FREE ACCESS: PBHA awarded by state organization

Tammy Harper, left, Poplar Bluff Housing Authority office manager, accepts a state award for the local agency’s 2024 calendar from Carol Brannum, MO NAHRO president.

photo provided

Poplar Bluff Housing Authority received the Best Other Publication award for its 2024 Calendar at the recent Missouri National Association of Housing and Redevelopment Officials Spring Conference in Jefferson City.

Accepting the honor for the local housing authority was Tammy Harper, office manager, who described it as “an honor to accept the Poplar Bluff Housing Authority’s award presented by Carol Brannum, MO NAHRO president.”

There are other award categories such as best newsletter, best brochure, and more, Harper said.

“Housing has been making calendars for years,” she said. “I’ve been designing them for 10 years. The calendar includes reminders and photos of the previous year’s events.”

Missouri has 123 housing authorities across the state and Harper compares being a part of MO NAHRO to “having an extremely large family.”

Attending the conferences “is always a fun learning experience plus the ability to meet new people within the same industry,” Harper said. “The professional development is so important to be successful in housing and community development agencies.”

Harper credited Darrin J. Taylor, executive director, “for always emphasizing the importance of attending the conferences that are so beneficial for our continued training, updates on HUD regulations and promotes advocacy for our residents and the housing authorities.”

The MO NAHRO event was a week filled with committee meetings, numerous training sessions, resources, guest speakers and an awards banquet. In the evenings, the member services committee hosted games to raise money for the MO NAHRO scholarship fund. There were approximately 140 in attendance.

“We had the opportunity to visit the capitol building and speak with state representatives and Sen. Jason Bean,” Harper said. “I was fortunate to visit with our State Rep. Hardy Billington.”

MO NAHRO is a state chapter of the Southwest Regional Council of the National Association of Housing and Redevelopment Officials. NAHRO, established in 1933, is a membership organization of more than 26,000 housing and community development providers and professionals throughout the United States. According to a press release, NAHRO members create and manage affordable housing for low- and middle-income families, administering more than 3 million homes for more than 8 million people.