Richard Herrington Jr. thought he was being summoned to look at a leaky building Tuesday, but it was only a pretext for the reunion of old friends and colleagues that awaited him when he walked across the parking lot of the Hot Springs Housing Authority's Illinois Street offices.
Herrington, the housing authority's executive director, was awarded the 2020 Charles L. Farris Award at the surprise gathering. The Southwest Division of the National Association of Housing and Redevelopment Officials said it's the most prestigious honor conferred by the organization representing more than 19,000 housing and community development providers.
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"Throughout all of his career, even here in Hot Springs, he's tried to redevelop everything he touches and make it a better place for the families he serves," said Bobby Collins, the Shreveport, La., Housing Authority executive director who nominated Herrington for the award. "He's somebody who I've respected in the business because of the way he carries himself.
"He's fussy. He's bossy, but he gets things done. He's a leader and someone who's going to push things forward and make things happen. He's a builder of buildings for people."
During his more than 40 years with the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development, Herrington's been tasked with turning around troubled housing agencies in Texas, Louisiana, Florida and Virginia. That was his remit when HUD dispatched him to Hot Springs in September 2014.
Federal agents executed a search warrant earlier that year at the housing authority's offices. Their findings prompted HUD's regional director to tell the local board of commissioners that controls were lacking, revealing a pattern of noncompliance with federal regulations that led to the termination of Herrington's predecessor.
Herrington inherited a public housing stock in disrepair. More than $18 million in deferred maintenance had accumulated, as no capital investments had been made to the 365 units since they were built in the early 1960s.
"When I came to Hot Springs, one of my challenges was to better maintain the units we already had," Herrington said last year, which was the 60th anniversary of the local housing authority. "The housing authority never did a good job of maintaining what they had. HUD never gives you enough money to maintain it. That's the downside. They're expecting you to live off of rents and the little bit of subsidy you get. They came up with all these creative programs to deal with that."
Herrington took advantage of HUD's Rental Assistance Demonstration to renovate all of the city's public housing units at no expense to the city. RAD steers private capital toward billions of dollars in deferred maintenance the country's public housing has accumulated from years of underfunding. The multilayered financing Herrington secured for the $57 million project included a sizable equity investment from the 4% Low Income Housing Tax Credits the Royal Bank of Canada sold to investors seeking to reduce their federal tax liabilities.
The Bennett Group, an Alabama-based developer, applied to the Arkansas Development Finance Authority for the credits, which were allotted on the condition that the renovated units remain available to low- and moderate-income tenants for 40 years. The credits raised more than $17 million for the renovation.
The $28.3 million bond issue ADFA floated in 2017 provided the debt-financing piece. An attorney overseeing the transaction said Citibank purchased the bonds and sold them to the Federal Home Loan Mortgage Corp., one of several lenders with a security interest in the 365 units.
The capital infusion was conditioned on converting the city's public housing to privately owned, rent-controlled units under Section 8 of the U.S. Housing Act of 1937. The 245 family units at Eastwood Gardens and Eastwood Heights and the 120 units for seniors at Mountain View Heights are now owned by Mountain View Heights LP. The local housing authority and Bennett Group have minority stakes in the partnership, with the former holding the ground lease and right of first refusal when the partnership's 15-year agreement expires.
The housing authority no longer manages the units, transferring that responsibility to Allied Orion Group. The authority selected the Houston-based company for its expertise managing properties financed by Low Income Housing Tax Credits, which can be rescinded if properties fall out of compliance with the tax credit's requirements.
Income from vouchers residents receive through HUD's Section 8 program and income-based rents are securing debt issued for the renovation that included a new washer and dryer for each of the family units.
"It was really a true public-private partnership to make this work," said Herrington, who grew up in Brooklyn, N.Y.'s Kingsborough public housing development.
Collins, who succeeded Herrington at the helm of the Shreveport Housing Authority, said Herrington didn't forget about the Shreveport office after he left for Hot Springs.
"He wanted to make sure we succeeded," Collins said. "We talked all the time. He let me know where all the pitfalls were, where all the politics were. He would call and encourage me and give me advice."
In the fall of 2019, HUD put the troubled Arkadelphia Housing Authority under the management of the Hot Springs housing office.
