Benita Barrett has been with US Housing Consultants since May of 2021. Though she lives in South Carolina, her sports fan heart lives in Florida.
“I’m everything Florida, the Marlins, Dolphins, Heat, Miami Hurricanes,” she says. “But I’m up in Clemson and University of South Carolina territory.”
She joined US Housing Consultants after the Housing Authority she worked for as a Housing Program Administrator lost its contract with a contract administrator for management occupancy reviews. She was told that there might not be other employment opportunities within the Authority, so she went on the job market.
One of the jobs she applied for was a compliance analyst position at US Housing Consultants.
“I had an interview with Judy Varrill at that time and we had a great interview over coffee,” Barrett says. “It really wasn’t an interview, though; it was actually just a conversation.”
After a couple more interviews, she was hired.
“The opportunity to be remote and to work at home was a new thing for me and exciting,” she says.
Barrett is now the Director of Public Housing Services for US Housing Consultants. She works closely with Howard Fleisig, the founder of Management Resource Group, which is now part of US Housing Consultants.
Her experience with utility allowance studies, rent reasonableness, Administrative Plans for Voucher Programs, and Admissions and Continuing Occupancy Policies (ACOP) has been a significant asset to US Housing Consultants.
“I’m trying to grow the department, so we do various things for housing authorities,” she says. “Consulting is an important part of what we do for them. We work closely with clients on a personal level, which they appreciate.”
Barrett’s revisions to these plans and processes are published online and are often used as the basis for US Housing Consultants’ explainer videos for NSPIRE Implementation. She is also working with a new platform that publishes their Admin Plans and ACOPs to an easy-to-navigate website, where PHA employees can easily search for rules, updates, and best practices.
“I love what I do,” she says. “I love to be in communication with the smaller housing authorities. I love to talk to them, go out on-site, and actually meet with them face-to-face. Interaction is what they desire. I really love doing the service work for the housing authorities.”
Barrett says that doing this work for US Housing Consultants is particularly satisfying.
“I love that the company has helped me so much with the training aspect, keeping up with industry standards. My supervisors have always encouraged me to do more,” she says. “Knowing how to interact with clients is very important to our company culture.”
