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Indianapolis’ public housing agency, which has been under federal management since April, now has a leader experienced in rehabilitating similar organizations.
Yvonda Bean, a South Carolina native, joined the Indianapolis Housing Agency as CEO three weeks ago. Bean is credited with leading two public housing agencies out of scandal and federal receivership, and she says she’s worked in almost every department within those housing authorities over her 25-year career.
“You don’t often find CEOs who’ve had that kind of hands-on experience I have,” Bean said. “I’m no stranger to hard work and rolling up my sleeves.”
The Indianapolis Housing Agency has had a litany of complaints over the last several years. When the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development intervened last spring, a top official said mismanagement since 2018 has resulted in dilapidated unit conditions, improper rent levels and failures to properly assess resident income. The agency’s waitlist had also stalled: 1,500 of 9,000 available housing vouchers weren’t being used.
“Turning organizations around is a process that takes time,” she told IBJ Tuesday. “It’s not something that happens overnight, and it really takes committed individuals and committed teams to be able to do that.”
A career in public housing
Bean worked for nearly six years as CEO of the Columbia Housing Authority in Columbia, South Carolina. She joined in 2019 amid controversy after two public housing residents died from carbon monoxide poisoning. That property was condemned, resulting in the displacement of 400 residents. During her tenure, the organization established more than 400 new public housing units, according to the Columbia Housing Authority.
Bean also previously served as CEO of the Housing Authority of the City of Lafayette in Louisiana. Under her guidance, the agency overcame HUD supervision and achieved significant growth, operational stability and financial health.
Bean, who calls herself “a product of generational poverty,” spent most of her life in South Carolina. She knows firsthand what it’s like to experience housing insecurity.
“Affordable housing is my heart, and I do believe that everyone is entitled to housing,” Bean said. “It’s a right and not a privilege.”
Bean didn’t always want a career in public housing. After getting her degree in psychology at Augusta University in Georgia, she says “affordable housing chose me.”
She applied at a housing agency in her hometown after being unable to find work in her chosen field, which would have been working with young people within the criminal justice system.
“I got an interview [at the housing agency] and initially I actually called to reschedule the interview,” Bean said. “Who has the audacity to do that? Right, when you’re looking for a job?”
“I was actually hired on the spot,” Bean said.
Working with local and federal partners
Bean said the level of buy-in that Indianapolis Mayor Joe Hogsett has already had in IHA’s rehabilitation differs from her previous experiences. The federal department signed a cooperative agreement with Hogsett to oversee the agency, which also removed all previous leadership in favor of HUD- and Hogsett-appointed leaders.
“Knowing that Mayor Hogsett has a commitment of affordable housing and supporting IHA so that it can return its good name and be the organization that this city deserves and that the residents deserve, that’s unique,” she said. “You don’t always have that when you go when you initially go into communities.”
Bean’s work at IHA will start with a thorough assessment of the organization, which she said she is conducting with help from both federal and local partners.
That assessment will result in a yearlong action plan that prioritizes major issues and opportunities for improvement. That plan will be rolled out over the next several weeks, she said.
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