With more low-income apartments available than people who are eligible to rent them, Rachel White, director of the Housing Authority of Danville, is trying new approaches to attract tenants. She is opening up larger units to agencies that arrange housing for people with disabilities.
Another approach comes from the Housing for Urban Development, which oversees the Housing Authority. HUD is allowing families with adults who work full time to be eligible for larger apartments.
The Housing Authority also is modernizing many of its apartments on McIntyre Circle. The apartments are boxy and cramped, a throw-back to public housing designs of the 1950s when the complex was built.
The units were built in the wake of World War II when many people in housing were unemployed and people believed tenants should just live in the apartments until they found jobs. Renovations are bringing the apartments up to the present.
