The JPHSDD staff took a trip to Tarrant County Housing Assistance Corporation on August 8th through 10th in order to learn more about their Housing Choice Voucher Program. 

“Everyone was very friendly and welcoming,” said JPHSDD Chief Operating Officer Nicole Landry who attended the training. “They did a walkthrough of all of their systems and practices.”

The Tarrant County office, which functions at a high level, administers more than 3,400 vouchers and is comparable to the JPHSDD program which will administer roughly 4,800 vouchers in the Jefferson Parish area.

Each member of the JPHSDD staff partnered with their Tarrant County counterparts and shadowed them for a number of days.

Tarrant County employee Rosalyn Williams presented a powerpoint to the visiting staff. Executive Directors Dorian Rawles (JHPSDD) and Wayne Pollard (Tarrant) partnered to create the training event.

“This was a great opportunity for us to learn from a great program and gain some insight into their processes,” said Dorian Rawles. “You always have to approach life as if there is more to learn. And once we learn more, we are in a better position to serve our clients.”

In addition to “best practices” the Tarrant County office shared information about how to serve residents safely during the COVID outbreak. 

Tarrant County is in the Fort Worth area and is an arm of the County government.

“We were really impressed with how outgoing and professional they were,” said Landry. “In addition to expertise, this is something we will be sure to bring back with us.” 

From the Executive Director's Desk

Thank you so much for reading our newsletter and participating in our various housing programs. I would like to let everyone know that we are moving to a larger office so that we ca better accommodate our voucher holders and landlords.

This move will allow us to grow our capacity and serve more people. Beginning October 3rd, we will be located at 121 Pailet Drive, Harvey, La 70058. Please feel free to come and visit us as we serve you. We always have an open door policy that will allow you to come in and interact with our staff.

As you may have read in our newsletter, we completed a training this month with our counterparts at Tarrant County in Fort Worth. This is part of a larger initiative to create a culture of Commitment, Professionalism and Respect (CPR). We started off our tenure in learning mode as we sent out resident and landlord surveys in our first newsletters. One of the main issues that we discovered in talking to our clients is that they did not feel valued or respected when speaking to staff members who previously administered the voucher program. We are committed to addressing these deficiencies outlined from your valuable feedback. We continue to ask for your participation and patience as we fortify our program.

Our Core Values, Mission and Vision statements, which will prominantly be displayed in our offices, is part of creating a culture in which we will listen and serve our residents and landlords to the highest extent possible.

If you have any suggestions in ways that we can be better, please send your suggestion to info@jphsdd.org and we will respond to you.

With kindest regards, I remain,

Dorian Rawles