CANTON – Agency emails contradict some statements Stark Metropolitan Housing Authority Executive Director Herman Hill has made about the purchase of a house and a job provided for its tenant.
The Canton Repository reported in February that the Housing Authority bought a house on 41st Street NW in the Plain Local Schools system. It was leased to Section 8 voucher-holder Britnee Allen of Orrville; she then was hired for a newly-added agency position.
Hill knew Allen. He and Allen s seventh-grade sons, both now living in the Plain Local school system, played on a travel basketball team in 2017, and have played against each other since.
CANTON – Separately, they believed their voices were whispers. But together, a growing number of Stark Metropolitan Housing Authority residents said they ll become too loud to ignore. Yes, it s affordable . but it s not safe and it s not decent living conditions, said Kassandra Russo, 29, who lives in the Gage Gardens housing complex in the northeast area.
Russo and a handful of others, including some from public housing units at Jackson-Sherrick in the southeast section, have helped organize and operate the private Facebook group Exposing Stark Metropolitan Housing Authority. Created two weeks ago, it now has 165 members.
Using a time-tested notion that strength comes in numbers, members are using the social media platform to organize. Ultimately, they want to collect information and facts about maintenance problems, safety concerns and communication gaps, which can be delivered to Housing Authority officials.
CANTON Britnee Allen s rental house and new job at the Stark Metropolitan Housing Authority are glowing examples of an agency success story or the fruits of favoritism from the top.
On one hand: Using her government-funded Housing Choice Voucher (Section 8), the unemployed single mom moved her family from Orrville into the Plain Local School District and a house on 41st Street NW the Housing Authority had recently purchased.
Then in short order, Allen landed a newly-added Housing Authority position that pays almost $40,000 a year which enabled her to abandon her housing subsidy and pay $800 monthly rent herself. She s self-sufficient now; that s part of our mission, said Herman Hill, Housing Authority executive director.