Agency Plan
The Macon Housing Authority is required to develop and submit to HUD an Agency Plan, which includes Five-Year and Annual Plans. The Agency Plans notify the residents, HUD and the public of the Authority’s goals, objectives and strategies for achieving its mission to serve the housing needs of Macon’s low-income population. Agency Plans must be updated and resubmitted annually, and are available for public viewing to encourage public participation in the process.
The Quality Housing and Work Responsibility Act (QHWRA) of 1998 created the Public Housing Agency (PHA) Five-Year and Annual Plan requirement and provided more flexibility and discretion for Public Housing Agencies, like the Macon Housing Authority, to use available funding to address the needs of low-income families in the community. The Five-Year Plan describes our mission and defines MHA’s long-range goals and objectives for achieving this mission over a five-year period. The Agency Plan also outlines our approach to managing programs and providing services for the upcoming year, and serves as the annual application for grants to support improvements to public housing buildings and safety in public housing.
The PHA Plan is Congress’s way of ensuring that the agency is accountable to the local community for choices it makes with this flexibility and discretion of funding. A creative, yet solid community service PHA Plan empowers residents to take control of their community and increase their self-sufficiency, encourages interchange and collective work between public housing residents and the larger community, and ensures a successful and sustained community that takes pride in residency and involvement in the decisions of funding and management.
The resident community of MHA plays an important role in the development of our Agency Plan. Residents can ensure that their needs are being addressed and can become more involved in issues that directly affect them. In addition, through involvement in our Agency Plan, residents will be more aware of the process that MHA undergoes to prioritize our activities and projects. We benefit by working directly with residents, since it is they who can provide the important information regarding the physical condition of the developments, physical or management improvements that are needed, activities that were not successful, and needs of residents. This information helps us to prioritize capital improvement activities and obtain supportive services for residents, to ultimately provide a customized annual plan to target the exact needs of our residents.