A Look Back at THA’s Strategic Goals & Progress in 2024

2024 was a year filled with organizational, departmental, and individual successes at THA. Throughout the year, our staff worked hard to support our mission of providing high quality, stable and sustainable housing and supportive services to people in need. Together, our shared efforts culminated in the completion of multiple years-long projects and reaffirmed our continued commitment toward our strategic goals and objectives.

Housing Hilltop

In 2024, construction completed on both buildings of Housing Hilltop, adding 231 units of affordable housing and 13,000 square feet of commercial retail space. This was THA’s largest affordable housing project since the New Salishan development, and staff across the agency had a hand in bringing it online.

Both buildings completed ahead of schedule, with THA receiving Certificate of Occupancy for the South building in July followed by the North building in November. THA worked with USPS to get mail set up in both buildings, despite statewide shortage of locks and staffing, and leased all 94 units in the South building by year’s end.

THA also selected two locally owned businesses to fill commercial spaces in Housing Hilltop: Reyna Filipina Kitchen Tacoma, a Filipino restaurant owned and operated by Tacoma Chef Jan Parker; and Lavonne’s Room, a children’s retail store owned and operated by Hilltop’s own Bridget Demerson, who formerly occupied space in the old Key Bank building and is now bringing her business back to the Hilltop.

• Learn more about Housing Hilltop

New Data Systems

In 2024, THA adopted a new property management and accounting suite powered by Yardi, replacing several aging custom configurations with a more powerful set of integrated tools. Many of these prior systems can now be retired, resulting in streamlined processes and cost savings over time.

The changeover touched on every aspect of THA’s work, with a new centralized accounting system for managing applicants, residents, inspections, maintenance, and assets; a web-based portfolio management platform; integration with SharePoint for smoother document management; a centralized case management system powered by Apricot for improved reporting; and a new connected service portal powered by RentCafe for compliance, accounting, and property management.

By the end of the year, more than 900 voucher holders and 600 landlords had registered in the new RentCafe service portal. With RentCafe, THA can better manage how our clients apply and qualify for affordable housing properties, replacing handwritten notes, physical file storage and lengthy applicant interviews with a private, online user experience.

RentCafe also makes it easy for applicants to submit eligibility documentation, with an intuitive question-and-answer user workflow that enabled THA to transform our process for applicants and adopt a new approach to our housing waitlist. (More on this below.)

• THA’s new online service portal

Continuously Open Waitlist

Using the tools provided by the new Yardi system, THA conceived, planned, and deployed a new “always open” waitlist, with a successful waitlist opening in November 2024.

Unlike our previous limited openings, the new waitlist allows any applicant to join at any time, with a new “Save my spot” feature ensuring that when someone is pulled for a voucher or unit, they are ready to be housed.

To prepare for the opening, THA staff worked together to create instructional videos on applying to the waitlist, using the “Save my Spot” Feature, and registering for RentCafe; overhaul the THA website to include information and a new login path for waitlist applicants; and set up in-person registration venues at THA offices and in partnership with Tacoma Public Libraries to support applicants during the initial opening days.

More than 5,000 households applied to the waitlist within the first 24 hours, with more than 9,000 households joining the waitlist by December. THA also completed the first “Save my spot” check in December.

• Our new waitlists for affordable housing

Strategic Milestones

In 2024, we approached the midpoint of an ambitious five-year strategic plan adopted by THA’s Board of Commissioners. 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 board set out a series of agency-wide goals to guide THA’s efforts.

Here is a look at some of the progress that THA made in 2024 toward achieving each of these goals:

Increase the Amount of Available Housing for Low-Income Families

• In 2023, we set a goal that THA would add 500 new units of housing through development or partnership by 2028. So far, we have added 349 units for low-income families, including Project-Based Voucher, HAP and VASH contracts as well as the 231 units at Housing Hilltop.
• Once the new units at Aviva Crossing are completed, this total will exceed 600 units.
• Homeownership classes and partnerships began at various THA sites, provided by Tacoma Urban League and Habitat for Humanity at no cost to THA. In 2024, at least 8 THA customers left housing subsidy and purchased homes.
• Completed 102 projects and more than 12,000 work orders at THA’s existing properties, including new floors in Bay Terrace stairways, camera upgrades, AES radio upgrades and firestop installs at several properties, new elevator jack work at Fawcett, and roof/gutter cleaning at Salishan.
• Initiated the process of seeking financing to rehabilitate Salishan 1-3 and Hillside 2300, which will improve more than 300 units at these properties.
• Rewrote our procurement policy to be more accessible to small and minority-owned businesses.

Increase Housing Access & Stability

• In 2023, we established a goal that by the end of 2025, we would achieve 98% occupancy in our portfolio. Within eight months in 2024, THA increased occupancy from 92% to 95% and was on track to move in 205 applicants into portfolio units, a 64% increase from 2023. The maintenance team turned 150 vacant units to get them ready for new tenants.
• THA established a goal that we would maintain THA’s MTW requirement to serve substantially the same (StS) number of customers. We are currently at 98.7% utilization, and more than 400 new households were housed with vouchers in 2024 with another 350 voucher households moved between units.
• Our Client Support & Empowerment teams addressed referrals for 1,345 customers, for services including rental assistance, education, employment and financial education, behavioral health, and VAWA supports. 20enroled in Family Self Sufficiency (FSS) or 2Gen, joining 200+ households already participating in these programs.
• Our community building team hosted 114 activities across our 13 managed properties between April through December 2024, with 2,421 attendees across all activities and events for a total of 4,250 attendee hours.
• Reported an 80% success rate for households in Rapid Rehousing programs.
• Negotiated an interlocal agreement with Pierce County Housing Authority to share jurisdiction, greatly expanding housing choice for voucher holders.

Make THA a Great Place to Work

• THA exceeded our 85% employee retention goal, seeing over 90% in 2024.
• Planned & organized THA’s first annual Benefits Fair & Vaccination Clinic, with more than 70 employees participating.
• Developed & implemented “Snack & Chat” meetings with new & newly promoted employees to discuss onboarding & ensure they have the tools to pass probation.
• Conducted annual employee engagement survey. We had the highest number of employee participation on record and positive feedback.
• Designed a comprehensive Learning Cohort curriculum set to launch in 2025, aiming to educate our staff and in turn improve our programs and customer service.
• Conducted a Physical Accessibility Audit that provides us information on how to update THA offices, so they are more accessible for residents, visitors and employees.

Related:

• Looking Ahead at THA’s Strategic Goals for 2025