more formal social gathering to hear from the community and obtain feedback as to what the community needs. The outreach plan involves advertisements and commercials, too.

“We’re going to have more engagement events, trying to differentiate who we are from our other partners like Housing Whitefish. A lot of people don't know the nuances of what we do,” Hawkins said, adding that he’d like to clarify “who we are and what we’re doing and who we would like to be for the community.”

The Whitefish Housing Authority’s website has recently been freshened up, and made more user-friendly and functional. Shortly, people will be able to complete the first step of becoming prequalified for housing online.

The site may see more action soon, as the long-awaited Depot Park Townhomes project is going to bid in early July and will likely break ground by September.

BORN AND raised in Baltimore, Maryland, Hawkins worked for the Housing Authority of Baltimore City for a number of years. He worked his way up in the organization and when his supervisor was promoted, Hawkins joined him in the downtown office.

“That kind of started everything,” Hawkins said. “That’s where I learned everything with housing.”

After 10 years there, he met his wife, a senior director of operations for a nonprofit in St. Louis, Missouri, so he moved to the Midwest. Hawkins worked with the Housing Authority in East St. Louis as a development coordinator and after six months, was promoted to director.

Later, some issues arose in the organization that made him decide to resign his position.

“The HUD regional office called me after I resigned and let me know there was an opportunity in Whitefish and that’s how I got here,” he said.

Hawkins brought his housing experience from East St. Louis, Illinois to Whitefish, Montana. While most people would consider the two places as disparate, he sees similarities despite differences in the demographic.

“The average median income in East St. Louis was, like, $9,000 and here it's a little bit better but still, you’re competing with the level of income you need in order to be able to live,” Hawkins said. “The issues are still the same regardless of whether you're making $50,000 or $9,000 (annually).”

Although the median income is different, people do not have a quality of life in either place when they cannot afford to live or buy a home. He said the circumstances are not any different and that the Housing Authority will try to help change that.

HAWKINS DESCRIBED the Whitefish Housing Authority as a quasi-governmental agency because, in every city with a housing authority, the mayor appoints the board and the board appoints the executive director who hires the staff.

“The city does not have any authority to run the housing authority and we are not technically beholden to the city,” he said. “On the flip side, we are not technically the government.”

He said while the Housing Authority is not a branch of the government, like Veterans Affairs or Homeland Security, it is fully funded by the government, more specifically, by the United States Department of Housing and Urban Development or HUD. He added that the Housing Authority’s aim is to create affordable, safe housing for the city’s residents.

“We try our best to do what is necessary to put more of a dent into homelessness, put more of a dent into poverty,” Hawkins said. “It is technically the Housing Authority that is that transition – it’s almost like a gateway to upward mobility.”

Hawkins has a clear picture of the housing situation in Whitefish and said that in many other cities, the plight is so bad, all the services go toward the very low-income and there are not enough programs to serve the greater community.

“That’s a great benefit to have here. You all are conscious about not just the low income but the working poor – people that work every day, could probably afford a home, but the prices are just astronomical,” he said. “At the point we lose our workforce to poverty, I don't know what that means for the community. There probably will be no community.”

THE WHITEFISH Housing Authority’s main tools are public housing and a voucher program.

“Right now we have two basic programs in housing,” Hawkins explained. “Mountain View Manor is an independent living senior facility and it is our public housing building. This is all the public housing we will probably get.”

Because of the Faircloth Amendment, the government cannot “fund the construction or operation of new public housing units,” according to HUD. Basically, the number of public housing units is no more today than it was in October 1999.

“If we could, we would build another building somewhere, or two or three more buildings,” he said, noting that cannot be done because of the government’s cap on the number of units.

The other program is called the housing choice voucher program, or Section 8.

“With Section 8, you can basically go anywhere in the city limits and you are free to get either a home or apartment of your choosing,” he said. “The access is a little more free with Section 8.”

While Whitefish cannot build more public housing units, it is possible to obtain more vouchers. Project-based vouchers do not travel with individuals; they are specific to a building.

“We’re looking to get more available units here in the city so that we can place vouchers in those buildings,” Hawkins said. “That’s pretty much the big plan for us to move forward.”

The WHA has three project-based vouchers at the Alpenglow Apartments and currently, two apartments are available for rent, a one-bedroom and a three-bedroom unit.

Whitefish Crossing and Riverview Trails are two apartment buildings that partner with the WHA, which performs income verification for prospective renters. Some or all of the units in the two buildings are intended to be rented to a mix of people who qualify as low income, earning less than 60% AMI, or workforce, who earn 60%-120% AMI.

Two affordable ownership options in Whitefish are the Trailview Homes and Depot Park Townhomes. Trailview features 58 homes, all but 10 of which are deed-restricted for affordability. The Depot Park Townhomes is a Whitefish Housing Authority project comprising 22 townhouses that are 100% deed restricted.

The WHA will income-qualify applicants and will be on the deed with the buyer to assure it remains affordable.

“We’re in the midst of setting guidelines for the deed restriction (to keep it affordable),” Hawkins said. “The issue that we’re having is that when you seek to do modifications or home improvements… you are pushing the price up... if you push it up too far, it removes the affordable element.”

About two years ago, Montana Gov. Greg Gianforte did away with the system known as inclusionary zoning which required developers to dedicate land or pay fees in order to keep homes priced affordably. Hawkins said the Housing Authority is utilizing a similar plan.

“If developers want our partnership now, I think that’s the standard we are setting – we need 10-15% to go toward affordable housing,” he said. “We can't reasonably partner with a developer that is going to put the rents at market value and call it affordable.

“We have our hands in a lot but we're just trying to help the system to be better,” Hawkins added. “We’re not in it for the money. We’re in it for the well-being of the community we’re in.”

To learn about income qualifications and to apply for housing, visit www.whitefishhousing.org. The dates of the town hall and other gatherings with the WHA will be announced at a later time.