Katrina Redmon, Wilmington Housing Authority’s CEO, manages a business with $23 million in revenue and $72 million in assets, paying a real estate tax bill of $85,000 per year. 

“I need to attract talent, fund the business and fund the next projects and services,” Redmon said. “Our major purpose is to transform communities, remove blight and act as a catalyst for private investment to come in. I am nothing if not determined.”

The Wilmington Housing Authority (WHA), which Redmon joined last year, contributes to the community beyond paying taxes. It pays in excess of $10 million to private landlords and $7 million to vendors for materials and services.

While 85 percent of the WHA budget comes from federal dollars, tenants pay 30 percent of the family’s gross annual income or a minimum rent of $50 per month. Redmon believes the group has to operate under private industry principals and standards to get a return on investment and become more independent.

The original purpose of housing authorities was to transform the communities so investors would come in, Redmon said. Wilmington Housing Authority was the first one created in North Carolina after being established in 1938.

The need to be more independent is also based on the fact that the agency never knows how much funding will come out of Washington, D.C., and the budget typically arrives after the fiscal year has started. Redmon said the funding isn’t an entitlement but subject to appropriations every year.

A North Carolina native, Redmon, came to her position in Wilmington in August with the will to accomplish her goals.

“My parents told me the world was limitless and I could do whatever I wanted,” she said.
Redmon finished Greensboro College with a bachelor’s degree in accounting and legal administration. She flirted with medical school and law school but says women had little counseling on how to make it in those days.

“I didn’t know how to pay for it, so I didn’t go,” she said.

Redmon developed a persistent approach that paid off. She is a certified public accountant, a chartered global management accountant, a certified economic development finance professional, a real estate broker, has served on multiple boards of directors and co-authored a book.

“I’ve been one of the first females in my positions,” she said. “I was one of the first female CFOs of a construction company. I’m proud of that.”

Coming from private industry to the housing authority in Winston-Salem, she rose from chief financial officer to vice president/chief development officer. There, she initiated a 130-acre master plan, when the agency only controlled 35-40 acres and worked with partners to make a viable plan.

“I love a challenge,” Redmon said. “To be a woman in corporate America, you must love a challenge or you will never make it. There still is a glass ceiling, but there have been a lot of cracks in that ceiling. I feel fortunate to have been able to crawl through one of those cracks.”

Accepting the challenge, Redmon has oversight of 1,300 public housing resident units and 2,000 housing choice vouchers. Families qualify for public housing based on income and are on a sliding rent scale. A lottery is held for the housing choice vouchers so recipients can apply with local landlords to sign a lease. The landlord will receive a supplement based on the resident’s income.

“On average we get $250 rent per unit per month from federal funds in public housing subsidy. We get $800,000 per year in capital funds to maintain the properties,” she said. “There are $11 million in needed major repairs right now. It will take me 14 years to fix today’s needs if there’s no further deterioration.”

With most of the housing units aging at more than 50 years old, deterioration is on the march.

“All programs are income based up to 80 percent of area median income,” Redmon said. “Here it is $59,625 now for a family of four. The calculations are complicated, so we have individuals trained in how to calculate the rents. Each family is reassessed each year. Increase in income will increase the rent to a capped level.”

Being a resort community, private landlords look at the difference between rents they can receive on the open market and the HUD fair market rent considered in the housing voucher program. Many opt out of participating with WHA. 

With the need much larger than a federal agency can support, WHA requests funds for infrastructure from city and county sources. Those are limited too.

There is limited turnover in residential openings, so the waiting list remains long. Redmon said the waiting list is about 1,000 families for public housing and 1,000 families for the housing voucher program on top of the 3,300 families the agency now serves.

“We should be able to live where we work, so we need to expand,” Redmon said.

Redmon noted that WHA serves families in generational poverty and those in situational poverty, not the least of which are seniors and the disabled. A percentage of public housing is ADA accessible, but they are not always available.

“I’m making some changes within the WHA to operate more like a business. We are a business. We are a real estate development, real estate management and housing assistance agency,” Redmon said.

Progress is evident in construction projects worth $3 million in the past 24 months. And a $5.7 million tax credit financing package to rehabilitate the Rankin Terrace apartments was signed recently after a competitive process with private developers.

Redmon hopes to deconcentrate poverty, making a smaller footprint with mixed-use development and mixed income development.

“We are trying to partner with others,” Redmon said. “We need to look to the experts to bring those services to our tenants. After-school programs, job preparation training, employment agencies and health agencies are good partners. We are continually looking for more partners.”