HACEP announces historic revitalization

Last week ABC-7 reported on residents living in a public housing complex who were complaining about their air conditioners not working or taking too long to fix.

“We have fans because there’s no other choice. We call the maintenance but they don’t do anything about it,” said Humberto Olivares, a Tays Place resident who spoke with ABC-7 last week.

Housing Authority officials said Thursday of the City of El Paso say they are embarking on a historic revitalization for public housing.

“If you look at the entire public housing authority throughout the United States, infrastructure has been a consistent problem,” said Javier Camacho.

Camacho is a spokesman for the Housing Authority for the City of El Paso.

Camacho says the the federal department of Housing and Urban Development has set up its funding sources in a way public housing agencies can handle any type of maintenance or structural issues at the local level but it’s also created a backlog of $26 billion nationwide.

Camacho tells ABC-7 now HUD has launched the Rental Assistance Demonstration program.

He says the RAD program will essentially phase out public housing on a federal level and allow each public housing agency to manage its own properties.

“We are able to revitalize every single one of our public housing communities throughout the entire city of El Paso that will offer better appliances, better living spaces and at the same time better cooling systems,” he said.