The new Executive Director of the Chelsea Housing Authority is a familiar face in the city.
Last week, the Housing Authority Board selected Paul Nowicki to serve as Executive Director, replacing Al Ewing, who retired after serving as the director of the housing authority since 2011.
Nowicki has been with the housing authority since 2011, and was serving as its operations director. He was also a city councilor for 16 years, serving four terms as council president.
The Chelsea Housing Authority oversees 914 public housing units in Chelsea, along with Section 8 vouchers in Chelsea and several surrounding communities. Nowicki said there are about 1,500 residents in the city who live in housing authority units.
Nowicki said his desire to move up to the director’s role comes from his passion for public service and the community.
“It’s always been my passion being in this community, working in this community, from my days as a youth volunteer to the city council, and then when the opportunity came to join the housing authority, it was a completely different perspective on helping out and being a part of the community,” he said. “The longer I worked there, the more I saw the potential for the positive impact not only for our residents, but for our neighborhoods, which means the city in general, and I just thought it would be a natural progression for me to go for it.”
Coming from the council to the housing authority, Nowicki said there was a different approach about how to get things done. He pointed to the zoning changes in the late 90s that led to urban renewal as compared to the more nuts and bolts approach of running an agency such as the Chelsea Housing Authority.
“I’m the one who always wanted to get things done as fast as possible, and Al’s approach was very methodical and was not about getting it done fast, but about getting it done correctly,” Nowicki said. “Al was the perfect person at the perfect time to take over the housing authority in 2011 and it allowed us to stabilize and grow, so there were a lot of good, valuable lessons.”
As he takes over the director’s role, Nowicki said there are some immediate issues that need to be addressed, including finding a new finance director, since former finance director Arnaldo Velazquez recently moved into the deputy director position, and finding a new operations director to fill Nowicki’s old spot.
Longer term, the housing authority also has to look at the logistics of moving residents back into the revamped Innes Development when that project is ready for occupancy in the next 18 to 24 months, and then backfilling the open public housing units the Innes residents were occupying during construction.
Nowicki said the housing authority also needs to look at ways to secure nontraditional housing funding sources.
“We as a housing authority, whether it be our supportive services, or whether it be trying to purchase other property to refurbish and create more voucher availability, those are things that we are going to look at as a board and senior staff because we will have to work together as we move this housing authority forward,” said Nowicki.