In 2022, THA’s Board of Commissioners adopted an ambitious five-year strategic plan to guide the agency’s efforts. In addition to our mission to provide high-quality housing and supportive services to people with low incomes, with a focus on those facing the greatest marginalization, the plan included a series of overall goals with targets to meet in each of the following years.
As we look toward the new year, we set out a series of specific objectives, metrics, and strategies to support each of our goals:
Financial Sustainability
- Increase the number of households that are current on rent across the portfolio to 80%.
- Complete 90% of unit turns within 30 days.
- Implement a comprehensive resource development strategy to secure sustainable funding, with specific dollar amounts to be raised each quarter in 2025.
- Refine contracting and procurement processes and policies to ensure efficient use of funds and support financial sustainability.
- Implement reporting and monitoring tools for compliance, contracts, and grants.
- Implement a new and improved asset management function and compliance plan.
- Adopt a new, cost-effective virtual board meeting platform, thereby reducing software license expenses by $30,000 per year.
- Decrease communications contractor annual spend by 15%, while increasing the number of video and other projects by the same amount.
- Reduce external legal costs through the hiring and training of a new Senior General Counsel, achieving a $50,000 per year cost reduction in 2025.
- Provide support to Salishan Association Board members and management to reduce expenses while sustaining a thriving community, and develop a plan to address areas that were identified but not tackled during the prior year’s budgeting process by May 2025.
- Survey THA’s residents about their needs and deploy a participatory budgeting process for residents to participate in.
Increase the Amount of Affordable Housing for Low-Income Families
- Achieve a 98% occupancy rate for THA-owned units by December 2025, and stabilize occupancy rates, and provide strategic direction on optimizing the leasing function by Q4 2025.
- Increase access to affordable housing units within the Tacoma City Limits through Project Based Vouchers (PBV), Property Based Subsidy (PBS), and HCV MOU’s, including 20 Patsy Sur Place PBV, 15 Shiloh PBV, and 34 Housing Hilltop PBS.
- Secure at least $600,000 in funding for pre-development work to explore two potential development sites in high opportunity neighborhoods in Tacoma.
- Generate at least four property proformas to evaluate future property acquisitions.
- Amidst rising rents, serve at least the same number of households we served in 2010.
- Evaluate at least two new partnerships with Medicaid and housing service providers within the next year.
- Reduce the Agency’s borrowing costs by receiving an S&P rating.
- Advocate for the removal of regulatory barriers to develop and acquire more affordable housing with public funds.
Make Tacoma a Great Place to Live
- Secure $2M in public funds for the rehabilitation of Hillside 2300 and Salishan 1–3.
- Attain 100% funding for services at Arlington Drive, $2.125M per year or $4.25M bi-annually.
- Develop a new housing navigation model that ensures customers receive assistance looking for housing when they receive a voucher.
- Deploy new leases to each resident to ensure compliance with changes in law.
- Inspect every unit annually and every property exterior and common areas on a weekly basis.
- Conduct direct engagement with customers impacted by THA re-syndication efforts.
- Cure lease violations to prevent at least 65% of evictions that could have resulted from not curing the violation.
- Achieve a 75% response rate with monthly “Save My Spot” check-in requirements on the continuously open waitlist.
- Provide on-site response to 100% of all crises in the THA community, including natural disasters, caused disasters, acts of violence, and traumatic events that impact the community.
- Refer clients to available relevant community resources as a way of mitigating duplication of services offered by THA.
- Regularly and systematically gauge customer satisfaction among THA clients.
- Support Resident Advisory Board to improve their organization and operations and increase their membership to include additional properties.
- Conduct fire drills and disaster planning workshops at each mid-rise property at least once per year.
- Coordinate and host partners to provide a minimum of 2 FAFSA workshops, 6 homeownership classes, 4 financial coaching workshops or cohorts, 2 job fairs and employment workshops, and 2 post-secondary support/exploration events, plus VITA tax prep from February to April.
- Partner with a minimum of four local organizations to provide in-kind services at THA properties.
- Invite relevant community members and partners to participate in RFP review panels.
- Hire at least 5 MWBE businesses or organizations led by/for people who have lived experience in subsidized/low-income housing or homelessness.
- Identify and secure alternative funding sources for services to residents.
Make THA a Great Employer, Contractor and Partner
Employer
- Maintain or exceed an 85% employee retention rate.
- Create an online HR HUB that is informative of all things HR and provides employees with a positive work experience.
- Host an All-Day Retreat for THA staff from different departments to foster collaboration and learning.
- Achieve a 25% increase in cross-departmental projects and a 15% improvement in staff satisfaction related to interdepartmental understanding and cooperation.
- Implement a more efficient and relevant performance management system to improve employee performance and productivity achieved through individual’s goals.
- Conduct a comprehensive analysis of current office space utilization across all departments, identifying underutilized areas and proposing a phased plan for optimization by the end of Q2 2025.
- Refine onboarding practices with new staff training and a resource library for employees.
- Implement accessibility improvements at THA’s three primary offices so THA can be more accessible to its employees and customers.
Contractor
- Achieve a 90% satisfaction rate among BIPOC and MWBE businesses in customer service surveys. Implement dedicated support channels, provide training for staff on cultural competency, and establish a feedback loop to continuously improve services.
- Simplify the proposal submission process and increase the number of competitive proposals received through the RFP process.
Partner
- Reduce response times to investor inquiries by 50% within the next 12 months.
- Create a Community Use Policy so THA’s community spaces are more accessible to be used by partners and residents.
- Work with local groups and community partners to collaborate on partner events, maintain consistent two-way communication on opportunities for THA clients, and cross-promote THA and partner priorities across various platforms and audiences.
See Also
About Tacoma Housing Authority
Established in 1940, Tacoma Housing Authority provides high-quality, stable and sustainable housing and supportive services to people in need. It does this in ways that help them prosper and help our communities develop equitably. THA develops and manages real estate and provides rental housing. In partnership with thousands of private landlords, it helps families pay the rent in the private rental market. It delivers supportive services to help families succeed as “tenants, parents, students, wage earners and builders of assets who can live without assistance.” THA seeks to do its work in ways that help our community be an “attractive place to live, work, attend school, shop and play,” and that help Tacoma be “safe, vibrant, prosperous, attractive and just.”