Introduction
Housing associations are very crucial as they help individuals especially those with low incomes to get access to improved standard housing facilities at affordable prices. The prices at which they provide houses for sale or for rental prices are subsidized and are far below the market value. The housing associations are no profit making organizations; hence they collect revenues which are used to renovate the houses offered for sale or for rental purposes. Columbus Metropolitan Housing Authority is one of these housing associations located in Ohio. It has the main aim of ensuring that people have easy access to housing facilities and at affordable prices.
Discussion
A housing association is an independent body of trustees that is established with the aim of providing housing for people in need. The Associations are established as non-profit making for the purpose of serving the community (Shanks). This group of people focuses on providing quality houses either for rent or sale at low and affordable costs. These organizations mostly deal with providing rental houses to people at relatively low prices that are subsidized to even levels below the market value. The associations are established to make housing available to everyone but they have specific criteria that provide housing to those who are in real need of them (Shanks). This is due to the scarcity of affordable housing to low income tenants or people who have a particular need (Columbus Metropolitan Housing Authority). They also provide financial assistance to people who cannot afford to buy property or are not able to pay commercial mortgages. Since housing associations are non-profit making organizations, the revenue collected is put back into the business to for use in maintenance of houses under the management of the association and also in the acquisition of new properties. Columbus Metropolitan Housing Authority has come up with a lot of justice decisions which are helping the people of Ohio (Columbus Metropolitan Housing Authority). They call upon to stop evicting people from houses, stop to foreclosures, demolition of public housing and instead change from housing as a form of investment but utilize them as their homes.
In Ohio, the Columbus Metropolitan Housing Authority is such an association. It is a housing authority that provides an equal housing opportunity and serves the public in Franklin County, Ohio and Columbus. This organization was first established in 1934 by the Ohio General Assembly with the aim of providing the community with safe, decent and clean housing facilities at affordable rates (Columbus Metropolitan Housing Authority). By the year 2007 the association had already in ownership and management of about four thousand renting units for low income tenants. They have collaborated with other partners who together they develop and maintain the housing units (Columbus Metropolitan Housing Authority). The association also works towards providing an invigorated neighborhood as well as access to much needed social services.
The association is run by a board that comprises of five commissioners with the assistance of other senior staff. These five members are in charge of creating policies for the association. All this board members are appointed and hold the office for five years with no compensation for their services. The Mayors office in Columbus appoints two of the commissioners while the other three are appointed from the Probate court, the court of common pleas and the Franklin County commissioners respectively (Columbus Metropolitan Housing Authority). The making of decisions is guided by policies that are made by the association under the Public Housing Agencies.
The association also provides a five year plan that it uses as a guideline to follow in order to achieve their goals. This information is authorized by the Quality Housing and Responsibility act and is used to set strategies that will help in the achievement of serving people in the community who are low income earners and are in need of housing. For the association to reach and serve these people it has introduced a program known as the section 8 (Columbus Metropolitan Housing Authority). This is a housing choice voucher program whose main focus is to assist the needy families, elders and the disabled to acquire proper housing in a private market. The program offers one the choice of finding a housing unit that is that fits their requirement and also those of the program and which can still on the list of houses that have subsidized prices. After an agreement with the landlord, the tenant is only supposed to pay the amount that is left after the difference between the actual rent charged and that which is subsidized by the section 8 program (Columbus Metropolitan Housing Authority).
This is an association which is meant to help every body. They have the main aim of ensuring that housing and accommodation is affordable to all individuals, most especially those with low incomes. They help people by giving financial assistance to those individuals who are aiming at buying houses (Columbus Metropolitan Housing Authority). In addition to offering the housing services, they have another service called supported accommodation which normally targets groups like the elderly, people with mental problems or with disabilities.
Columbus Metropolitan Housing Authority is non profit making organization with the main goal of ensuring all people get affordable housing and accommodation. Since this is an association where people get help, it is crucial that decisions made be very consistent and made without any favor. In Columbus Metropolitan Housing Authority decisions are made relying on evidence and information which is associated with the financial status of an employee (Columbus Metropolitan Housing Authority). This is because, they make the consideration that the help required by a person with a stable income is not the same as the assistance required by someone with very low or no income at all. All the people in the association are involved in the decision making process to avoid bias. Decisions are made focusing on benefiting the whole population. Even if the board of directors makes a decision, they have to consult the subordinates to ensure that there is unity and the decision is supported.
Columbus Metropolitan Housing Authority has different sections which help individuals to get housing facilities. There is the section eight where vouchers are given to use in paying for one’s housing expenses. Columbus Metropolitan Housing Authority has its majors of which some can be derived from its mission. The first goal is to ensure that the community receives help by ensuring that every person has access to affordable housing (Columbus Metropolitan Housing Authority). They also have the goal of developing, renovating and maintaining housing, promote a neighborhood which is renewed and people respect one another, and help people living in the area to have an access to social services. Columbus Metropolitan Housing Authority has a program known as the family self sufficient program whose main goal is to help families included in section eight to be economically independent of any type of assistance may it be public or housing. Since participants in this program are assigned their particular goals which they are supposed to meet, Columbus Metropolitan Housing Authority has the goal of assisting the participants with case management, resources and supportive services (Columbus Metropolitan Housing Authority). Every activity carried out at Columbus Metropolitan Housing Authority is goal oriented to make sure that they do not do anything outside their main aim. In general their goal is to provide easy access and affordability of housing and accommodation to every body independent of their financial status.
For the success of any housing association, they have to ensure that their goals are achieved. Therefore, Columbus Metropolitan Housing Authority has its own mechanisms which it applies to ensure that the goals are met successfully. The first method which they apply is close monitoring. Continuous monitoring of their programs helps them to keep in the right track. It also helps them to find out any disruptions early enough to allow corrections which lead to achievement of the goals. The other way in assessing the number of individuals who still lack housing facilities. Since their goal is to ensure that every body has easy access to housing at affordable prices, they also measure this by finding out the number of people still not housed. They try to get the reasons as to why these particular people do not get housing. This information helps them to find out if they have reached every one. The other way to assess if they are meeting their goals is by checking if participants of family self sufficient program are meeting their assigned goals. This is based on the fact that Columbus Metropolitan Housing Authority has the goal of ensuring the participants of these programs meet their goals (Columbus Metropolitan Housing Authority). They also assess the achievement of their goals through looking at the housing conditions of residence. They look at issues like; are houses developed, renovated and maintained, are the neighborhood revitalized and whether or not the residences have easy access to the social services.
They are those people who are assigned the role of assessing the extend to which the goals have been met. These are people who have knowledge, trained and have experience on monitoring and evaluation. This is a team of individuals who are recruited for this particular purpose. They can also be employees from the management who are appointed specifically to ensure that goals are achieved in the association. These people get to these positions differently. One can be transferred to undertake this role if they get trained on how to assess goal achievement and show that they can do it effectively. One can also get in to that position if they have experience in assessing goal achievement. These people must be committed and honest as any mistakes can lead to the suffering of the target groups.
Work Cited
Columbus Metropolitan Housing Authority. Columbus Metropolitan Housing Authority
880 E 11th Ave, Columbus OH 43211-2771. Accessed on 31 May 2011 from http://www.cmhanet.com/s8/fss.htm, 2007
Columbus Metropolitan Housing Authority. Columbus Metropolitan Housing Authority880 E 11th Ave Columbus OH 43211-2771. Accessed on 31 May 2011 from http://www.cmhanet.com/default.htm, 2008
Shanks Hannah. What is a Housing association and what do they Offer? Accessed on 31 May 2011 from http://www.ourproperty.co.uk/guides/housing_association.html