NHA Plans to Turn Over 40 Units, Earn $777,000

The Natick Housing Authority is submitting its corrective action plan to DHCD to turn around units and get the organization back in the black.

By April 2012, the Natick Housing Authority plans to have 40 housing units turned over for new tenants and to earn $777,000 in net income in three years, according to a corrective active plan to be submitted to the state Department of Housing and Community Development. The NHA Board of Commissioners studied the plan produced by NHA assistant director Eileen Merritt at a meeting Monday night. DHCD recently mandated that executive director Ed Santos submit a plan to turn around the authority, which is $480,000 in debt. Santos did not attend the board meeting Monday night, nor had he returned to work since Sept. 8 when he left early, according to NHA attorney James Wood, who said Santos is still being paid as director. DHCD originally set the…

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Letter to the Editor

Letter: CGTO Founder Says Management to Blame for NHA Woes

Founding president of the Cedar Garden Tenants Association, George Ross, shares his thoughts on the current state of the Natick Housing Authority in this letter to the editor.

For seven years I resided at Cedar Gardens. During that time I helped organize the tenants so that there might be a way for us to get the many problems we were having addressed properly. Under the laws and regulations of the Commonwealth, we established the Cedar Gardens Tenant Organization (CGTO) and developed a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) together with the NHA. The MOU was signed by the Executive Director, the NHA Board of Directors, and the CGTO. It was later accepted as valid and binding by the DHCD. Now the tools to achieve effective cooperation between the NHA and the residents were available for use. In my opinion, the basic reason public housing has not improved in Natick is the lack of effective management. With effective …

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Thief Steals Valuable Tools From Affordable Housing Office

The Cedar Gardens Tenant Office was robbed Sunday. The petty cash fund, laptops, a digital camera necessary to the organization were stolen.

The Cedar Gardens Tenant Organization's productivity came to a halt Sunday, when a thief reportedly broke into their office at 40 Cedar Ave. and stole the tools necessary to keep the organization running. Ted Mellor, vice president of the CGTO, said between 2:30 and 9:30 p.m. on Sunday, someone entered the office through a small sliding window and stole two laptops, a digital camera and the petty cash fund of just over $60. According to Natick Police, the incident was reported to the department just before 9:30 a.m. Monday. "It's impossible to do anything for the residents," said Mellor, who was the owner of one of the laptops. Without the computers, he said the organization is unable to produce its newsletters and calendars and maintain …

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