Fayetteville Housing Authority Director To Retire

FAYETTEVILLE -- Fredia Sawin, executive director of the Fayetteville Housing Authority, plans to retire next month after 28 years with the public agency.

The Housing Authority helps provide shelter to poor, disabled and elderly residents. It operates four publicly subsidized housing complexes, most notably the 12-story Hillcrest Towers Senior Center at Center Street and North School Avenue.

Other complexes include Lewis Plaza, behind Burger King on Martin Luther King Jr. Boulevard; Morgan Manor, near Walker Park; and Willow Heights, a 40-unit complex just up the street from the Yvonne Richardson Community Center.

Sawin said the authority, by offering low rent to the less fortunate, has provided a much-needed service in the community for more than four decades.

"Everyone needs a roof over their head," Sawin said. "It doesn't matter if you're low income. It doesn't matter if you're homeless.

"It's just like any kind of normal family," she added. "We're all going to have our ups and downs and are going to need assistance at some point in our lives. That's why we're here."

In addition to direct housing, the agency provides rental assistance with federally funded Section 8 vouchers and Veterans Affairs Supportive Housing vouchers for more than 600 tenants across Washington County.

"It could be your neighbor across the street for all you know," Mike Emery, chairman of the authority's Board of Commissioners, said Friday.

Sawin began as a receptionist for the Housing Authority in the 1980s. She then managed the Section 8 program for several years before replacing Bromo Wilson as executive director in 2003.

Sawin said her biggest accomplishments over the past 11 1/2 years involve upgrades to the public housing complexes, three of which were built in 1972.

The Housing Authority in 2013 received a $3.5 million emergency grant from the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development. The grant was used to seal bricks and mortar, replace concrete balconies and repair the roof at Hillcrest Towers. A new chiller, generator and kitchen also have been added.

Other areas of focus have been energy improvements at the various complexes. Better insulation, more efficient lighting and heating, ventilating and air-conditioning systems and low-flow faucets have been added to reduce utility bills.

"We're trying to make it so it's not expensive to live in public housing," Sawin said.

She said ever-decreasing allocations from the federal government make it difficult to keep up with needed repairs.

The Housing Authority received about $990,000 for operations and capital improvements from the Department of Housing and Urban Development in 2014, according to figures Sawin provided. That's down $57,000, or roughly 5 percent, from three years prior.

All of the authority's money comes from the federal government and rent charged to tenants. The authority operates independently of the city, although the City Council confirms the authority's five board members.

Sawin said money will be an ongoing challenge for her replacement, Deniece Smiley. The board hired Smiley as deputy executive director about two years ago, after Sawin told board members she was thinking about retirement.

"After 28 years working in a job, I just wanted to do something else," Sawin said Friday. She said she'll enjoy gardening and having more time to spend with her children and grandchildren.

Sawin said she'll miss her staff, members of the board and tenants at Hillcrest Towers, some of whom have lived there since Sawin started working for the authority 28 years ago.

"When you do this job, you have to have a team -- a conglomerate of people involved," Sawin said. "I see a lot more out there to come. Stay tuned."

Emery said Sawin was helpful getting him and other new board members up to speed on all of the various regulations from the Department of Housing and Urban Development.

"She's very hands-on in getting us the lay of how everything works," Emery said. "I'm going to miss her, and I wish her the best in all of her future endeavors."