New HACY director pledges support

The leadership of the Housing Authority of the City of Yuma is changing, but its new director said the commitment to public housing will remain the same.

Michael Morrissey has just finished his second week as director of HACY this month. Raised in Massachusetts, he spent the past five years working in the public housing field in Portland, Maine.

"It's a whole new experience, coming from the Northeast to the Southwest," Morrissey said.

He replaces Ken Finlayson, director of HACY for the past eight years, who is moving back to his native Delaware. He plans to start a second career counseling veterans suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder.

Finlayson said the conflicts in Iraq and Afghanistan have driven up the need for postwar mental health care. As a veteran of the Vietnam War, he said he can empathize with what returning troops are going through.

"They feel more comfortable talking to someone who's been there," Finlayson said. "You can speak the same language."

Both men are products of the East coast public housing system, which Finlayson said he often found frustrating and overly political. "Public housing turned into warehousing for the poor."

The city of Yuma's program has tried to get away from that mentality, both before and during Finlayson's tenure. Unlike many housing authorities, HACY is not a city entity. It is funded through the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development and acts as an independent agent, outside the city government. The only role the city has in its operation is appointing the HACY Board of Commissioners.

Finlayson added that he thinks what HACY does well goes beyond its governance structure. He said it has tried to establish a mentality of ownership among their residents.

HACY oversees more than 260 public housing apartments and homes in the city. Finlayson said their investigators have managed to keep crime within the public housing community down, even below the average in the city as a whole. All maintenance requests made by residents are filled within one day.

It has also established a program of home ownership, helping residents get on a path to purchase homes for themselves.

Dr. William Maseland, HACY commission chairman, said Morrissey was chosen to continue the work going on now and expand the program as Yuma grows. "He has vast experience and he wants to fix the homeless problem."

Morrissey said his first job is to get the "lay of the land" here but he's looking forward to starting his work on housing in Yuma.

"The commitment and passion for housing made me comfortable to move here," Morrissey said. "I'm impressed with the condition of the housing units. It just seems like there's more of a team effort involving the city and community."